Hi again, regrading fertilizers, it seems to be difficult to find the 9-3-6 here in Spain, I've got the 4-5-6 at home, would somebody recommend it? It is tagged as flowers and geranium fertilizer.

Thanks again

Marina

Hello, Marina!

Your tree looks nice, although the potting mix should be changed this early Summer. The new mix should have lots of drainage material, such as volcanic rock, perlite, or pumice, so that you can avoid the issues associated with excess moisture.

I can't see the dead trunk...which one is it? Yes, removing it will be quite difficult and will change the look of the braided trunk.

When re-potting, you can prune roots. It won't hurt the tree. The key is to remove as much of the old mix as possible, and work smoothly and swiftly, keeping the exposed roots moist so that they don't dry out.

Josh

Hello floral_uk, Josh, thanks for your amazingly quick response. You are right, there is no evidence on my pictures about the dried stem/trunk, let me show you below.

The problem is, it started really losing leaves. I must add, since we bought the tree and it lost quite some leaves, the others became kind of giant. I think because the plant tries to capture more light or energy. Now they started falling really fast. Let me show some of the sick leaves.

If the plant can stay healthy until summer I will definitely re-pot
following your recommendations (I even bought perlite today already) but I'm afraid it started decaying and
wont stop.

The trunk is really dry and doesn't show any sign of starting to rot, at
least on the surface. So would you recommend to re-pot (in summer or not)
without removing the dry one? (I'd really love to hear that :))

Marina

I always advise removing any dead material....but that will change the look, and could be very difficult. So, it will have to be your personal choice.

Those dark-splotched leaves are not good. Most likely from excess moisture in the rootzone. Until you repot, use a wooden skewer/stick to poke deep into the mix to tell if it is still moist.

Josh

Hi - Hoping I can get a some help to save my tree... I took some pictures which are below. Only one of my four stems seems to be healthy and growing new leaves. The other three are in various levels of sick. Help! I usually only water when the soil is dry. Lately I've let it dry out a lot because I thought maybe I was over watering it. The tree means a lot to me and I really don't want it to die! Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.This is the only healthy branch.

This is the one that's the most sick. You can see that it's started to change color and wrinkle/twist.

This one's leaves shriveled up.

This is the only healthy branch.

After reading a lot of these threads, I've stopped watering it. I think I over watered it this winter. I'm not sure if the wrinkled branch is dead or not. Is it possible to cut the tip of it off? Will it regrow?

What about the one with the wrinkled leaves?

Hoping someone has some advice!

Thanks!

Carlos

No idea if it will regrow.

We really need to see the container and the type of potting mix you're using.

Also, where is it located? How much direct light?

Josh

Hi Josh, Thank you so much for the quick response!

I repotted it about 2 years ago with just regular potting soil. I hadn't had any issues and the tree was thriving. This winter it started losing it's leaves and then this month it got really bad with the wrinkling on the tips. Here are some updated pics. The other ones were from last week. I haven't watered it.

Should I take it out to see if the roots are rotten? What does the rotten root look like? The brown parts of the plant near the soil all still feel healthy. None are soft.

Forgot to answer your question about the light. It sits in a pretty big window. but doesn't get direct sunlight.

Yeah, lift the rootmass out of the container and take a look at the roots. I will post a few pics of healthy roots so that you have something by which to compare. In general, rotted roots are brown, black, grey, et cetera.

I will be surprised if the mix is too wet. Rather, I will speculate that the interior of the rootball is compacted and not receiving water. My guess is, therefore, that the plant has been underwatered. I'm interested in what you find. Obviously, if the rootball is compact and dry, you'll need to rehydrate it completely.

Josh

Roots bound:

Roots pruned:

Hi - Ok so I just pulled the tree out of the pot the roots definitely weren't dry. they were still moist. and from what i can see it seems like they are all a dark brown,does that mean they are rotted?

I knocked some of the dirt off to get a better look, here are those pics:

Also, if they are rotted is there anything i can do to save it?

They don't look rotted to me...just dark from the potting mix. *If* you were to find rotted roots, you would simply prune them off.

Since you've gone this far, you might as well re-pot (even though it is very early in the season). Are you able to make your own porous mix? If not, can you purchase a bag of fine-grade Orchid Mix (which is mostly fir bark), and some Perlite? To that, you could add just a pinch of this old mix as a "binder" for the bark and perlite.

Josh

ok that's great news!! I can't make my own but I can definitely go buy some of that mix and Perlite. When repotting shoudl I try to remove this mix from the roots or keep it on there. I read in another post that you wrote to remove all the old soil and keep the roots wet the entire time. Does that apply to this?

Also, what are your thoughts on the tops of the branches that are starting to wrinkle. Do you think that's something that will just fix itself?