u/Fun_ner

I got this Aptos Blue as a gift. It came in a 1 gallon nursery pot with a support stake. I repotted the tree into a 4 gallon pot, which I will leave for 3-4 years. Then, I removed the stake and the tree immediately bend to one side, like completely to the ground. I tried to use the two stake method to hold it upright. My question is, will this method help the trunk to get sturdy and ultimately hold all the weight?
Also, the last picture shows another way I thought about tying. Like instead of tying to pieces to the tree and stakes. Go once around the stakes like a loop. Which strategy is better? Thanks in advance!!!

I got this Aptos Blue as a gift. It came in a 1 gallon nursery pot with a support stake. I repotted the tree into a 4 gallon pot, which I will leave for 3-4 years. Then, I removed the stake and the tree immediately bend to one side, like completely to the ground. I tried to use the two stake method to hold it upright. My question is, will this method help the trunk to get sturdy and ultimately hold all the weight?
Also, the last picture shows another way I thought about tying. Like instead of tying to pieces to the tree and stakes. Go once around the stakes like a loop. Which strategy is better? Thanks in advance!!!

I was doing some light tip pruning in my bonsai when I came across this. Many, if not most, of the tips and new growth is looking brown and crispy. I noticed a few white spots on some needles so I decided to look at them under my microscope. The white spots look like egg sacks or something similar. Could that be from spider mites?(I didn’t see any tho) or what could it be? What could have caused the tips and new growth to turn brown?