mstout
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Does New Bonsai Need Repotting? When to Prune?

Recently I have received a Fukien Tea Bonsai, which is great! But due to my lack of experience I had to learn A LOT. This bonsai was purchased at a gardening store under the brand "Costa Farm" and does not have a clay soil, but more a regular potting soil with moss on top.

The bonsai master at the store said that no repotting was needed, but I would like a second opinion.

The tree also has lots of new branches and leaves sprouting, which criss cross. I bought some special bonsai "scissors" and also would like to know when the time to prune is... (I cannot upload pictures for some reason). Should I wait for the branches to mature?

Lastly the tree is indoors in a cool dry area. I put it by my humidifier at night, take it in the room during showers and water it every four days. The plant seems fine, but again would like a second opinion. Thank you very much!

P.S. I keep it by the window some during day (not direct sunlight) and gets a couple hours of artificial light at night...is this enough? :?:

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rainbowgardener
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Congratulations on your new bonsai and welcome to the Forum! :)

Sounds like you are working hard to take good care of your new tree. Fukien tea is a pretty adaptable tree and should do fine indoors through the winter. When the weather is warm, it will benefit from a "summer vacation" outdoors, if possible. It doesn't sound like yours is getting enough light. It wants at least four to six hours of sunlight a day. Being in front of a good south facing window would work. If you don't have that, it would probably benefit from having a lamp on it. To do any good, a lamp has to be shining directly on it from very close by. The fact that the ceiling light is on in the room, does not help it.

You are right to worry about humidity, but it sounds like this tree is getting moved around a whole lot. Fukien tea is not as sensitive to being moved as some trees, but still each move is a bit of stress -- a tree in nature does not move from place to place. :) I would find a good spot for it, set it on a humidity tray, mist it daily and leave it there until spring.

You will want to repot it into better soil in the spring or summer while it is outdoors. Now is the wrong time to do that. Better soil for a bonsai is more mineral/rocky, less organic than regular potting mix.

There's pruning and then there's trimming and pinching. Pruning should be left until spring. But if your tree is putting out lots of new growth (yay!! :) ) some of that can be trimmed / pinched back.

tomc
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Use a chop stick to test for need for water. If chopstick comes out dry its time to water. If its damp, its not.

Never ever water to schedule. this is a guarentee to fail.

You have not added a location to your profile or signature line, so its hard to tell when spring will be near you. it will be time to repot with bonsai soil when your tree moves from indoors to outside. Here in SE-OH that would be, late April, early in May.

Your tea is going to live outdoors from then to (roughly) Columbus Day. Or you have a vented green house for year round.

Keep your Tea alive till this time next year and then you will have looked at enough other tea to start to prune your new baby.

mstout
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Ok thank you both. I put the tree by a table lamp by the way and how do I find/make a humidity tray? Thank you for the tip about the chopsticks and I live in northern New Jersey so my weather is cold and I have jurassic seasons.

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rainbowgardener
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Here's a thread where I explained about humidity trays: https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 37&t=55696

Easy to make with a plant saucer full of river rock or anything to keep the pot elevated above some water.

mstout
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Oh and here's a pic
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Gnome
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mstout,

Your plant is not a Fukien Tea but instead it is a Ficus, probably a better choice for a beginner anyway. A humidity tray helps to provide extra moisture to the surrounding air, as such more surface area is desirable. So, a larger (more square inches) humidity tray would be better.

Norm



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