Please help my bonsai has lost a lot of leaves

[shruthisingh4]

hi all,

I have a new bonsai tree( don't know A,B,C of them) but I anyways went ahead n bought one for myself, to adorn my guest toilet.(also simply because I've lived in AWE all my life when ive seen a bonsai,and secretly wanted to have one always..)
but its about a month n a half now and my tree has been losing a lot of leaves for the past 10 days, I tried reading a lot but get more confused whit how to care for it, guess knowing which one it is would help better to save my tree, I love this one..!!
PLEASE HELP ME!! I took a pic thinking it would help in identifying which one it is n then know how to tk care of it. I live in Dubai, and the plant is usually inside my guest toilet, but I keep it out in the balcony for some indirect sunlight every 3-4 days from about 10am till 4pm, and I was watering(I mean misting) the tree every 3-4 days once, and yes, it has some stones covering the soil, and the ceramic pot I bought it in does not have a drain hole..?? wonder if that is needed, however as per my common sense I just kept it out in a covered area of my balcony, n just swirled the soil upside down inside the pot itself very slowly so the extra water in the soil evaporates n there is not too much water down, and also got rid of the stones covering the soil...dunno where I'm going wrong ..?? and also diluted about 10 drops of baby bio(fertilizer, which the guy who sold me the plant said needs to be sprayed every 3 weeks) and sprayed it. And again set about trying to find out where I am going wrong, PLEASE HELP ME SAVE MY TREE..


APPRECIATE ANY HELP,
THANKS,
SHRUTHI

[rainbowgardener]

Oh man, sorry, but you are pretty much doing everything wrong.

Your tree is a ginseng ficus and it is a tree and needs what trees need. To start with, light. Ficus doesn't need full sun, I have a full size (not bonsai) ficus that is indoors all winter, but it is in a corner with big windows on two sides. I'm not guessing that your guest bathroom has a whole lot of light.

Next it needs water/good drainage. Misting the leaves every day to every few days is helpful, but that isn't watering. A pot without a drainage hole will not work. You need to be able to water thoroughly, so that all the soil is moist, and then it needs to drain out so that it doesn't stay with wet feet.

The stones need to come off, so that the soil can breathe and so that you can tell how moist it is. Once it has been watered thoroughly, then you don't want to water it again, until it starts to dry out on the top layer.

And ficuses really do not like to be moved. Every time you move it to a new location, it is likely to drop some leaves. So moving it in and out all the time is not helping it. You need to find a location it likes and leave it there.

My suggestion would be that you get a nice house plant for your bathroom. There are some (e.g. pothos, peace lily etc) that thrive with next to no light. Then put your ficus bonsai somewhere where it can have proper conditions and you can take good care of it. If you really want a bonsai for the bathroom, they make some quite nice artificial ones.

Then read up on ficus bonsai care.

[shruthisingh4]

Hey Thanks So much,

I guess I know what, I Will move it to my Living where there is a big window, which gives enough light, guess it should be able to do good justice to the ficus and also thrive well. "Water" will definitely do as you say, I Hope this one jumps back to life, ASAP..;p.

THANKS SO MUCH AGAIN...!!