G'day one and all, I have been wandering around this site for the last week and reading the various posts and now it's time to throw my plant out there to get some feedback from others. I have had this little fella for about three years and I have only just repotted it and threw some wire onto it, it's messy but it w as my first crack at this art form. As I throw myself onto the mercy of the great unwashed I look forward to learning a bit more about my plant. I have a rough idea that it is some sort of ficus, and the fact that I haven' t killed it yet, tells me it is fairly tough. I live in a coastal town called Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast Queensland,Australia. My plant grabs the morning sun and the temperature at this time of the year ranges between 14 - 33 degrees Celsius,( I love it).

I have two questions today -
1. How do others manage to have their plants develop smaller leaves? and
2. Has anyone introduced garden worms to their pots?

Images below are before and after shots of my plant repot and wiring done at the beginning of October.

Lovely little tree you have there Judghe.

I LOVE the sunshine coast. I used to live in Australia, (Melbourne) and made a couple of trips up north. Perfect climate for growing ficus!

Leaves reduce in size when the number of branches increases (Better ramnification). It is the only semi-permanent way of reducing leaves (removing all leaves at once will also reduce leave size, but only untill the plant has recovered from this maltreatment).

No, introducing worms into the mix is counter-productive: Bonsai grow in tiny pots, relative to the tree-size & number of branches. Therefor extreme demands are placed on drainage and oxygen availability in the soil, Earth worms produce waste the is very fine, almost clay like, which would clog up the soil (Besides the question of wether you want decomposing small-sized organics in the mixture)

Thanks for the reply leatherback, so the goal for smaller leaves is to get this plant to throw out a stack more branches with leaves attached. How does one convince said plant that this is a good thing to do?

Thanks also for the heads up with the worms, it makes sense.

Well it is time to call it a day and sit back on the veranda to enjoy a cleansing ale in the company of family.

Cheers

Robbie

It is a multi-step programme..

- Get the plant really happy & healthy
- Allow it to bulk up a bit (Lush growth)
- Feed well, give lots of sun
* at this point you could already see some new side-branches pop up
- Clip off all leaves & especially, all the growing tips

You should have an explosion of branches everywhere within 2 weeks

leatherback wrote:

It is a multi-step programme..

- Get the plant really happy & healthy
- Allow it to bulk up a bit (Lush growth)
- Feed well, give lots of sun
* at this point you could already see some new side-branches pop up
- Clip off all leaves & especially, all the growing tips

You should have an explosion of branches everywhere within 2 weeks

Hi!
This procedure can be done 1 branch at a time, right? Like if you're just promoting growth on 1 side of the tree. Or is there another way of doing it?

I would do it on the whole plant at once

leatherback wrote:

I would do it on the whole plant at once

I see. Can you enlighten me more on this one? Thanks!

G'day Leatherback, so I would be best to let my little plant sit and grow until spring next year and then clip off all the leaves?

We seems to be having new leaves appearing at the end of some of the branches, so apparently I have not killed it yet with the repot.

Thank goodness my ficus is willing to put up with a lot.

Zaqaree wrote:

leatherback wrote:

I would do it on the whole plant at once

I see. Can you enlighten me more on this one? Thanks!

The idea is that you et the plant really healthy and strong. By the time it has reached the point of full out growth all over, the plant will have built up good stores of energy. All that is then keeping the plant from exploding into side-branches, it the growing tip: The hormones that they give off (On top of my head I say these are auxines, but might be mistaken) tell the roots: Keep growing! We are doing the same!. At the same time it tells all the little buds in the branch: Hey guy, I have got it. Don't worry about waking up!

By taking away leaves you stimulate the bud at the base of that leave. And by removing the growing tip you stimulate all buds along the branch. I am always worried when I just do something on one branch, as the plant regulates a lot with hormonal levels, and I am not sure how things balance out across the canopy. Which is why I do things on the whole tree..

btw, have a look at the pic in my latest post here: www.bonsaiempire.com/forum/progressions/...-ficus-project#13188