I have a young tamukeyama, about 24" tall, which I got in the spring. I planted it in my garden, which had about 2 hours of morning sun, and it was doing beautifully. In late August I went away for three weeks, and the person who was supposed to water it didn't do a very good job I think; the leaves were brown tipped when I returned. But the huge problem is that they have put up scaffolding over my garden, which has made the area extremely dark (there is a fence up, so there is really no light at all in the space). I bought a compact flourescent bulb and tried to give the plant a lot of water, but it has been progressively shriveling - a week or so ago, a few leaves turned red, but now about a quarter of the leaves have shriveled and fallen off (the remainder are green, browntipped, and lackluster). I thought perhaps the soil was too wet, since there is no sun at all the dry it. Finally I decided to take the maple out of the ground since the scaffolding will be up FOR A YEAR (all my other plants are dead) and I put it in a pot where I could better manage the soil drainage and brought it in the house where there is a little bit of sun in the mornings. The problem will be the terrible dry radiator heat in NYC apartments, which is going to kick in within a month. My questions: Does anyone have advice about what happened to the maple and how to bring it back to health? How can I keep it alive in the indoor heat in the winter? I don't have access to the outdoors unless I can find someone who can put it on a deck during the winter. Can I put it outdoors in a pot in the winter or will that freeze it? I am new at this and I would really appreciate anyone's advice! Thank you.
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes outside. Dont panic though, these tree are very resilient. I have had some lose all leaves by the end of july, and then not have any til the following spring. You will need to ge it back outside soon. The tree will definitley die if left inside. Do not attempt it. I live in a much milder climate with temps barely reaching 10degf once or so each winter. Here we can keep ours in pots all winter. Your might be in a little tougher zone, so you might need to give the pot some extra protection. See if you can find a place for it with some outdoor winter protection. Alot of Bonsai folks keep trees in much smaller pots, so you might seek some local Bonsai enthusiast for some advice. I have never had to protect a pot otuside, but if you search here, i am sure other will have given advice on how to do it. Remeber it will need some water during the winter also. It is easy to let them dry out. I have heard of some people packing snow around them. It keeps them insulated and a slow steady supply of water. Good luck, and dont panic! Mike
Hi - if it's in a pot, be very sure the soil mix is very gritty and fast draining, and don't water (tho' do it well when you do) until a couple of inches of soil has become dry between times. Do not try to keep it indoors at all as it won't work. Do keep it out of full sun, but don't forget it will drop leaves anyway now, so be extra stingy with water til soil freezes, at which point you don't need to water again til it thaws enough to start drying out. Be sure the pot has a large drain hole (covered with plastic canvas from a craft store) and if you're not sure how cold-hardy the pot itself is, put it in a larger one with mulch in between for winter (the larger one with a good sized drain hole too, of course). Now you have a bonsai in the making!
Thank you so much for your advice! It sounds like I did the wrong thing in taking it out of the ground, but it was so dark! Do you think it was drying up because of the lack of light or too much water? The good news is that it looks as though the branches are still healthy where the leaves have dropped, except on the end of one branch where the buds are black instead of light green. I am attaching pictures so we know what we are talking about... Is this pot big enough for the tree, do you think? (The pot is about 15" wide and the root ball is maybe 4-5 inches in diameter). The hole in the bottom of the pot is about and inch and a half - 1 hole - but I put some rocks and mulch in the pot for draining. What is a cold hardy pot, and if I can find someone to take the tree, they will put it on a deck in the winter. What kind of protection will it need and what is the plastic canvas for/how do you use it? I am sorry to be so ignorant about these things. I really do appreciate your thoughts!
