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Hi there,

Please could someone help me! I think my bonsai is dying. From reading this website and others I suspect it may have dried out a few weeks ago. I had been watering it regularly but there was a heatwave here which I think dried it out. I used to water it a little each day otherwise.

It is a Chinese Elm which I got at the end of April. I have been keeping it in the conservatory and it was growing extremely quickly. However it then took a turn for the worse (due to the drying out I think) and all the leaves have now dropped off. A few of the outer branches (which had been new) have died and I have trimmed them back. There appear to be a fair number of new leaves starting to come through but they do not seem to be properly growing and now some of them have started to dye before growing into leaves. I have also been giving it bonsai fertiliser once a week.

I've posted some photos with this post and any tips would be great! Since I notice the leaves falling off I have been watering it regularly (a quarter to half a cup each day). Recently I have been watering it by submerging the soil completely in water once a week until the bubbles stop coming up.

If a tree dries completely out, this can cause extreme to fatal stress. I see green buds in your picture which is a wonderful sign though. You do not need to water every day necessarily. Just stick your finger tip down into the soil. If it feels damp, do not water. if it is powdery or feels dry, water it. there may very well be moisture deeper in the soil and that is what you never want to get completely dried out. the whole weight of the pot would feel much lighter if it had truly dried out. That is the kind of dry you want to avoid for any length of time. I think that it will slowly fill back out with leaves, just maybe lighter at first and sparce. Do not think this means you should keep the soil wet. just water as above. to much water can create its own problems and a drastic change into the rainforest would be stress compounded.

Good luck, I see leaves in your near future.

very hard to tell what is happening here.
One thing is for sure. DO NOTE FERTILIZE
your plant is not growing. Therefor it doe not use the fertilizer, and you are just adding salts to the soil. Which very well might be the cause of it not coming back: The roots may experience dry contitions even though the soil is moist. Do you have a good picture of the pot & soil?
I think I would take it out of the pot, look at the rootball and consider an emergency repot. However, this would require someone who actually can judge the state of the roots, and decide whether repotting would help..

I have ordered some bonsai soil and will repot it this weekend and post some pictures. Thanks for the advice!