Hello,
I was hoping to get some advice for various things. I have bought a book and looked online for information in general but I still feel very ignorant of bonsai care and an overall feeling of not knowing what I'm doing at all.
I bought these two bonsai, my first 'plants' ever, about a month ago. My goal initially was to not kill them which so far seemingly has been achieved. 'Mixed bonsai' was all that was on the tag when purchasing them. I think the one on the right is a Ficus fig but not sure what the one on the left is, does anyone know? I have been pruning it now and again, sort of without purpose other than having some sort of instinct that it's a good idea in keeping it's shape but I worry I'm doing more harm than good. For what I think is a Ficus I have pruned only a few larger leaves.
Since buying the lamps they have seemed to do much better as I knew they weren't getting enough light, grown quite a few shoots on the unidentified one and some new leaves on the Ficus, however now I'm wondering if I have upset the tree's seasonal senses and that now they think it's spring. Any thoughts on what I should do about this? I have had the lamps on for 12 hours + but have realised that I should be only giving around 8 hours... Too late? Any advice you can give on this?
I have attached a picture of the roots of the Ficus as I am wondering if it has root rot. I haven't been watering way too much, but maybe not waiting as long as I need to. I think it has been on average every 3-4 days or so. Do I need to repot it? And by that I mean putting it in the same pot but with new soil after cleaning the pot.
The unidentified one seems much less stable than the Ficus, so I have not tried to lift it out to inspect the roots. Any advice on this? If anything I have watered this one slightly less. It has a tiny bit of moss that I was hoping would thrive eventually.
Another question I wanted to ask about it, with reference to the first picture, is that around the point where someone had cut the tree to stop it growing upwards there is no foliage there, and all the new shoots are on the other side. Is there anything I can do to promote foliage growth in the 'bald' spot?
Any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
