G'day all, I have recently relocated ro Wodonga VIC and have noticed some purple/browning needles on the Blue cedar. All of my trees were farm stayed with a mate during the move, most survived and have bounced back. Are the discoloured needles symptomatic of over/under watering? or too much sun/heat? It doesn't seem to have affected healthy new growth or cone generation.
Secondly I plan to graduate it from its large grow box into a pot in early spring 22, but have read that they don't like root cutting. This tree has been in a box for about 4-5 years, will this be a problem come potting time?
Welcome to Sunny North East Victoria.
It just so happens that Albury Wodonga bonsai meets this coming Tuesday evening. If you are interested to meet a few of the locals I can forward details.
I was going to say that older needles turning brown is normal but those appear to be younger needles.
Unfortunately the signs of over and under watering are so similar it is difficult to distinguish without checking the soil and roots.
My guess at this time of year is that it is much more likely to be under watering. Coupled with the fact it has been in the box for 4-5 years means it is likely to be getting root bound which also reduces the amount of water that can physically penetrate into the root zone.
Overall it still looks healthy so I would not be unduly worried unless the browning gets significantly worse.
While it is true that cedars can react to root pruning my experience with Cedrus is that they are far less of a problem than is sometimes made out. One of mine sulked for a year after its first significant root reduction but has since started to grow again.
For this tree it may depend on how much root you'll need to remove to get it into the pot. If you do need to reduce the roots radically it may be worth staging the reduction over a couple of years.
Pardon me for hijacking this thread , but its a very generic title!
I am new here and conversely as an avid gardener, typically living in houses with quite large gardens 800 sqrm to 1000 sqrm I am down sizing due to my age, so it might be that growing a bonsai is as close as I get to growing a tree as I get from this point on.
So for the last 2-3 years I have been working on this Blue Atlas cedar. I bought it from Collectors Corner, having been inspired by the old specimens I saw there. There is a ripper root over rock, which has almost pride of place in their collection, but I decided to go for semi formal upright and wired it with an "S" projecting in both planes. Some views look better than others.
My idea was to emulate the drooping branches often seen with deodars in gardens so I wired the lower branches down. What concerns me now is what to do about the top. Do I start looking at topping it out with a cone, are the lower branches too low, or should I amputate the thing just above the graft and start from scratch !
Remember I am a newbie I know very little about bonsai, so all ideas welcome.
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Very difficult to give good advice based on photos that do not show the trunk and branching. Please review the pictures posted and see if you agree. A forward branch obscures any useful view of lower branches and lower trunk. While you already know what the tree looks like in 3D can we see anything from this photo?
Photo 2 is taken from above so difficult to see where any branches start and end. Lower trunk is obscured again by branches.
With so little useful info I can only suggest some general advice:
Cedars rarely grow buds on older, bare wood so amputating just above the graft is likely to have disastrous consequences unless there is a useable branch just there.
Cedars grow very slowly so major reduction can take years to regrow.
Taper in trunks is a valuable part of making bonsai look older. Young trunks generally have little taper but we can introduce taper by pruning part of the trunk and replacing it with a thinner side branch. Grow and prune to replace may need to be done several times to develop a really good trunk and can take many years depending how the tree responds, growing conditions, etc. While cedars may make inspirational bonsai they are not easy. You may have picked a demanding species to start your bonsai journey with.
Not sure what 'topping it out with a cone' might mean.
Thanks for the reply Shibui. I already learned something. Photos of the overall look are simply not enough to analyse a bonsai when asking for advice on a forum! But your post is full of important general advice , thanks for that. Oh, yes, I do have other relatively easy bonsai under development, mainly Figs, Crassula, Azalea, and that very easy one Schefflera arboricola. I suppose I am lucky in a way, Bonsai art is 5 minutes away and so is Collectors corner, if I need inspiration in terms of style. But it seems to me you just about need a book on each species / cv. in terms of how to develop it, then another book on how to maintain it.
