AusBonsai

Recently you may have seen my post on a Penjing I put together with my wife. It consists of 3 small apricot plants.

We did it approximately 1 week ago, and I've noticed the leaves appear to be dying! Now, I did do a fair bit of root pruning on these when we moved them into the Penjing, but I didn't do very much defoliating... is this the problem? Should I have taken most (or ALL??) or the leaves off at the same time?

Is it too late to save them? If not, what should I do? I'm worried I may even have left it too long to ask, so maybe they can't be saved... which isn't the end of the world, but I'd like to know where I went wrong for next time.

Apricots are sensitive little critters and should really be root trimmed in late August while they are still dorment. That said, they should be OK with a bit of TLC. Keep in the shade for a few weeks, not too much water, and they will bounce back. Even if they loose their leaves, they should send out a new set after a while because they are young plants.

Thanks, Watto! So should I just leave them and look after them and hope for the best, or should I defoliate to help speed along the recovery?

If it were mine, I would leave them and see what eventuates. Misting the leaves might also help. Goodluck!

Hi Japh,
Deciduous trees should be root pruned and potted just before they come onto leaf. Apricots are touchy but they have a good chance of coming back if you put them in a a position where the pot is warm to promote root growth, but protected from wind, a hothouse would be ideal.
If you havn't already done so, dunk them in Seasol for ten minutes also. Good luck
Cheers, Jonden

Thanks again. I guess I did them out of season then, is the main issue?

Misting the leaves doesn't seem to have helped at all either