Hey guys,

I got this little guy for my girlfriend's birthday, it shipped yesterday and I noticed that the soil is over-watered. On top of that, it has some green stuff on the soil, at the base of the bonsai, and some white stuff on top. Can I please get some advice? Is the problem just overwatering, and if so what can I do?

Hey, Rasta

I think you don’t need to worry for this. For the shipping, the distributors like to generously watering the plants to prohibit drying out on the case, if it’s stay a little bit longer on the logistics maze. On a humid, dark place, without air circulation can “things” grow. Specially if your plant made a long road from Asia and stayed in quarantine on Europe, not long time ago.
If you put for few days to a well aerated place, and you wait with the watering, till the top third of the soil dries out, it should be fine.

Nice to gift living plants, instead of buckets. Tell to her to read up a little bit on this site, and if she’ll be interested on real Bonsai, following other media also. It’s a really interesting “hobby”.

Thank you so much for the reply!

I thought about it too, I mean about the enclosed space during the shipping being the cause of over watering. But I was just worried about the stuff growing. But if it's not gonna damage it then it's alright. Some leaves had some black spots on them but I cut them off in case the thing was going to spread to the other leaves. She will read a lot about how to take care of it for sure. And TBH I was never a flower guy, cause they just die way too fast. Yes, they may be sweet for the moment, but afterwards it's just meh
Anyways, thanks again for the fast reply