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Hello Everyone,

I bought a new Fukein tea, on Aug 26th.. they repotted it before giving it to me, to a slightly smaller pot than what I remember it being in..
It looked healthy when I bought it home.
I keep it indoors under a full spectrum light.
Initially, when I received it I had overwatered it, the first week or 10 days, without judging the top dryness of soil correctly. I had seen a lot of yellow leaves starting to appear during that time, however I did see it flowering and a bit new growth.
I later reduced the watering to water it only when I see the top soil dry to touch.
Now I do see the new growth continue to increase with new shoots, however at the same time I see equal number of leaves yellowing. It looks like chlorosis by I am not sure.
I am unable to identify the cause of the leaves yellowing.
I am not sure if it is due to repotting, or the initial overwatering or something else such as hardwater.
The last twice that I watered it ( I realized the top soil dries up on 5th day afternoon or or so, and I water it somewhat on 6th day just to be careful ), I dunked it in a 10 gallon utility bucket with bit of superthrive, but the water at my place is pretty hard.

The yellowing started at the top of the canopy and is slowly spreading to the bottom, however the yellowing takes about few days for each leaf.
I see that it might be mostly older leaves that are yellowing. I see few smaller leaves yellowing too, but I am not sure if they are new or old.

May I know if I need to be worried about this tree, and if there is anything that I need to watch for, or do at this point of time?

I have attached pictures.

Thank you.

So you bought it at a place where they did repotting into a smaller pot after sale? I guess it was not a normal reseller of imported trees then? I would go back and ask them as it seems like they know what they are doing. And if you get any advice on how to save the tree, please tell us in this thread. We have several hundreds of questions about dieing carmonas in the forum. Nobody knows the answer and nobody comes back with a success story.

Well.. I did go back and ask them.
The person who was the expert at that place said that he did not realize that it was repotted at his place. I.e He did not notice it during sale.
He was surprised and kind of reacted that it should not have been done.
However , seeing all the new growth in 2 to 3 weeks he was as surprised and said that it is doing well and might be just stressed because of repotting.
I am not fully convinced, since I do see more and more leaves turning yellow - so I wanted to ask if it something that I have to worry when I see so many new shoots and flowers, even after flowering.
Also I think I observe that the leaves are yellowing only at those places which are exposed to the grow lights - so either the tree is exposed to much of grow lights or it is not happy with watering or repotting/nutrients.
I wish I could get some help to pin point on one or tbt other.

To much light from grow light is not likelly. I keep mine outdoors in full natural sun all summer. But you can easily test your theory. Just download a lux meter app to your Phone or tablet. Test the streangth of the light by the tree first and ghen outdoors. If it is weaker than outdoors that is not the issue.

However, the grow lamp is not only giving light. It also warm up the area around the tree and lower humidity. Hot, dry and with stagnant air may be an issue. This species is from a subtropical climate with very high humidity.

Thank you.
Yes, I did try the Photone app and checked the ppfd for the sun early and afternoon and it was easily above 2000 ppfd.
For the grow light - it used to be 1000 ppfd at the top of the canopy and I now reduced it to about 600 ppfd.
One more reason why I reduced the light is also because of the heat as you suggested.
Initially I thought the heat is not that much of a problem. When I measured with a thermometer at top of canopy it is about 82F, while at the bottom of canopy it is about 72 to 75F. But - I think may be it might be something to do with heat as you suggested.
Humidity seems to be around 40 to 50% depending on the time of the day.
But as you said the reality might be a lot different.
I now also have a small fan with slight circulation of air, and a small humidifier.
It’s not helping with increasing the humidity that much though.
I could try ways to keep humidity at 60% or so, but I thought it might cause more issues with soil being damp for longer and being indoors might cause other issues with roots.

Also, May I know if it is suggested to trim the very long shoots at this point of time ? Or should I wait till things settle down? It is lot of growth all over and I am not sure if I will shock the tree if I cut trim too much later all at once.

Thank you once again for all the input. It’s relieving to hear more inputs.

As far as I understand 40-50% humidity is far to low. Minimum I think is 60 as you suggest.

I have a few phrases that I repeat all the time. Here is one that suits in this case:

Do not make any work on a newly purshased trees. The first oportunitie to work is after at least one full growing season, at the right time and only if the tree is healthy.

Thank you. I will see if I can maintain humidity around 60 and see if that helps.
Will not trim until I see it healthy and fit.

Regards.

Indoors you may find that it is very hard to get humidity up. Specially in winter when the heating is on or in the peak of the summer if you use air condition, totally impossible. Terrarium is the solution for maintaining humidity locally. I have never seen any bonsai artist using them.

In the end the bonsai hobby has evolved for thousends of years outdoors. Indoor trees has been around for a few decades and is driven by an unrealistic customer demand and people that see an oportunitie to make money. It has gone so far that even reputable bonsai shops in Europe sell them. In Japan nobody is growing bonsai indoors. That is not in their culture and there are a good reason for that.

Indoor trees has already made a lot of enthusiastic beginners give up. They are a serious threat to the hobby.

Now, lets stay positive:). There are a group of plants on the cape peninsula that do really good indoors. Some of them can be trained to look like a bonsai. The most commonly available is jade plants. If you want to grow bonsai indoors, grow jades. They will not flower indoors, but they will grow fine and develop nice. Actually my indoor jades grow and develop much faster than the outdoor ones.