I did suggest joining a club.
While you're waiting you can look up how to actually style a tree.

I recommend www.growingbonsai.net as I use it a lot. Blogs like www.adamaskwhy.com will also inspire and inform you, hopefully.

Ed

FleetFarmer wrote:

2: I've had this tree well before I was married, and I got married 8 years ago. I mentioned it was neglected for the better part of its life.

That is not impossible. I have a tree that's about 20 years old, grown from seed, that I neglected for years before I got a renewed interest in bonsai.
The tree did not grow much these years, and you wouldn't say it's 20 years old.

However, your tree really is not very old - considering that in bonsai 'very old' can be many decades, or even centuries.

Correct...I probly shouldn't have said "very old"...I've been obsessed with bonsai ever since I rediscovered this tree and started caring for it... Not to mention I'm fascinated by plants/trees in general.

I can relate bonsai to just about every fascet of life lol

FleetFarmer wrote:

So I will put my BEAUTIFUL ficus microcarpa in a larger pot, since I live in Wisconsin unfortunately I can't put it in the ground. Is that it for advice though?

Nice. That's the attitude.

I would just simply put it in a bigger pot and let it grow wild for a few years, that's the only way to get a thicker/older looking trunk. It all depends what you want. If you are happy with the thickness of the trunk you can work on shape, and ramification. How do you envision this tree 5 years from today? and how do you envision it 10 years from today?

Heres the thing, it came in a bonsai pot, and after reading a little about bonsai I started to work on growing many more small branches... What I should have done was put it in a large pot to grow the trunk.

Anyway I repotted yesterday into a larger pot to let it grow, but is that going to mean that I shouldn't trim all of the long shoots that are inevitably going to show up? It's going to be hard not too lol

FleetFarmer wrote:

Heres the thing, it came in a bonsai pot, and after reading a little about bonsai I started to work on growing many more small branches... What I should have done was put it in a large pot to grow the trunk.

Anyway I repotted yesterday into a larger pot to let it grow, but is that going to mean that I shouldn't trim all of the long shoots that are inevitably going to show up? It's going to be hard not too lol

if you want a thick trunk you have to let the tree put out wild growth. It'll be fine, once it reaches the thickness you want you'll cut back. Another approach to get a thicker trunk is to use "sacrifice branches" but I believe this is much slower. You want those long shoots, you want your tree to grow wild and healthy. The main problem I see with your tree is the "S" shape of the trunk, I am not sure if you want to correct that or like it that way. The other thing that makes it look young even if it was shohin sized is there's no taper!. You could try and get a branch low, close to the base of the trunk, and let it grow wild. This would improve taper making the base thicker, and you could work on a shohin sized tree.

Taper?!? Does that mean fat at the bottom and "tapering" up?

Ya my tree doesn't have that lol...how many years would it take to develop taper...

FleetFarmer wrote:

Taper?!? Does that mean fat at the bottom and "tapering" up?

Ya my tree doesn't have that lol...how many years would it take to develop taper...

Yeah that... you have to work it. If you let it grow wild and then chop off where reverse taper happens, you'll grow a new leader getting rid of tapper. Another way is to grow sacrifice branches close to the base, so the trunk below it thickens up. I am not experienced with Ficus, so maybe an expert could help you more. But I would suggest 2 possible approaches.

1) Prepare the tree for air layering: Let the tree grow wild for a few years, once the tree is healthy and has a thick trunk, select a new trunk base for your tree and use the air layering method to get rid of what's below it.
2) Cut n grow: Put the tree in a big container and let it grow wild until desired trunk thickness is achieved. Then chop it and grow a new leader, let grow again for a few years until new leader reaches desired thickness. Chop new leader, now grow the branches.