azalea help please

[dregs24]

hi all,
this is my first post so here's my story- i have inhereted over 200 tress a couple of months back sadly through my partner and we are completely new to bonsai or even general gardening to be honest! most are bonsai and seem to be doing ok so far, but 3-4 weeks back i repotted a big old azalea at the advice of members of the BSV and it has developed brown dry tips on the leaves. i repotted using a fine stone base and osmocote potting mix mixed further with some fine stone. the leaves browned after a hot sunny day in the morning- midday sun, it has since been sitting under my pergola.
any advice would be greatly appreciated as this was one of my father in laws fav trees.
thanks

[Pup]

Going on what I have seen in the photos, and knowing that you have had some unseasonably hot weather there in the last week or so.
I would say at this stage heat stress.
There are more reasons for such stress though. Not being sure of how much roots you removed also what the substrate is. Azaleas like an Acid soil, the ideal is Kanuma,
if you can get it.
Azaleas like the morning sun till about 11 o clock, also when the weather is dry, they like like us, need to drink more.

I hope this helps in some way and maybe some one from Melbourne can be of more help, with advice.
Cheers Pup

[BoNZai]

Hi dreggs,

Welcome to the site.

It looks you enherited some fine trees and recognition must go to your late father in law for building such a collection.

Pup has said it all in regards to the Azalea.

You say that you are new to bonsai and general gardening and to be thrown in the deep end to look after 200 trees is a big task.

Bonsai is not something you do every now and then, like chlidren and pets thet need constant attention.
I would leave the secateurs in the draw, don't do any repotting and basically keep the trees alive, try to learn as much as possible about bonsai culture as you can for the next year. Join a club and keep an eye on this site.
We are a friendly lot and are willing to help anyone. there is an enormous amount of knowledge amongst us so don't be afraid to post.

All the best

BoNZai

[Gerard]

Hi Dregs, welcome to the site. You have been unlucky with the weather normally you would repot a little earlier but I know that a repot was desperately needed. (I was at BSV and also purchased some of your late father in laws trees) Nobody could have forseen the heatwave, keep the tree out of the wind and hopefully it will pick up soon

Regards Gerard

[dregs24]

just a quick thanks to everyone for the warm welcome and helpfull advice.
I look forward to the challenge ahead as summer arrives and will be giving my best efforts to keeping the trees healthy.

sincerely thanks.

brett

[kvan64]

Brett, welcome.
As to the bonsai, they are just underwatered. While you are waiting to find a chance to repot these trees, just keep them in partial shade and water them well. Some wetting agent (could be found from bunnings) could help.
Cheers

[Damian Bee]

Hi dregs,

I would recommend you put some seaweed concentrate onto that Azalea as a foliar spray asap and if you didn't already, let it sit in a tub of water for a couple of hours to re-wet the root ball. In summer you will pretty much have to water every day.
Keep it in the shade from 11 am onwards till mid autumn as Pup suggested and away from the northerly winds in summer.
Don't allow the soil to become waterlogged, this will do further damage as Azalea hate wet feet.
No fertilising should be done for a few weeks. Seaweed concentrates technically are not fertilisers but tonics, high potassium and no nitrogen or phosphorus.
Gees it is p*ssing down here, the barrow is gonna overflow.
Finally, easy on the wetting agents as they can burn new roots and don't remove any of the dead stuff just yet, let it settle and see what re-shoots.

Good luck Dregs

[MelaQuin]

Cut the hell out of it... which is a crude way of saying cut the branchlets back hard. Leave enough foliage on to keep the juices flowing but you have too much foliage for a newly repotted tree. It will take the azalea a year to regain its composure and develop enough shoots to work with but for the first year just getting the tree to live is the most important thing and it can't carry that much foliage.

I got this azalea in May 2009. When the time was right I heavily root pruned it and cut it back hard. For the past two months I was afraid I would lose the branch on the right but it is now full of tiny shoots and by next Spring I can start to style. If I had left more on it the tree would not have survived the root prune. This azalea is not hardy. I have done similar to Christmas Cheer and it sulked for a bit then rebounded fairly rapidly.

Azalea Yoko 2009-05 1.jpg

Azalea Yoko 2009-10.jpg

Whenever you reduce the roots you have to reduce the foliage mass. So study your tree, remove all branches that won't be a part of the final design or are too straight, remove a lot of foliage from those remaining branches. Azaleas will shoot out all along the stems and in a reasonable amount of time you will regain the plant's vigour and your styling options.

I have also overpotted it because I did not want to reduce the rootball to its eventual size. Better to leave more and keep the tree and finish the job next year.

[dregs24]

Thanks Damian and MelaQuin for the usefull advice,
When we took the tree to the workshop, we lightly pruned back the branches- under supervision and told not to reduce the roots too much when repotting because of the age of the tree (50 plus?).

[penny]

you said use kanumma for potting medium how can i pot an azalea cheaply its been in my front garden wild for 15-20 years approx im in the uk

[penny]

also i bought one from normal garden centre to practice on,

[Pup]

you said use kanumma for potting medium how can i pot an azalea cheaply its been in my front garden wild for 15-20 years approx im in the uk

G,day Penny. You should PM stymie he is from your neck of the woods. He would understand your conditions a lot better.

I do the PIE method when re potting Azaleas. Which are notorious for not liking new soil and I have found loath to put new roots into new soil.

When re potting trim the edges so as it fits back in the pot, then at alternate positions around the pot cut a pie shaped wedge. This leaves old soil and roots there, to sustain the tree till new roots form.
This can also be used to replace old soil, that has to be replaced on Conifer species, that do not tolerate bare rooting.

Kanuma is the Japanese soil used for Azaleas.

Cheers Pup

[Bretts]

Hi Brett
As has been said you have been thrown in the deep end here. You have a steep learning curve ahead of you. You will be sure to get lots of good advice but as you can see there are many different approaches and sifting through this information and adapting it to your circumstances takes a long time. If the other 200 trees are anything like this then I think you need the support of the bonsai community to make sure you get very good hands on advice and every attempt made to minimise casualties that most of us face to begin with.
I am not familiar with the club you mentioned but this is a great start.
I think you should contact the president of the club and make it clear of your circumstance and ask if they can recommend some one to visit your house and give you some hands on advice about placement and put a plan together for you to care for them.
I should think that if they did not have to travel far it should be a community service a couple of beers each visit should surfice

The best advice I could give you at the moment is don't panic Be very carefull not to over water and also don't let it dry out.

[dregs24]

Thanks Bretts for your honest advive and recommendations for our sittuation,

i have come to realise the commitment involved with these trees and in the last few months they have joyfully taken up every spare minute of my time caring for them as well as tranforming my backyard into a bonsai friendly enviroment.
I am a dirt bike rider and usually build race cars in my spare time, but there is no consiquences if my cars aren't worked on!

Unfortunatley i believe there will be casualties over the summer but some of the trees (not all) are far too beautiful and sentimental to us to lose. Probably a quarter of the 200 trees are jades, succulants and other assorted nice young pot plants.
Personally i want all to survive and have almost overloaded on info from books and the net!
Maybe i should post some photos to persuade anyone to take on some extra projects?

thanks again