AusBonsai

So I just watered my bonsai and 1 thing I noticed is that 1 of the Trident maples leaf fell instantly when I shower the plants while other tridents haven't fallen off yet.
Is this natural at this time of the month where its cold with minimal sun in the morning and afternoon, it didn't change colour that much and it only had yellow green and redish orange on the leaf.
Now left with buds and no leaf at all.


On a side note, should I fertilise my plants with liquid solution?

Up there you probably won't get much colour in autumn. Trident leaves sometimes do not have strong autumn colour anyway. I would say that leaf drop at this time of year is probably natural and nothing to worry about. You will find that not all trees drop leaves at the same time. Some of mine are quite bare now while others are still green and look like they are still growing what you are seeing is probably quite normal.

Re fertiliser: there is no point fertilising trees that have no leaves. Without leaves they just cannot use the nutrients so any you add now will be leached out of the pot by water and rain - wasted money and probably adding to nutrient pollution of ground and waterways.
Evergreen trees still have leaves and are often slightly active during winter so they can use nutrients. You can see the difference winter feeding makes in Grant Bowie's pine study thread
Aussie natives are also mostly growing strongly during our winter so should also be fed all year round.

shibui wrote:Up there you probably won't get much colour in autumn. Trident leaves sometimes do not have strong autumn colour anyway. I would say that leaf drop at this time of year is probably natural and nothing to worry about. You will find that not all trees drop leaves at the same time. Some of mine are quite bare now while others are still green and look like they are still growing what you are seeing is probably quite normal.

Re fertiliser: there is no point fertilising trees that have no leaves. Without leaves they just cannot use the nutrients so any you add now will be leached out of the pot by water and rain - wasted money and probably adding to nutrient pollution of ground and waterways.
Evergreen trees still have leaves and are often slightly active during winter so they can use nutrients. You can see the difference winter feeding makes in Grant Bowie's pine study thread
Aussie natives are also mostly growing strongly during our winter so should also be fed all year round.

I noticed that too, my Chinese Elm is still green like it was brand new and same goes for my medium tridents leaf.
Liquid Ambar changed from green to redish purple, red, orange, yellow

Many of my Decids just have the leaves go brown and fall off. Tridents give a little colour but not much then drop leaves
Many of my elms stay green and growing all winter. Those that do drop leaves just go brown and fall off.

Liquidambar, Crepe myrtle, and pin oak are about the only ones that i have that regularly give any colour. Ginko Goes yellow tho too but it is only small.

not really cold enough in Sydney to get reliable good colour

Ken

kcpoole wrote:Many of my Decids just have the leaves go brown and fall off. Tridents give a little colour but not much then drop leaves
Many of my elms stay green and growing all winter. Those that do drop leaves just go brown and fall off.

Liquidambar, Crepe myrtle, and pin oak are about the only ones that i have that regularly give any colour. Ginko Goes yellow tho too but it is only small.

not really cold enough in Sydney to get reliable good colour

Ken

Sad part about living in sydney

xIIRevoEvoS wrote:

kcpoole wrote:Many of my Decids just have the leaves go brown and fall off. Tridents give a little colour but not much then drop leaves
Many of my elms stay green and growing all winter. Those that do drop leaves just go brown and fall off.

Liquidambar, Crepe myrtle, and pin oak are about the only ones that i have that regularly give any colour. Ginko Goes yellow tho too but it is only small.

not really cold enough in Sydney to get reliable good colour

Ken

Sad part about living in sydney

Yep, Best city in the world except for our lack of Autumn colour

Ken

My liquidambar has maroon coloured leaves ATM, at least the ones that survived the rain! I have a maple which has 11 buds swelling. Go figure

On my Elms about 20% of leaves get colour and drop, that's it.
Maples get a little colour but not much and then drop.

The Autumn winds usually cause issues with leaf burn as well.

Best City in the World?
If you like twice as much rain as us,
Taxis who don't know where the bridge is,
Cockroaches,
Wearing Board shorts with footy socks
And a game where you go backwards to go forwards.....

macca66 wrote:On my Elms about 20% of leaves get colour and drop, that's it.
Maples get a little colour but not much and then drop.

The Autumn winds usually cause issues with leaf burn as well.

Best City in the World?
If you like twice as much rain as us,
Taxis who don't know where the bridge is,
Cockroaches,
Wearing Board shorts with footy socks
And a game where you go backwards to go forwards.....

With regards to leaf burn, is it the brown tips on the leaf?

Brown edges but foliage generally just dries out.
I live almost inner city in Moonee Valley. The valley runs almost perfectly North/South and this is the direction winds blow straight through and cause havoc.

macca66 wrote: Best City in the World?
If you like twice as much rain as us,
Taxis who don't know where the bridge is,
Cockroaches,
Wearing Board shorts with footy socks
And a game where you go backwards to go forwards.....

Of course, that is what makes it so much fun
we have more rain, but it only happens on about 10 days in the year
Taxis I reckon they are all crap anyway, use a hire car instead

kcpoole wrote:

macca66 wrote: Best City in the World?
If you like twice as much rain as us,
Taxis who don't know where the bridge is,
Cockroaches,
Wearing Board shorts with footy socks
And a game where you go backwards to go forwards.....

Of course, that is what makes it so much fun
we have more rain, but it only happens on about 10 days in the year
Taxis I reckon they are all crap anyway, use a hire car instead

Pfffft, you're both dreaming. Where do all you Sydney people go for holidays? That's right, the Central Coast. Its always cold in Melbourne and your whiskey bars open so late in the day.

Jarad wrote:

kcpoole wrote:

macca66 wrote: Best City in the World?
If you like twice as much rain as us,
Taxis who don't know where the bridge is,
Cockroaches,
Wearing Board shorts with footy socks
And a game where you go backwards to go forwards.....

Of course, that is what makes it so much fun
we have more rain, but it only happens on about 10 days in the year
Taxis I reckon they are all crap anyway, use a hire car instead

Pfffft, you're both dreaming. Where do all you Sydney people go for holidays? That's right, the Central Coast. Its always cold in Melbourne and your whiskey bars open so late in the day.

You win ! That is a good enough reason to me