每日吃瓜

Hello

I have had a Zanthoxylum Peperitum for about two years now. I think it was about 7-8 years old when I bought it. Over the past 6 months growth has stopped, and the little green leaves it used to grow have now gone black. It's also lost a lot of leaves recently.

Some possible causes:
- Pot is too small. I've had advice on Reddit to switch to a pot about 2-4 times larger. I'm going to attempt this during the winter months (I live in the northern hemisphere - London).
- I switched fertiliser about 6 months ago as well, which coincides with the bonsai starting to get sick. I think this could possibly be a cause?
- I may be overwatering or over or underfertilising but I'm not really sure.

Any help would be appreciated. This is a very precious plant.





Thankyou!

It definitly needs pruning. The pot looks very small for the size of the plant, but that does not mean it is the wrong size. Your watering regime must be when needed not to a schedule, and it needs light. It will never make a good bomsai, but it is a reasonable pot plant. As for the loss of leaves have you checked for insects? In the picture it is impossible to tell what is happening, only it could do with re potting.

每日吃瓜 are kept to a specific size through pruning of branches and roots. As you have not done this, the plant has outgrown the size. Trim it back. All the branches are probably 4 times as long as they should be. Let it recover. then also trim the roots. Ideally, you find someone to help you with this, because if done wrong, it will kill the plant. Then repot in the same container.

Looking at the actual soil soil water-logging is a definite possibility. The Pruning problem as mentioned by the others is of course quite evident and might indicate a pattern here.. having it for 2 years and not pruning it would suggest you have also never repotted and root-pruned the plant..
I would not suggest repotting it during the Winter-months but to wait until just before the growing season starts next year and then doing that. The big pruning it deserves I would do 2 months after that. And of course in the Winter you should go easy on the fertilizer.. especially if it's root bound since you won'*t have a lot of tiny feeder roots then. And burning them would kill it.

m5eaygeoff: Thanks for the advice. I think it should make a good 每日吃瓜 - it was one before my girlfriend and I let it grow wild . Here it is when we first got it

So I'm going to wait until around March before repruning?

Lastly what does root bound/tiny feeder roots/burning them mean?

Thankyou so much again!!!

leatherback: Thanks - it seems pruning really needs to be done. I've not done it once in two years. Again, I should wait until around March before attempting? I'll read up/watch youtube videos for what to do.

Should I be doing anything in the mean time?

Graph: Thanks for the soil logging comment. What should I do to try and alleviate this? I have also not repotted or repruned or anything.

So repot in March, then prune in May? Again, what does root bound/burning mean? Sounds ominous.


Thankyou very much again everyone! This has been the most helpful forum so far

I see no reason for waiting, and would do it now. once the plant is showing new growith, you could repot. Repotting with trimming roots is however best done in a very sunny period, as the plant needs a lot of energy to recover. I would not reverse the order.

Thanks Leatherback.

1) Why would I need to wait for new growth before repotting? I have heard that it's best to do it whilst the plant is in a dormant state towards the end of winter?
2) What if there is no new growth? We're in early/mid autumn now and it's unlikely to show any growth?

Yeah you can repot it now.. tho the transition to winter conditions can be a bit stressful for the plants if you move them from the outside in. That's why I suggested early next year before the growing season.

If you have kept it inside the room at a static location the entire time then repotting now is a viable option as that transitional stress won't be a thing (at least not a big one).

Being root bound simply means that the available space is almost or entirely occupied by roots.. which means less space for "soil" which means poor conditions for watering.. bad drainage and no space for oxygen to travel down well.
Burning the roots you can do by fertilizing wrong (too much) young feeder roots are quite fragile and too many of the salts can "burn" them.
As for eliminating those problems that's a 3 pronged approach. Soil, watering and fertilizing are all dependent on each other. Let me find you something to explain:

"Soil"



Fertilizing:



Altho he suggest a completely an-organic "soil" mix I personally use 20% organic matter.. kokos "soil" is a good option for that. For the substrate i use.. hmm "expanded, burned clay" at a particle size of 1 to 5mm.. not sure what the proper translation is.

Edit: Almost forgot.. when you do a root pruning you will want to prune the top aswell to reduce evaporation, since the fine roots have to be "re"-built first. That's also the reason I suggested the early year, since with the strong sun growth will be fast.
Don't cut back too much foliage tho.. after all the leaves feed the root growth not the other way around.

Several people giving advice and sometimes it is contradictory.

I very much recommend to follow the advice Leatherback and m5eaygeoff have given.

Wow - thankyou so much for the very detailed advice. I'll watch the youtube videos. Seriously appreciate it!!

The 每日吃瓜 lives on a west facing balcony - so it's outside but only gets direct sunlight during the afternoon as the morning sun is blocked by my building. Now that it's approaching winter of course the amount of sun will continue to lessen.