Hi,

I have a Ficus bonsai which needs repotting due to bad soil which came with the tree. I have purchased some special bonsai soil and know what I need to do.

I was also planning to cut back the roots whilst I've got it out of the pot.

I know this is not the best time of year to do this, my question is should I:

A) Repot and prune roots now
Just repot now but prune roots next spring
C) Don't do anything at the moment because it's still summer (knowing that the soil mix is not good)

Thanks

Ficus grow year round. Should not be a problem to repot now if the tree gets a proper warm & bright position afterwards to recover.

Thanks leatherback, I have now repotted.

I thought I read somewhere that you're supposed to leave it in shade for a couple of weeks after repotting. Is that not correct?






The root ball seemed quite sparse to me so I didn't actually cut much back.

that is definatly a rooted cutting that is maybe a year old that is why the roots are so sparse not a big deal it will just need some time to grow. you will need tsome supplemental lighting ficus do best with alot of light . low light levels will produce very large leaves

after repotting & rootwork as you have done, the tree needs a biut of time to recover. Full on sun is often too much to handle, as their way to get water in the plant has been cut off. So yes. Keep out of wind and direct sunlight for a couple of weeks. But do not place it too dark; Just a bright spot with lots of indirect (Filtered) sunlight.

Suggest too you don't feed it for a month - cut roots need time to recover and can be damaged otherwise

Dave

Thanks for the advice, the plant is still looking healthy so that's a relief after my first repot.

What does concern me is that since repotting over 3 weeks ago I haven't watered once, and yet the soil is still moist! After I repotted it I submerged the bonsai pot into a bowl of water up to the level of the soil and left for 5 mins. Is it normal for it to remain its moisture for this long? I'm just worried about root rot etc.

Zaphox wrote:

After I repotted it I submerged the bonsai pot into a bowl of water up to the level of the soil and left for 5 mins.

Personally I avoid doing things like this, especially right aftyer repotting.. The roots are already stressed, and lightly moist is in my view better than soaking wet.

The reason it stays wet may be because your tree does not have a lot of active roots that are taking up water. So the tree is not removing moisture from the soil as quickly as it normally would. This was a ficus right? Place it on a warm spot, to make sure the rootbal stays warm; Especially wet-tropical trees don't like cold wet feet (In contrast with loving warm wet feet)

i agree with leatherback but it might need a bit more phosphorous in it's fertilizer to help rootgrowth.

what kind of soil did you use?...it looks like potting soil which is blended to retain as much water as possible . is it in a window in the sun? if not try that the radiant heat will help evaporate the moisture.