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Is there hope for my bonsai? 10 years 9 months ago #9236

  • max
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I got my first bonsai a little over a year ago by the end of last summer I had me a small beginner's collection.

Although I did my best to wrap the pots of my outdoor trees with material to protect them from the wind, the German winter, with the unusually long and cold period in february and march, seems to have done serious damage.

Come spring, my favourite, a maple, had new leaves growing only on about half the branches, the rest of them are still bare now.
Is there a chance of new leaves growing from these branches next year, or are they permanently lost?
That would be more than sad, as my maple had a nice closed shape which is gone now.

The state of my carpinus betulus is worse though. I cut off some branches during the winter (not many), and this spring It did not grow any leaves at all. It did grow buds, so I suppose the tree did alright initially and then perhaps got surprised by the late frost.
I don't have much experience – is there any chance of a tree coming back the following year? When you try to bend the branches, they don't feel extremely try as far as I can judge.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks for your help,
Max

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Is there hope for my bonsai? 10 years 9 months ago #9237

  • chrisv
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Hey max,

I kinda know the German winter feeling because we experience the same and because we are neighbors ;)
Anyway i had the same problem with some of my trees, were some died and some have the same growing issues as yours.

Try to scratch a tiny piece of bark with your nail at the branches were there is no leaves popping out. If you see green it's still alive but probably struggeling.
If there is no green beneath the bark you probably have branch that died back.
Acers tend to have that die back problem easily when pruned in the wrong time and/or freezing temperatures

About you carpinus it's harder to determine but first do the same as above on the trunk see if it still has life also on the branches.
If it does repot it and check the roots.
It could easily have had damaged roots by the frost and died back. This will cause rootrot and needs to be taken care of when u repot.

I have the same with an acer almost no leaves and all really small. The advice i got was repot fertilize a bit protect it very well and next year it will be back again.

But in your case first check the tree for vital signs

good luck

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Is there hope for my bonsai? 10 years 9 months ago #9239

  • m5eaygeoff
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Sounds as if you have lost branches, and possibly the plant. You don't say how big your tree is, usually the smaller the tree the less hardy in the pot they will be.
If the tree is not growing then do not add fertiliser, it will do more harm than good, take a look at bonsai4me.com for species guides etc. The last winter was very difficult with a very late spring also, and some of my trees were very late coming out, however if they are not in full leaf now then I don't think they will.Re potting will not help, and it is far too late in the year to do it anyway. I had a small maple that lost several branches but the rest is ok, so it is possible that if you have branches with leaves it will be ok. Can you post a pic so we can see what they look like?
Geoff.

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