the infamous zelkova

[2partswater]

So, if any of you so avid members of this community remember back in about June/July, I had just recently received a Zelkova as a gift and was questionning many things about my first bonsai. It has done really well after I gave it fresh soil, switched to distilled water, misted it every day, and kept it watered frequently

Comments

[daydreamerchloe]

You could maybe put small bonsai in clear plastic bags, that way they will retain the moisture in the soil. Just beware of the development of any mould/mildew stuff. We had a hosepipe ban here in London in july/august and its a nightmare.

[daydreamerchloe]

The person above said some good tips, I agree with them however I have zelkovas here in London where the temp is 20 to 30C in summer -5 to 15C in winter, and they have been better off outside all year. I had terrible problems with red spider mites, tiny little bastards who make the plant wispy with web over time. Get on top of the situation ASAP if you suspect it in your own trees! These bugs liked the dry atmosphere of central heating, and the trees preferred the damp of outside I reckon.

[chase_rogers]

I went through the same problem with leaves dropping when I had my Zelkova indoors over the winter. Over the winter, it dropped all of the leaves, started to pick back up in late winter/early spring. Even when spring set it, there was little to no budding and new leaf growth. My solution - moving it outdoors and fertilizing. Fertilizing did WONDERS for it, you could literally see the difference 2 days later with all the new growth. I was just using plain old miracle-gro at 1/2 strength (since it was outdoors).

My suggestion - keep up on the fertilizer and do make sure that you watch the water closely, at it will probably dry out a lot more being inside. I would think that losing some leaves would be normal, since the tree probably wants to go through a normal seasonal cycle.