I've been looking into this a bit as the first bonsai I got, a willowleaf ficus, has been re-growing much larger leaves. This winter I ended up putting up some cheap grow lights for another plant and found that while it had already dropped its leaves, many grew back - quite large.

I gather that it makes sense to trim all but 2-4 leaves come spring and keep in in as much light as possible. Does that sound right to folks here? Defoliating to that degree makes me a touch nervous, but I have another larger willowleaf that I'm going to need to figure out and I'd rather test on this one.

Same question for Arboricola - it was going pretty nuts so I actually trimmed it back a lot this winter, and am thinking that come spring I snip all the bigger leaves and let it re-grow.

Open to any thoughts / suggestions to validate (or not) my approach.

For tropicals I would do major work in summer when they are happy. At the end of nothern hemisphere winter is coming to an end, which makes all tropicals very weak, normally

Makes sense. I was definitely planning to wait til spring at the very least.

badatusernames wrote: Makes sense. I was definitely planning to wait til spring at the very least.

The answer is a little more complicated than "spring". Do the major work when the tree has just come out of dormancy, that is, when the tree thinks it is spring.

Last year on Jan 6 my elms starting popping out. This year they waited until Jan 7. Root work right away, and then watch for the drop to way below freezing, which happened, and put them in the garage a couple of nights. The maples haven't started yet, so they don't get any work, even when I think it is spring.

One of my indoor tropicals will start new leaves out in April (probably), one in June (probably). I will work on them then, if necessary.

The reason is that the tree is starting a burst of new growth and is all ready to grow lots of roots and new leaves. Chop all over at that time and it can recover much more easily. In the woods, of course, trees lose huge limbs whenever the tornado comes through, so they can recover OK, but you want to pick the best time, which is when the tree is bursting out.