(Guy McCusker) held forth in
om:

I know very little about horticulture in general. I would be
very
grateful for any advice you can offer!

I have a "supermarket" bonsai Ficus Benjamina which does not
seem at
all well. It lives on a window sill in a decent amount of
light, in a
centrally heated house. It will be a bit chilly in that
window
overnight, though.

The main symptoms a

- it regularly drops leaves and has rather few new shoots

- the leaves have a brown, rusty appearance and are curling
up

- the surface soil never seems to dry out despite the plant
being
placed in a centrally-heated house

Am I watering too much? Too little? Or is the soil perhaps
not
well-drained enough?

Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks,

Guy.

Depending on where you are on this world, winter conditions of
low light
and lower temperatures, even in the house, will cause leaf
drop. I have a
couple of ficus B.s and it happens every year. Some worse than
others.
You might want to check just how low the temp gets where the
plant is
sitting. Near the window it might be getting quite a bit colder
than
elsewhere in the room. It is a tropocal plant and cannot
tolerate low
temperatures. I don't know how much impact spider mites have on
ficus but
my other plants have them and I spray the ficus also to help
keep the
population down.


To add to this: If the soil does not dry out, STOP WATERING.

If the soil has been soggy for a long time (2 weeks or more),
REPOT into free-draining bonsai soil, and do it ASAP, even though
this is a poor time to repot a ficus. It is likely to have (or
be developing) root rot, and that will kill it more surely than
an out-of-season repotting.

Check it for scale.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only to the
white man was nature a wilderness -- Luther Standing Bear
(Ogallala Sioux Chief)

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Thank you for all advice concerning this poor plant.

I was certainly watering too frequently. I have reduced this now. I
believe the soil is okay: it absorbs water quickly when I water the
plant, and it is not long before water runs from the drainage holes. I
am now watering around every 5 days, waiting for the surface soil to
get almost dry before watering again. Does this sound right?

The plant seems rather happier. Leaf drop has abated, and the
remaining leaves are less curled up than they were. There are some
green shoots at the tips of live branches. Sadly, though, many
branches are now completely leafless.

I have a few more questions. I hope someone can find the time to
advise me!

- Is it worth investigating the roots anyway, or would it be better
to see if the plant improves under the new watering regime before
undertaking something that might stress it?

- I am guessing I should await improvement before pruning. Is that
right? Or would pruning the live branches back to one or two leaf
pairs each give the plant a better chance of reccovery?

- Is it worth experimenting with new placement? The current spot is
the lightest in the house, but not the warmest. I have read that a new
environment might lead to further leaf drop, which this plant can
scarcely afford.

- Supposing the plant comes back to good health, what should my plan
be? Most branches are leafless and, I assume, dead/dying. I will
therefore need to encourage new branches from the trunk. Can this be
done? What is the best technique?

Many thanks again for any advice you can offer.

Guy.

I have a few more questions. I hope someone can find the time to
advise me!

- Is it worth investigating the roots anyway, or would it be better
to see if the plant improves under the new watering regime before
undertaking something that might stress it?

The only reason to look at the roots would be to see if a lot of them are rotten and need to be removed. In my experience, this is not much of a problem with figs, so you'd probably be better off leaving the tree alone until it shows signs of recovery.


- I am guessing I should await improvement before pruning. Is that
right? Or would pruning the live branches back to one or two leaf
pairs each give the plant a better chance of reccovery?

That's a very good question. It depends on the tree. A tree in a very dry environment (i.e., indoors) with a lot of leaves and a weak root system will transpire too much. Figs, however, drop leaves when stressed, which reduces transpiration. So your fi
g has probably already dropped the leaves it needs to. What you need to watch is the twigs. A healthy fig has plump green twigs. If the twigs become shrunken and wrinkly, they are dying.


- Is it worth experimenting with new placement? The current spot is
the lightest in the house, but not the warmest. I have read that a new
environment might lead to further leaf drop, which this plant can
scarcely afford.

That's a tough call. What temperature is it at the current location? If it's above 70 I wouldn't worry. Besides, sunlight hitting a surface raises that surface's temperature much higher than the surrounding air, so the leaves and trunk might be quite co
zy. You might think about getting a heat mat, however, to keep the soil temperature warmer. Some people on this list use them for tropical plants. Perhaps they will weigh in.

- Supposing the plant comes back to good health, what should my plan
be? Most branches are leafless and, I assume, dead/dying. I will
therefore need to encourage new branches from the trunk. Can this be
done? What is the best technique?

Watch the twigs. As long as they are plump, the branch may leaf out. Benjaminas are very bad at budding back, so you probably won't get new branches. Well, I once had a benjamina literati that was quite poetic looking......

Nina.

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Jarbas Godoy ++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++