Hi! I got my two bonsai trees about two months ago - one of them is 12 years old and the other is 3. They've started turning brown and some leaves have been falling off, but I'm not sure why. I've googled and googled, but I can't see to figure out what species my bonsai trees are. I know that browning can occur from under watering as well as overwatering.... At first I was leaving them inside near the window and setting them outside for two days - however, they continued to brown so I thought I might try and leave them outdoors completely. I'm located near the south, so it gets pretty hot - in the 80's and is sunny often. I'm really hoping that I can save these trees! I just bought some Biogold original bonsai food.. not sure if nutrients is part of the problem, but I thought I would give it a try. I have included pictures below. If anyone can help me identify the species as well as figure out how to bring these plants back to life that would be SO helpful!! I took these photos about 5 days ago and the plants have turned slightly more brown since then and some of the leaves have fallen off.. Thank you in advance!

Hi,

Unfortunately your pictures did not attach. Did you follow the size-instructions?

As for the temperature.. 80 degrees is enough to kill people. I am sure there is a mistake somewhere? Did you not mean 27 degrees? (Which would be roughly 80 degrees in the absolete Fahrenheit scale).

If that is the case, it would not be a problem for trees.

But a picture is really needed here..

tcharles110 wrote:

I'm located near the south, so it gets pretty hot - in the 80's and is sunny often.!

That can't be right. I live in the north and indeed, in the south it can get a bit warmer, but not that much. Actually, it has been pretty cold and in the south I think it has not been very sunny recently. Today seems a bit better, but the temperatures are very mild and certainly not hot in the south.

Auk:

But seriously, do US people even know there is an entire world that doesn't use Fahrenheit, doesn't connect abbreviations to states in the US, doesn't automatically connect a random point on the compass to a region in the US, etc etc....

Very cold in the South. It's winter after all!
If one drives 200km from SP there are the Campos do Jordão mountains where temps have been constantly near 0º .
I would love to take my trees on a trip over there, but they would weight 200kg all in all which is very heavy to carry by myself.
So Celsius degrees, meters and kilograms should be understandable for all, except...
Forget it, I am in a bad mood today.

I smile to myself when I hear my fellow US citizens surprise that there is another way to measure things, and I laugh when the politicians claim metric is too complicated. When the US joined NATO sixty or so years ago the military converted to metric. In army basic training we matched kilometers, not miles, and nobody had problems.

However, cut the guy a little slack. He found this site, with little indication that most people are non-US, and typed what the thermometer said.

By comparison to his hot 80 F/ 26 C, l was riding my bike yesterday in 92 F/ 34 C and was happy that it had cooled off a little. His trees should be real happy.

tcharles110 wrote:

If anyone can help me identify the species as well as figure out how to bring these plants back to life that would be SO helpful!! I took these photos about 5 days ago and the plants have turned slightly more brown since then and some of the leaves have fallen off.. Thank you in advance!

first advice would be to never buy a tree if you dont know what species it is, how would you expect to care for something if you dont even know its needs. stop moving your tree in and out of the house, its a tree after all they belong outside. also do not feed a unhealthy tree right now would not be the time to fertilize. i live in southern California with temps of 104*F/ 40*C for the past 2-3 weeks and most of my trees are loving it with tons of growth! i am having to water 2 times a day even up to 3 times depending on the tree and soil. keep up on your water when soil is dry to the touch especially on hot days. at this point all you can do is place tree in a location it will receive either morning or afternoon sun and water when needed. like mentioned by others your pictures did not post and its hard to tell the stage of a tree without pictures. good luck.

Hey everyone,

I apologize - I should correct a few things from my original post.

The bonsai trees I own were purchased from a family who has been growing them for many generations - I remember the husband saying either Pine or Juniper, but wanted to double check once the trees started to brown, which is why I wrote in.

Yes, I am located in the US near the south where it is in the 80's (currently) on the Fahrenheit scale.

I have included pictures below as they did not appear in my original post.

tcharles110 wrote:

The bonsai trees I own were purchased from a family who has been growing them for many generations

That's amazing. I mean, that they have been growing them for generations, but that your juniper still looks like just a young juniper in a pot and not like a bonsai.

I see very few brown leaves? May not be an issue, could be old leaves. Keep an eye on it, make sure it doesn't get worse.

I've just included two more photos that were taken this morning. The two pictures in my previous post were taken one week ago, so there has definitely been some more browning since then. Do you have any suggestions to keep this from happening? Or to fix this issue?

Thank you so much for your response!