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Hey guys, i have this Acacia which was my 2nd bonsai, it is really quite sick i think. I got given 2 more acacias a few months back. One of them shot on time and the other is only just starting, however my old acacia is not shooting. Attached are photos of the trees, its awesome because they are each different varigations of the Acacia species, you can see by the leaves.

If any one might have some suggestions as to what might be wrong with my Acacia it would be great. Oh and the sick one is the biggest one, in the one photo you can see the buds just chilling there and not going any further, its almost like the tree ran out of energy? At the moment i am just nursing it hoping by next year it will show signs of being healthy

Your acacia seems to be in good condition. Try wrapping lower trunk portion with a news paper covering soil also. This can slightly heat up the soil temperature. But many of the acacia sp are prone to die back or canker diseases which usually happens during branch cutting. So it is better to use Bordeaux paste on cut surface. BP is not toxic to us and can be prepared in home if we have copper sulphate and lime. 100 g copper sulphate solution and 100 ml lime (Calcium hydroxide) when mixed together gives BP.

Hi Joncoh,

Firstly they are good pre-bonsai, but they need more branches but that is going to be allright I think. It's strange to see the other tree hasn't been shooting out. Trees do differ sometimes when shooting even if they are the same kind of tree and are growing at the same place. The buds are looking good, green at the end so it looks to me like it's not sick at the moment, I would wait a little longer but do not fertilize it now till you know it's not sick and the time is right (I don't know which time of the year it is now in your country so I don't know when it's time there to begin fertilizing ).

Hope to see your other Acacia is shooting out soon! They are really beautiful trees.

Hey Joncoh,

Let me start of with saying.. Nice Arcanthus flowering in the background!

If I remember correctly you are in South Africa, spring has just hit you a month or 2 ago right? That means your plants should be in full swing.

The acacia's you have are local species. Try to find out which, as there are hundreds of accacia species. And although most of the SA species love the heat, and dry temps, a lot of them also have trouble when you fiddle with their roots.

Did you do any massive rootwork on the not-performing plant? If you have bare-rooted them, it is important to keep some of the old soild, and mix that in with your new medium. This will allow mycorrhiza (Symbiosys fungus, which helps the tree in nutrient-gathering) to remain in the pot.

Not shooting in your case is very likely the result of root-trouble.Maybe you have had the soil too moist for too long? Carefully lift the plant to see whether the roots are healthy (Your white roots at the ends, or all black mushy?). If the roots are healthy, I would probably water the tree carefully. but.. I have had african accacia and these after 3 years all of the sudden just gave up.

Yeah Lb it actually did this a while back, like a year ago, then i repotted it near the begining of this year with free draining soil, but i did bareroot it. Hmm that is probably the problem, im quite happy that it has the strength to hold onto those two little branchlets that it has because it shows its still fighting to survive. What do you suggest i do, just monitor the soil and leave it? The soil is very draining but still retains enough moisture. I know that acacia are desert type trees so they require drainage

Hi Jon,

Photo number 5, of the single branch with one bud burst...which tree does that belong to?

Thats the big acacia, that bud has stayed half burst like that for over 4 months

All three plants look healthy. Your large Acacia is very likely recovering from the bare rooting you did *and* it may very well be in a rest period.

I have observed here in Canada a lot of fruit/nut bearing trees grow and produce like crazy for about 3 years, then they seem to *take a year* off to rest while producing only a fraction of the amount of leaves/flowers/fruit/nuts of the previous years. To see them like this compared to the previous year one might think there is something wrong with the tree but, it's fine...it's just resting and rejuvenating.

If it were my tree, I would just leave it, let it rest while cutting back a little on the watering, fertilizing and perhaps move it to a placement where is gets less intense, direct sunlight such as dappled sunlight or morning sun only. Here is a link you might find interesting...
...just general info on the Acacia however you can do a more indepth search from this on the African species. Hope this helps!

Thanks Leslie! Yeah i will just leave it, i have observed that the past few days the buds look more on the verge of popping so thats good news

Good stuff!

You also mentioned in an earlier post that all three Acacias are different varieties of the same species therefore you cannot expect them all to perform identically.