Bonsai Mum help!

[Mistadobalina]

Help! I just pruned off all the shoots of this bonsai mum and its starting to get sick.. not showing any signs for a week of making new shoots. Here's the skinny:

Strain: MOD Dreamgoddess
Foxfarm Ocean Forest soil mixed w/ Hydroton.
Foxfarm Growbig
RO water
HTG Grow Tent (which i've been told is the only safe growtent.)
24 hours of Flourescent lighting


I'm worried the soil may be too wet as i watered it 4 days ago and its still holding moisture (possibly from the hydroton mixed in soil), and also I'm worried that since this is my first time doing bonsai, i may have cut off the branches too early. Here's what she looks like now:

 

[OldBastard]

I think you need to provide more info, and plus it looks like a mag
def because the edges are yellowing, but that could be from a lock out
from pH. Need to find pH first before trying to fix anything.

 

[funkervogt]

You cut off ALL of the shoots? I think that may have been a bad plan. The way I've seen bonsai done in the past is with only the upper shoots to encourage lateral growth.

Ease up on the watering.

 

[SweetIndica2]

Yea, definately looks like they are overwatered. If you ease up on the watering they will be fine though, it doesn't look too bad.

 

[HeadyPete]

Not overwatered...poor drainage. This will kill them. Mix at least 30% perlite into your soil, this is a must. Lose the hydroton, they take up too much room in the pot for no real benefit.

Don't worry about the pruning...I chop my bonsai moms down like Jack the Ripper, including trimming the rootballs to about half it's original size when they get rootbound...they always come back nice (as long as all you grow factors are good). If your roots are healthy, the shoots will grow again.

Transplant them into better draining soil asap or they will die.

 

[pokerfish]

I'm in with FV... saw this, but didn't bother chimin in... but since others did...

Those mums are d-e-a-d. All, repeat A-L-L, growing types have been cut off, not just the tips of main shoots being pinched off. This plant was then tipped all the way down to the soil. There are no new tips to start growing, just stalk & old fan leaves. It will stay alive, probably for months if fed, but just won't grow... at all...

Did this once to a small plant sent into flower real quick. Trimmed lower shoots & thought I hit the tip fine... ended up cutting the last tip though. It stayed in the system the whole cycle... looked just like it did going in except a little less happy. No real growth, certainly no bud.

For future, you need to leave new/younger tips below the main branch tip you cut. The idea is to cut the main branch, stopping it from growing up, forcing all the lower tips to grow out & bigger. You accidentally cut all the lower/newer tips as well. Don't do the latter next time...

 

[Mistadobalina]

I'm in with FV... saw this, but didn't bother chimin in... but since others did...

Those mums are d-e-a-d. All, repeat A-L-L, growing types have been cut off, not just the tips of main shoots being pinched off. This plant was then tipped all the way down to the soil. There are no new tips to start growing, just stalk & old fan leaves. It will stay alive, probably for months if fed, but just won't grow... at all...

Did this once to a small plant sent into flower real quick. Trimmed lower shoots & thought I hit the tip fine... ended up cutting the last tip though. It stayed in the system the whole cycle... looked just like it did going in except a little less happy. No real growth, certainly no bud.

For future, you need to leave new/younger tips below the main branch tip you cut. The idea is to cut the main branch, stopping it from growing up, forcing all the lower tips to grow out & bigger. You accidentally cut all the lower/newer tips as well. Don't do the latter next time...

Interesting you say they are dead and wont produce new shoots. There is one shoot coming off the bottom of the near-death Dream goddess, yet the new shoot tissue looks healthy but very small. So somehow i should be able to reverse whatever is wrong with it and get that little shoot long enough to clone and start over. Here she is weeks later.. very sick i know.

Here is the soil pH of the sick plant.


Interestingly enough, the DoubleGum had all maristems pruned off and grew new shoots out the sides of the nodes and at the bottom as I thought it would. I've had this mum for over a year, though this is a clone of itself.


Hope you guys have an idea how to get that sick Dreamgoddess to survive long enough to make that shoot viable for cloning! I'm stumped. It seems like a nutrient lockout due to pH or toxicities.

 

[Mistadobalina]

Do you think this is a Toxicity issue or a Deficiency? I currently have a bucket of RO water mixed with 400ppm of 2part AN nutes p.H balanced to 5.8 and ~150ppm of CalMag. I have no experience growing in soil so this is a bit perplexing. Any speculation would be awesome!