HelpfulGardener.com

Please advise I am not sure what type of Bonsai I have - I bought it at IKEA a year ago. It seems to have been okay until recently the leaves are falling off. It is not a minature tree it stands about 1m High, I thought by moving it away from the central heating this may help prevent the leaves dropping, did this a few days ago and it seems even worse now. It has been repotted into quite a large pot with a lot of rocks and stuff underneath the soil for drainage, this was done a few weeks ago. It gets watered 2x aweek and the soil looks great to me - fairly loose and moist. But the leaves although very green do seem dry to the touch and as soon as they are touched they drop off in handfuls. I have been reading through the forums and notice that some of you mist the leaves daily - is this appropriate for my type of tree?
Please help as I want to treat it right.
Thanks

cigar310,

It is very difficult to help without more information. I realize that you do not know the species but this is important. Here is a thread on taking better bonsai pictures, in this thread is another link to instructions for posting pictures on this site.

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3557

Central heating is always a problem and moving it was good but this ma have come to late to save the current leaves. Are you providing adequate lighting in the new location? Misting certainly won't hurt but only raises humidity for a short time. A humidity tray is a better option.

It has been repotted into quite a large pot with a lot of rocks and stuff underneath the soil for drainage, this was done a few weeks ago.

Contrary to conventional wisdom this does not help drainage, it merely raises the soil mass higher in the pot, Google "perched water table". The best situation is one in which the soil is uniform from the top to the bottom. I would not consider a re-pot now though.

the soil looks great to me - fairly loose and moist.

No offense but what might seem to be a good soil to some is often entirely inappropriate for bonsai culture. What type of soil did you use?

Any other information you can provide will also be useful.

Norm
[/quote]