I really need some help with a Ficus.

[Nille]

Hi everyone I am new here,


I got my first (and BIG) bonsai tree about 1 month ago (FICUS RETUSA). It was not really till I came home with him that I realised I had just gotten a new family member but I have committed to it and I am interested. Its an exciting hobby but unofrtunently I brought this tree in a furniture store and I am not sure they have treated it as it should be.

It has been dropping leafs since I got it, at first I figured it could be due to darkness so I moved it to a window that has light from morning till late evening. I fast noticed the dirt doesnt dry or drain as it should, when I water it it stays wet for 3-4 weeks which I know can lead to root rot, so due to this consern I took it up from the pot and checked the root and they at that time seems ok. I trimmed it a little to see if clearing some leafs and branches would let more light to the left over leafs and branches but he keept dropping leafs. I have watered it 2 times now and pretty sure I am not drowning it at least so at my wits end I decided to take it out of the pot again today. What I found wasnt rly pleasant. there is some sort of pests in the dirt they r tiny 1-2 mm larvas (white) and tons of them but so small its hard to get a picture of them.

The dirt is extremely compact around the roots and also seems more like clay/reg potteplant soil than bonsai soil. I watered it last 1.5 weeks ago and the soil is still very wet from it... Now I am thinking I should repot it but I wanted to ask u guys your oppinion. The last thing I want to do is kill this beautiful plant and I have never repotted a bonsai before also I don't see how I am supposed to rid the roots of this very tough soil without harming the roots.. anyways I dunno what more information I can give I have alot of pictures to post of my bonsai and I hope someone can tell me what the pests can be (dangerous or not) and if those r infact my problem or if there is other things that r causing him to lose 20+ leafs a day)...

As a note ive ordered some books about bonsai care and read some online gonna pick up my books today but I really would like some insight from some ppl here if anyone wants to help out

Pics:

[url]https://s987.photobucket.com/albums/ae357/Nillesbonsai/[/url]

[manIK]

The dirt doesn't look too wet but yes, it should be replaced - it is tough because of the move, the repotting might put too much stress on it - if it's loosing leaves now, you might loose them all by doing that and while this might not kill it, its will be tough going for a while and recovery will be slow.

I think what I would do is remove as much of the loose dirt around the ball then gently break it up manually and carefully. I see in the pictures, the surrounding loose dirt around the ball, don't put that back in the pot. Though you don't want to clear the ball of dirt, it looks like it can be loosened. Then replace what was in the pot with something that will help facilitate drainage (also make sure there are holes on the base of the pot) ,replace the plant and fill in the gaps with a decent mix of the same inorganic mat.

The remaining dirt around the ball will still be there but hopefully you can offset that with the inorganic mix around it. This will at least stave off a major root cleaning and repoting for the short term to allow the plant to acclimate the the new environment - also find a home for it and leave it there - don't move it around.

So again, this is what I would do so take it all with a grain of salt as I'm still learning.

[Nille]

Okay, sounds pretty resonable but this soil is very tough, the lose u can see on the pictures is actually manually "broken" off (gently ofcourse).

it feels like 30% clay 70% regular plant soil and since it is moist right now its not very easy to losen.

My consern with leaving alot of this old soil is that there is some sort of insects / larvas in it and those will be brought over in the new soil ?.

[Gnome]

Nille,

Welcome to the site. That is a very nice Ficus you have there, I don't blame you for being concerned. Not sure what the insects are, they may be the larvae of Fungus Gnats. They seem to be attracted to damp, organic based soils which is exactly what you seem to have.

My consern with leaving alot of this old soil is that there is some sort of insects / larvas in it and those will be brought over in the new soil ?.

I agree, there are also other reasons not to leave a core of the old soil intact. If you have a situation where there are two very different soils present int he same pot they will not behave the same. One, the old soil, will remain wet while the other, the new medium, will drain quicker and dry faster.

Ficus are often re-potted this time of year when they are in active growth so that is in your favor. You can use a basin of water to help soften and remove the old soil. But if you are going to go to the trouble of doing this make sure you understand the nature of bonsai soil.

Ficus do well with a higher percentage of organic material, this does not mean potting soil though, the texture is too fine as you are learning. Most growers use bark as their organic component with Fir and Pine being the most common, at least around here. Then there are the inorganic components, often fired clay or lava rock. These are all screened to a uniform size and to remove the fines. Of course you can purchase ready made bonsai soil but unfortunately they are not all created equal.

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3422

Norm

[Nille]

Yea I am deffinenly going to change out all the soil and I have purchased both fired clay and bark + reg organic soil and going to try and make my own soil. Been looking up as much as I can on the norwegian sites and soil advises for our conditions.

Right now I have put it back in the pot with a better mix but it still has old soil and therefor I am going to get the rest tonight when the kids wont disturb the process

What has been positive however is that the leafdrop has decreased since I took away quite a bit of the old soil (3 leafs since I did it compared to 20-40 / daily). Ofcourse I do expect to see some reaction to the changes and are prepared for heavier leaf loss but hopefully I can provide the care to get it thru it and out as a stonger tree after some time.

It is indeed a beautiful plant and therefor I would also hate to be the end of its faith, and I have taken quite a big interest in bonsai since I got it and want to try to grow some young trees later on but right now this enough and will give me alot of learning experinces, hopefully without to many harsh lessons. I am however happy I got a quite forgiving type of tree as my first so I do not have the odds totally against me.

The plan was to start learning with prouning and trimming but now that will have to wait since the change of soil is more important

Crossing my fingers things will work out, will try to keep an update on how it goes

[Gnome]

Nille,

Yea I am deffinenly going to change out all the soil and I have purchased both fired clay and bark + reg organic soil and going to try and make my own soil. Been looking up as much as I can on the norwegian sites and soil advises for our conditions.

Most growers avoid any soil whatsoever in their mixes. It will clog the pores between the larger particles and will, at least partially, defeat the purpose of using the coarser components. It is even common practice to sieve bonsai soil in order to remove any fines and ensure a fairly uniform size. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. I do recall one grower who did use soil in his Ficus mix but he was in a tropical environment and grew outside year-round.

I know we did not discuss it but you might want to consider securing the tree in the pot with wire, this is common practice. Use the drainage holes and keep the wire below the soil surface. This keeps the tree in place and helps roots to become established since they are not wiggled about so much. Larger trees, in open bonsai soil, can easily topple over.

Norm

[Nille]

Hi again

I have now finished, I did use some organic, for 2 reasons, 1 it stood in basically a mass of clay before and ive read 100% non organic can be very hard for new bonsai owners. However I cant know if this is true
Also all the people ive read from around here recommends a little organic. I guess its hard to say what right and whats wrong, at least for someone as inexperienced as I am but I felt it right to use some, I guess I felt bad for the plant that it had to go from 1 extreme to another lol if I can put it like that.

I used 75% burned clay some bark and prob 15-20% reg organic soil.

I must say I am extremely amased this plant is alive, it was basically growing in a block of christmas clay.... (not kidding) surrounded by regular plant soil, quite a bit of plastic and an paper from an old cigarette pack...

ive fastened the tree and fastened net over the 3 draining wholes to prevent the soil from running out thru them.

Ive also moved it to a more shady position to let it get a chance og recovering.

The roots was looking okay but there was pretty much no new growth on them. to be exact there was 1 white newcommer.

Yea well I'm hopeing it will recover, but regardless what happens this is'nt something I want to stop doing and it was a very cool experience to see the roots and handle the tree like that.

Thank you for all the advice and ill keep u updated on weather or not ive managed to kill my baby :p

Will try to take some pictures tomorrow, now I am very tired after doing this for the past 6 hours

[Gnome]

Nille,

Glad things worked out for you. The tree should be fine, what you have now is definitely an improvement.

Just for the record I did not mean to suggest that you go entirely inorganic for a Ficus. I do for Pines and Juniper, but that's about it. Everything else gets some bark as my organic component.

Earlier I wrote:

Ficus do well with a higher percentage of organic material, this does not mean potting soil though, the texture is too fine as you are learning. Most growers use bark as their organic component with Fir and Pine being the most common, at least around here.

In this example the bark would be the organic component. When you read about 100% inorganic that means nothing that was ever alive, just fired clay, shale, grit, lava, etc.

Norm

[Nille]

I see, ill keep it in mind when I have to do it again

I read something in a book, which I found a bit odd but wanted to ask about it here.

It said to turn the plant once a week if it is an indoor plant to give it light on both sides of the tree. I did not find this all that logic since a tree in nature cannot turn in the ground (ofcourse in nature the sun will stand high on the sky but often trees are shading for other trees.

Anyways I thought it was best not to move it around to much but maybe that is only which spot it stands in ?

Nille

[bonsaiboy]

Rotating a ficus is completely safe. Here is a website with more info. on ficuses in general. https://www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html

[Nille]

Thanks

Will have a read thru, so much information, its no wonder newcommers tend to "love" their plants to death hehe.

The tree seem okay so far but guess its to early to tell. It has not dropped any leafs today but guess I did get any lose once shaken off doing the soil change

Any tips / tricks to raising the humidity around the plant ? read about humidity trays but I have not seen any on any of the bonsai shops ive been in ? (I keep the plant in my livingroom so don't want the whole room moist

Nille