Bonsai tree... is there any hope for my little guy?

[aoart]

Hello, I'm new to the forum and I have a question - I'm wondering if my bonsai tree is a gonner.

I got it a while back at a festival as kind of a spur of the moment gift to myself. I've never had a bonsai before so I just followed the instructions the shop owner gave me. I had it inside next to the window (but not so close that it was in direct sunlight,) I watered it everyday (indirectly into the tray underneath,) and I gave it a few drops of liquid plant food every month (that was sold to me along with the tree,) but as time went on it started to loss it's leaves and now it looks dead

A picture of the tree.

A close-up of the place where I scratch the trunk.

I'm not sure what when wrong. I'm wondering, can I revive it? And what can I do to prevent this from happening again?

I tried scratching the trunk to see if there's still green under the bark as I have read in other posts ... but it looks kind of grey to me. Does this mean there's no hope for it? Maybe I should attempt to replant it in something else? I've never replanted a plant before so I guess if had to do that I might need some tips to do it correctly.

Thanks so much for your help!

[rainbowgardener]

If it is not green and moist under the bark, it is dead. And it indeed looks dead to me. Nothing you can do will bring it back from dead.

Do you know what kind of tree it was? I might guess ficus, but there's so little left of it, it is hard to tell. Unfortunately the instructions that come with bonsai trees are very often completely wrong. Watering a bonsai tree every day is wrong. Watering it from the bottom is probably wrong. What you want to do is pour a lot of water through it from the top until it is coming out the drain holes. Then let it drain and do it again, until you know that all the soil is saturated. Then you do not want to do it again until the soil has dried out some. Given your method, it's hard to know if it was over watered (by doing it every day) or under -watered (by not giving enough water at a time, and not getting all the soil wet). It may even have been some of both. Depending on the kind of soil, how much you watered etc, it may have been staying too wet at the bottom, but not getting wet enough at the top.

If you decide to replace your tree, come here for instructions!