Hey everyone,

I have some trouble with my pinus pinae (couldn't figure out exactly which pine it is though, even with the identification help here on the site).

I did grow the bonsai from seed in september 2016.


This is what it looked like in september 2017.


Today it has a lot of brown needles, it has enough water (maybe too much?)
This is what it looks like now:


I told myself, if there are too many brown needles, they will take away all the energy to grow fresh green needles, so I cut those off:


I hope that I didn't do worse than it was before with that.

could anybody give me some help on what to do so that it grows back to green?

Sorry for the bad english, not a native speaker.
Thanks in advance!

Dead.

I believe it is a mix of several things.
First and foremost, you have an outdoor only tree indoors. Any conifer is going to die indoors. unfortunately I wish we could keep them all indoors, but in the absence of very good grow lights, you cannot have it inside for long.
Secondly, the soil that you are using is not proper bonsai soil. A lot of people will use potting soil when they are first growing a seedling, but once it gets a bit bigger, it needs to be moved into proper Bonsai soil. Bonsai soil, typically, has little to no potting soil it. It looks like you are just drowning your plant. when in a planter, a tree needs a soil that will retain a small amount of water, and let the excess drain out readily. A mix of Pearlite and Turfice or similar products is best. Most bonsai soils will look like a mix of small stones and sand. For young trees, if you wish, you can mix in a small amount of organic material such as peat moss, but it needs to be a loose and free draining soil!
I would recommend you let this tree dry out before watering it again and move it outside. it doesn't look completely dead, but it shortly will be if you don't give it what it needs soon.
Also as a side note, with pines you cannot cut the needles with trimmers or scissors. it turns the needles brown. pinch off excess growth with your fingernails. This is my very first day on this forum, but I do have a lot of experience gardening and growing trees, but im sure there are more experienced people who can give better advice than me!

Argh... that's what you get when you do this at work and someone walks in... couldn't edit my post afterwards.

So... it's dead. Seems you kept it indoors and it looks like you wired it too. Both things are bad.
A dead pine will not become green again. Also, you're not growing a bonsai, you're growing a pine. You need a strong healthy tree before you start thinking of bonsai.

Don't pinch new growth on such young plants. Actually, don't pinch at all if you don't know what type of pine you have and when/how to do it.
Bonsai soil is not needed.
Grow lights will not solve the problem, you also need the right climate.

Thank you very much for the fast input Auk and BuddhaDrew.

Ok, so what I will try is:

- pinch off the small buds that are left from cutting the needles
- let it dry out
- put it outside for now, it's quite warm here in Luxembourg at the moment (around 20°C) and try to avoid rain.

I actually used Soil that says Bonsai Soil, but maybe it's not that good after all.
Should I be looking at the roots if they are not rotten by the water? Maybe repot it in another soil?

thanks

MrBlueSky wrote:

pinch off the small buds that are left from cutting the needles

No. Leave it alone.

let it dry out

No. Let it dry, but do NOT let it dry out.

put it outside for now, it's quite warm here in Luxembourg at the moment (around 20°C) and try to avoid rain

That's OK. Try to avoid too much sun/a too hot place.

Should I be looking at the roots if they are not rotten by the water? Maybe repot it in another soil?

No. Don't touch it. The soil is fine.

Chances that it'll live are nil though.

Auk wrote:

MrBlueSky wrote:

let it dry out

No. Let it dry, but do NOT let it dry out.

Ok, language barrier, I meant to dry it, not dry it out.

Thanks for your advice Auk.
I'll update if it died or recovered in a few days/weeks.

I may be wrong (I hope so), but your seedling looks dead already.