HelpfulGardener.com

Hi,

First of all I should apologize for this post, I'm sure you already answered similar questions, but since I can post actual pictures for my tree and I have several questions, I seek for help here.

I got my first bonsai a month ago and It started losing leaves two days ago. It lost seven leaves yesterday and four leaves today. I'm a little concerned and today I added some egg shells in soil since I heard its calcium would help.

The leaves look healthy and I'm afraid it's dying. I attached some pictures. It's what happened in last few days, so kindly please let me know if you think any of these could be a reason:

1. Five days ago I added two neighbors, one of them is Coleus, can they fight with my bonsai?
2. Two weeks ago I built a wooden plant stand and while color looked dried then, I can still smell color.. May I hurt it by putting it in stand?
3. Five days ago I placed a lampshade in stand. It's about one meter far from bonsai, has 5 watt yellow LED and no direct light come from it to bonsai. Can it be it? I already decided to not turn it on anymore..
4. It's been a week weather was too cloudy and there were no sunlight..
5. After further reading, I thought tree didn't get enough light and I saw several suggestions to put tree outside but on other hand, it was discouraged to move tree. And it's about 40-50°F outside, I'm afraid it hurt tree.
6. My place water is a little hard.

Thank you in advance for putting your time. Any comments are welcome.

Ficus (your tree is a ginseng rooted ficus, it is not actual ginseng, which is a vine) is famous for dropping leaves easily when it is moved or when conditions are not to its liking. The good news about that is that it is not necessarily dying and can readily grow new leaves back, when the conditions are right.

The issue is most likely not enough light. Your picture doesn't show, is your tree next to a window? If not, it is definitely not getting enough light. But even if it is next to a good south facing window, presuming you are in the northern hemisphere, then the days are very short now and it is probably still not getting enough light, especially with cloudy days. (And if it is next to a window, it could be getting a cold draft from the window, which could also cause leaf drop)

It will do better with supplemental lighting. Supplemental lighting is a dedicated fluorescent light, shining on it from just a few inches away:


Definitely do not take it outside in the winter. Ficus is a tropical tree which does not do well in temps below 60 deg F. In the late spring to early fall, it should go outside for a summer vacation.

No the coleus wouldn't hurt it, if they are not sharing soil or touching leaves (and the coleus is not infested with bugs). No the wooden stand wouldn't hurt it, if the soil is not touching the wood. The 5 watt light a meter from the plant certainly wouldn't hurt it, but is is definitely not enough light to help it either. Light intensity varies by the inverse square of the distance. That means if you have a light 4 inches away and then you move it twice as far away, 8 inches, the plant is now getting one-quarter the amount of light. If you move it to 16 (4x4) inches (a bit less than half a meter), the plant is now getting one-sixteenth the amount of light, which is basically none.

Are the rocks just on top of the soil? If so are they glued on? If so, they need to come off, even if you have to chisel them off. If they are on top of soil, what is the soil like? Is it holding a lot of moisture.

Does the pot have a drain hole. Ficus is not a water plant. Light is a problem. LED lights do not have full spectrum and produce little heat. A fluorescent light would be better about 15 cm above the plant. Ficus will adapt to low light conditions but it does not like to be moved. Once you pick a spot leave it there. It will lose all of its leaves in lower light, but will usually grow new ones as long as the roots are alive.

Thank your very much for your posts, they really helped!

Yes, the plant is not actually a Ginseng, It's Buxus stem attached to Ginseng roots and I found it very abound here (I'm living in Iran) to sell these as bonsai. I heard from other people bought these, they won't last much..

The plant is four meters far from north looking window and in sunny days it'll get light specially if I push curtain a bit (It still won't get direct sunlight). Actually It's most bright window in my home, since there is a tall building on north of my home that reflect light.

I was afraid about drainage too and now I drilled more holes and moved some stones from top of soil to bottom of pot (which is about two inches far from root) and some to under the pot in water, as it's suggested to make bonsai tray. I watered plant five days ago and It's still a bit damp. I also guess in addition to stones on top of soil and very small drain hole, the pot is too big for plant and thick clay body will keep soil damp, but root looked healthy, so I hope by new holes and less stones on top of soil, It won't rot.

For last four days plant got more light but unfortunately today I found many fallen leaves; about twenty leaves that I assume were fallen for that period of time since I found them between other leaves. Most fallen leaves were from middle of stem and top leaves are healthy and strong. Some of fallen leaves are yellowed and some are green and new. I'll manage to give it more light.

I appreciate again your detailed and informational posts.

Hi everybody,

I now added supplement lights but today found a white insect on root part of a leave. I tried to pick insect but as I touched leave, it fell. So I suspect It's killing plant. I inspected another plant and found many of these insects on it: (look at center of picture and root of flowers) I don't know what's name of other plant and what's this insect (I appreciate if you help) but I suspect I should start special treatment now.. And I guess I should not add more plants until I get rid of it..

Yes, that looks like a mealybug. A plant juice sucking pest.

Dip a cotton swab in alcohol (I use rubbing alcohol for non edibles, drinking alcohol for edible plants) and wipe them off the plant. Sometimes you will need to apply the alcohol first, then rub off a little while later after you have touched all the others with alcohol.

If you don’t have cotton swabs handy, twirl-wrap a piece of paper towel or bit of cotton ball to end of toothpicks or bamboo skewers. I do this for longer handles to reach inside heavily branched plant.

The alcohol is drying but should not harm most plants, but be aware it might affect tender shoots if the plant has not been watered. It’s better not to wipe the entire plant down because it will remove any waxy coating that is part of the plant’s defense.

Thanks!

I already removed many of them and destroyed some egg cases. I probably cannot save this plant (I mean this yellow flowered plant) but I want to give it a try. Being said that, do you have any suggestion about dried stems? Pests killed many stems but they are green in bottom; if I cut them from where they went brown, would they grow? Or should I leave them?

Dried up and most diseased or damaged dead flowers, stems and leaves, should always be be removed since they will only attract mold, etc. Also, diseased and stressed plants actually attract more pests. The plant will look better once cleaned up this way, too.

I can’t tell what kind of plant this pretty yellow-flowered one is, but with most plants, there is always a good chance it will grow side one or more shoots and grow if you make a clean cut with sharp knife or pruning shears to just above a healthy leaf or a bud (where a leaf used to be).