Chinese Elm Bonsai Is Dying? – How To Save It

So you’ve bought a Chinese Elm bonsai, or maybe you’ve been given a one a gift. They are very popular Christmas and birthday presents.

Firstly, Congratulations. You are now the proud owner of your first bonsai. (They make great bonsai, you can read more about their suitability – Is A  Chinese Elm A Good Tree For Bonsai?)

But if your reading this, it must not be looking to good? You’ve only had it a week and already it somehow got into a bad state? 

Don’t worry, I will go through some things that can help you get the tree back on track and looking healthy again.

Is Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Looking Unwell?

Has your tree got yellow leaves and they are falling off?

Maybe you’re wondering if you’ve watered to much or perhaps not enough? Are you questioning the amount of light it is getting?

This bonsai stuff can be tricky to work out in the beginning and more importantly …Have you killed your new bonsai tree already …and can it be saved?

Well, I can’t answer that exactly, not without looking at the tree, but I can ask you some questions and I can go through some of the most common mistakes and situations, which will hopefully help you troubleshoot any issues you might be having and help you to get your tree back to full health.

I will let you into a secret, the instructions the tree comes with are kind of rubbish, so ignore them and instead go through the following questions.

1. Is Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Outside or Inside?

If you haven’t bought your Chinese elm yet (or any bonsai for that matter) just wait until Spring.

Please, please, please wait until spring to buy it. Spring is the best time to buy any bonsai tree. It will just save you from a million of the usual problems beginners run into.

If you have received your tree already and you have it sat inside your house …it might be time to change that. Elm trees should be outside. They are often sold as inside trees, which just is not true.

Trees grow outside. There are only a small handful of tropical trees that should be kept inside. Ideally they should be outside too, but lets be honest, not many of us have the pleasure of living in a tropical climate to keep them happy.

Summer and Spring

If its spring or summer, place the tree outside. This is where it will now spend the rest of its life.

Autumn/Fall

If it’s now autumn and your tree has been inside, it is time to put it outside. BUT before you do, you need to check your local weather for frost.

If frost is 6 weeks or more away, put the tree outside. This should allow enough time for it to adjust and harden off and get ready for the winter.

If frost is on the way within the next 6 weeks, keep the tree inside until spring. Putting it now will be too much of a shock for it. If it goes from your nice warm house to near freezing it may die. If you have a unheated greenhouse, shed or any unheated type room, you can move the tree to this location until spring.

Winter

If it’s in the middle of winter and you have been keeping your tree inside. It needs to stay inside…for now.

You can’t put it straight outside as it will go into shock from being plunged from the warmth to the cold. So keep it inside. If you can move it to a cooler area, preferably an unheated room. That would best and leave it there until spring.  

The worst things you can do is keep it near a radiator, or just generally somewhere really warm. I know you want to display your tree somewhere nice in the house, but its health is more important than how lovely it makes your computer desk look.

Once spring arrives, it needs to go outside.

Why Should Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Be Outside?

I’m sure you looking at this saying, “but the label says it can live indoors” yes, the label does say that, but the label is wrong, it needs to be outside.

Everyone thinks Chinese elms are very delicate. They are in fact one of the toughest trees about. Just check what Wikipedia has to say, studies show they can survive down to −34 °C (−29 °F).  

Yes, I know that was probably a full size tree, and trees in bonsai pots cant get as cold as full size ones in the ground… but I would say a Chinese elm is going to be pretty safe outside in the UK and for other places in the world, its more than likely also going to be okay.

If you live outside the UK, please read my “Working Out How To Over Winter Bonsai Trees” article and follow that advice and you should be safe enough.

If you don’t have an outside area. Well I’m sorry to hear that, I can feel your pain. I lived in a similar situation for years.

If this is the case you will probably have to keep your tree inside all year long, but it’s vital that you can get it cool enough during winter to keep it healthy. Even if you have to put it in a cold garage all winter, that will work.

You need to be able to get the tree dormant. The constant inside warmth will eventually kill your bonsai tree.

I was lucky that I had a spare room where I could turn the heating off. I also had single window panes, so it got kind of cold in there. My bonsai trees where able to go dormant and be healthy while indoors. It is not easy or ideal, but it is possible.

2. Is Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Getting Enough Light?

Is your Chinese elm Bonsai getting enough light? If you’ve read question 1 and its outside, then yes, it will get enough light.

If you are in that sticky situation where its the middle of winter, just place the tree in a bright window. Preferably south facing, but any window will be fine. The tree should really be dormant in winter and not really need any light, but as you’ve got it inside, just try and give it the best you have.

You do not need a grow light or anything fancy. Then as above, when its spring get it outside and it will get all the light it needs. 

If you have had your tree inside during any other time of the year and its looking in trouble, it may be not getting enough light. Placing it outside should correct this.

(You can read more about – How Much Light Does A  Bonsai Tree Need?)

3. Are You Watering Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Properly?

Chinese elms need water all year round. You will find the rate at which it drinks this water will change through out the year.

The soil needs to remain slightly damp at all times. Not sodden. Just damp.

It can take a while to master the skill of watering. Normally beginners water everyday and the soil is actually soaking. Which is fine when you’ve just watered your tree, but you need to leave it a few days to actually drink the water and just be slightly damp. You need to check every day to see if it needs water, but it doesn’t mean that it actually needs water every day.

If your soil goes bone dry, you’ve waited too long. You need to find that sweet spot where it is just lightly damp and about to dry out. This is then when you can rewater.

A good technique to use in the beginning is use a tooth pick. stick in into the soil and pull it out. If it comes out wet or damp, you are fine. If its dry, add water.

Sometimes beginners totally forget to water and the pot can really dry out. You can try to water as normal, but you may find submerging the whole pot in water more effective. Fill a bucket and Submerge the pot and as much of the tree as will fit in the bucket. Leave it to soak for about 15 minutes. After this time remove it, the tree should now be full rehydrated. From here on in, check daily and do not allow it to get as dry as it did. Remember, slightly damp at all times.

If you are just misting your tree, you need to stop. Misting is not a very effective way of watering. Its probably keeping your tree alive, but barely.

You need to make sure the soil is properly watered so that the roots can absorb the water. Only a very small amount of water is absorbed through the leaves, if any at all, so misting is not going to sustain a tree long term.

(You can read more about – How To Water A Bonsai)

4. What Soil Is Your Chinese Elm Bonsai In?

If you have bought a Chinese elm online there is 99.9% chance it will have awful soil. If your soil just looks like normal compost, its bad. Its not compost, I think it’s actually that coir stuff.  

Whatever it is, if you have that type of soil …It needs replaced. This needs to happen in spring …Which one of the reasons why I suggest you buy a tree in spring. Then you can do this immediately.

You need to use a good bonsai soil mix. You can make your own, or buy some pre-made stuff. This will also drastically help you with watering. It is so much easier to tell when a tree needs watered when its in good soil compared to that coir stuff.

If it’s not spring, do not repot. You will probably kill the tree if you do this at any other time of the year. You need to just water as best as you can and struggle through until spring.

(You can read more about – When Do You Need To Repot A Bonsai?)

5. Are Leaves Falling Off Your Chinese Elm Bonsai?

This can be a common and concerning problem for beginners who have just got a new Chinese Elm bonsai. (I have written a more in depth article about this which you might want to read – Why Is My Chinese Elm Bonsai Turning Yellow?)

If your tree is already outside, let me start by just checking one thing… What time of year is it? Is it autumn? Are the leaves on the other trees outside falling off?

If so… you might be okay. It might be just the tree loosing its leaves for winter.

Chinese elms can be deciduous, so they should lose leaves at this time of the year, but do not panic if they don’t. A lot of peoples trees hold on to the leaves until later winter and sometimes they stay in leaf all winter long. Then in spring when the new leaves form, they fall off. 

I’m not sure why they do this. I think the mild winters of the UK are just too mild for them and by the time they realise its winter, well its already spring again.

So like I’ve already said, your tree will be fine outside and dropping of the leaves in the autumn isn’t anything to worry about.

If your tree is inside and loosing leaves, or it is not autumn and is another other time of year, then you could be in trouble and may need to take some action.

We need to check a few things. If this is happening your tree is most likely stressed out and you need to work out what is wrong and correct it, or the tree will die.

Are you watering too much?  

Are you not watering enough?

Either extreme in watering will cause the tree to suffeer and its leaves can turn yellow, turn brown or fall off.

A similar thing can happen in the summer, if it gets to hot or too much direct sun, it can basically burn. all the leaves will go crisp and drop off and you will find the becomes very dry.

If this happens you either need to water some more, or if its too wet, hold off and let it dry out a bit more so that its lightly damp in between watering. Hopefully if you balance this, the tree will recover and start to reshoot new leaves after about 2 weeks. Remember, that a tree with no leaves needs less water, so don’t suddenly go from too dry to too wet.

If your watering is fine, it could be the temperature of your house. Is the tree too close to a radiator?

If it is, try and move it somewhere cooler.

If you’ve got a tree in a cold room and its autumn, yellowing and falling leaves is what you actually want to see. Hopefully your tree is actually going dormant. Hopefully this what you where planning for so shouldn’t be a surprise, but obviously check your watering and carry on until spring.

6. Does Your Chinese Elm Bonsai Need Fertiliser?

Carrying on with yellow leaves, Some people might try to tell you that your Chinese elm is going yellow as its not got enough nutrients and it needs fertiliser.

They might say its lacking magnesium, nitrogen, iron or even zinc. Which is correct, a lack of any of these will make the leaves go yellow.

However, if you’ve only bought your tree two weeks ago and it showed up beautifully green, it isn’t lacking nutrients.

It’s going to be either the water or heat that is affecting it. Your tree does not need fertiliser until it is actively growing in the spring.

If its sick looking, do not fertilise. This will do more harm than good. Only healthy trees can take up nutrients.

If your tree is sick, you will basically just flood the pot with extra nutrients when you fertilise it. The tree will not absorb these and they will actually effect how the water is absorbed by the roots, which can make your tree worse. That’s not exactly the best scientific explanation, but that’s fine, all you need to know is sick trees do not get fertiliser. Ever!

You only need to fertilise when it is growing in the spring and summer.

(You can read more about – Bonsai Fertiliser)

7. Do Not Trim A Sick Chinese Elm Bonsai

It’s important that you do not trim your new tree, especially if it is looking unwell. I would hold back on trimming the tree until it is healthy and you have seen it actively grow and extend by about 6 new leaves on each branch.

If you are keeping your tree inside until spring, I would not trim it until spring. Sometimes trees do grow inside over winter. if that happens, just leave it for now.

You can prune it once its settled and living outside in spring.

8. Pests?

There is a very small chance that your new bonsai tree has pests, but it is not impossible.

You should examine your tree closely. Check both sides of the leaves, the branches and the trunk. Get in really close and make sure you have a good look around.

I am not going to go into detail about individual pests here, but it should be fairly obvious that something is growing on your tree. With most types of pests you can see little insects moving about. If you do see these, you will need to identify the pest and treat them accordingly.

However, the chances of this being a problem are very low with a new tree.

9. Change In Environment

The biggest reason for leaves falling off or going yellow on your new bonsai is usually just a sudden change of environment. There is a number of online sellers and none of them seem to say where the trees come from before they are shipped out (They are usually started in China and then shipped all over the world).

I’ve found that the trees tend to arrive with the most lush green leaves, no matter what time of year. Which make me think a lot of them are kept in a greenhouse and maybe under grow lights before they are shipped out. I cant confirm this, but I am confident something like this is going on.

As I’ve said above, some elms can hold their leaves all year, but these trees don’t look like they have been outside all year, they are always so lush and beautiful when they arrive.

When I bought my own Chinese elm, it was in early spring. It arrived with the most amazing dark green leaves. I immediately repotted it into good soil and placed it outside. I had some leaves go yellow and it didn’t put any new growth on for a few weeks. It had obviously been in a nice green house and just needed a little period of adjustment to being placed outside. A few leaves went yellow, but it was nothing to worry about, that is totally normal.   

This is probably why your tree is dropping leaves and going yellow. it’s basically in shock from changing environments. Its totally normal for a tree to suffer a little shock when its shipped to somewhere new.

If you are taking care of the water and temperature and light, it will overcome this shock pretty quickly and you should only see a few leaves affected. This is really nothing to worry about.

If you find that suddenly large sections of the tree, or even the whole tree is suffering,  it’s probably suffering more than just travel stress. This sudden change is severe and will most likely be caused through bad watering or temperature or lighting issues. So as before, correct this as soon as possible and  hopefully  the tree will have enough strength to pull through and bounce back.

10. Have Patience

Lastly, if the bonsai tree looks dead just be patient. It might not be. Start by pulling any dry/dead leaves off.

You can then scratch a little bit of the trunk or branch. If it is green where you scratched, it’s still alive.

I just use a pin or something small to scratch the bark, you don’t need to take a big chunk out, literally just a little scratch.

If it’s green, just keep the soil lightly damp, keep the temperature stable and give it as much light as possible. Your tree has a 50/50 chance of making it, maybe less.

Just keep your eye on it for a few weeks and hopefully you will see some new buds growing. just keep looking after it until the following summer. If it hasn’t shot anything  by then, its probably dead.

If it does shoot, just keep the watering, temperature and light the same. Once its gets to mid spring, hopefully it is looking healthy again, when you can bring it outside. Once its out there it should be pretty happy and start growing well again.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article helps and I think I’ve covered everything. (you can read my Chinese Elm Care Guide if you need more help with care, you can also read about my experience Buying A Chinese Elm Bonsai On Amazon)

If you have any questions, I’m happy to try and help. feel free to email me.

Now, if your tree is dead. Don’t worry, everyone in this hobby has killed loads of trees. Even professionals do. Its fine. Just don’t let it get you down.

You can always start again, but this time with the knowledge you learned. Sometimes the hard lessons are where you learn the most.

You can also see the development of my own tree in my Chinese Elm Bonsai Progression.