Crabapple hit realy hard in this hot weather

[brenden]

My Big Crabapple. Has been hit relly hard in this hot weather so hope it will be OK

I quoted this from another post in the forum about tools. I didn't want to pollute the topic with an off-topic reply so started a new thread.

Original Topic: viewtopic.php?f=96&t=692

I had the same problem a few weeks back when we were hit by a mini heat wave. Most of the leave were badly burnt and what leaves were left are badly scared. I defoliated the whole tree and it has grown back fantastically. Even a few flowers popped up.

I live in Sydney.

Brenden

[PeterW]

I had the same problem a few weeks back when we were hit by a mini heat wave. Most of the leave were badly burnt and what leaves were left are badly scared. I defoliated the whole tree and it has grown back fantastically. Even a few flowers popped up.

Thats a good way of getting a second lot of flowers, i also have a friend with a large crab apple and they defoliated a second time and got a beautifull burst of flowers.
Peter

[Asus101]

When in its second flowering would you return to the flower feeding regime? or does the tree have enough strength stored to handle it a second time?

[brenden]

The picture below is the result of a few weeks growing since I removed all the leaves. Flower buds are appearing so hopefully I can get some nice shots soon. I fear I will be overseas when it flowers and miss again

DSC04952-a.jpg

Question: I did notice the leaves have grown back larger than before. I wonder if the sudden cool changes could be the result of this? Or...

It is under a shade sail but a lot of light is still getting in. . I am guessing the reduced light could cause this? Mind you, this shade sail has been a life (tree) saver with all this crazy hot 40+ days we have been having. Now that it's cooler I was thinking of moving it out to full sun but again the shade sail is not very big and lets in a lot of light.


Thank you all for your wisdom and guidence.

[PeterW]

Nice setup there Brendan. I think that sometimes when defoliation happens late in the season, it can have a negative response for our purposes ie..larger leaf size and bigger internodal length as well as wasted energy.
Peter

[Jon Chown]

You have some very nice looking trees there Brendan and the way they are presented looks good also. Is this your home or business?

Jon

[brenden]

Hi Jon,

It's home. Bonsai is purely a hobby for me. I'm very new with only a year proper experience. Learning every day.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Can I share something too

I have only one "green"-leaf (as opposed the red leaf) for a number of years
now, it has been fruiting regularly and profusely in the past years, but all
fruits usually fell off during mid-January.

So this year, I carefully keep it in the shade, bring it inside during the day,
outside during the night etc.

It was in extremely good condition in the beginning of January/2009, so I cut
off some of the big leaves, and gave a it a lot of dynamic lifter. As the weather
was getting hotter, the remaining leaves got burnt off slowly, and it has been
putting out new crop of leaves... now (15/Feb/2009) it is full of leaves again,
but mostly the leaves are bigger than the previous one. Most of the fruits are
still there.

I think it is because of the the feed at the beginning of January/2009.

I observe that, I can be completely wrong, the red-leaf crabapple are more
resilient than the green-leaf ones?

Regards.