Hi! New Noob with a question

[NewbieBonsai]

Hi all! I'm ... well, new to the forums, and a noobie to bonsai too.

While at a local botanic gardens in the past couple of months, I made a purchase of a couple of smallish bonsai. I bought a willow leaf fig, and a weeping cherry. The gardens's store is generally very good ... on close inspection, no little bugs on the plants. After reading up a bit on the internet, the soil looks properly coarse. nice shallow pots.

I brought them home and put them under a couple of small blue and red grow LED lights - couldn't put them in the windows this summer. The lights are the type that are gooseneck clip-on that are meant for small houseplants, got them from Amazon. I water them in the sink every one or two days, so that they are good and wet with water coming out of the drainage holes, letting the excess drip out.

Also from Amazon was a little bit of bonsai pellet fertilizer 16-6-9 - I put in just 4 or 5 grains per bonsai on the third week after I got them. The pellets have not yet dissolved.

When I first brought them home, they seemed to thrive for the first several weeks. In fact, they had quite the spurt of growth. I was thinking I would have to trim them back a bit.

The cherry looks just fine. Nice and green, but the little leaves seem to fall off awfully easy. There are a few leaves falling every day. Does this represent a problem?

I am more worried about the fig - when the new growth came in, the leaves are a uniform yellowy - not splotchy or yellow around the edge. The older leaves are green. It looks like older leaves are falling off.

Any guidance appreciated.... and if there's a faq with this kind of newbie info I should have found on the site, please point it out. Many thanks and glad to be here.

 

[Smoke]

Welcome..I hope someone smarter than me can help you thru this. This sounds troubling.

 

[just.wing.it]

The cherry needs to be outside.
The willow leaf can live indoors, but like all trees, prefers to be outside if possible.
You should add your location to you profile and people will be able to give better advise, for your climate.
You could be over watering too....hard to say much without some pics

And welcome!

The willow leaf might be just acclimating itself....ficus trees are known to drop leaves when moved to a new location.

 

[sorce]

Do You have central air on?

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[KingJades]

Willow leaf ficus definitely drop leaves in low light conditions and when they are stressed.

Are the plants anywhere near natural sunlight? I don't think your grow light is the type that can really support a bonsai without additional natural sunlight.

 

[NewbieBonsai]

Hi thank you for the replies. I am in NY... but I also live in an apartment, and don't have a porch or balcony, so unfortunately, I do not have a way to put the trees outside. I can put the trees near a window that is south facing, but they will not be getting as many hours of direct light. There's also plenty of cloudy days/low light in the northeast.

I had read about watering ficus too much after making this post. So, I cut back and did not water over the last two days - this will be the first day it will get watered since I soaked it Friday. I will post a pic a little later.

 

[f1pt4]

Cherry outside. Ficus needs higher humidity.

You have south facing windows you say? Well put it in the south facing window with your led grow lamps. You'd be surprised how many lumins come through even on cloudy days.

But increase the humidity as well. Drip tray filled with pebbles and rocks. Humidifier. Misting multiple times a day.

Wait till central heating comes on. Gonna get dry quick.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Welcome to the site!

The first rule of asking for bonsai advice - don't ask for it if you aren't prepared to consider it The whole reason people are offering suggestions is because they have often made the same mistakes you are making.

Both of your trees are full sunlight trees. Can you keep them indoors? Perhaps - if you have a high intensity light setup like the ones used for growing tomatoes or (dare I say) marijuana indoors (legal here in California, and now a ton of web sites / books talking about indoor lighting setups). A small LED grow light might be sufficient to keep a fern alive - but don't try to replace the sun with a flashlight and wonder why your trees don't do well.

When a full sunlight tree is put in a low light environment, the first thing it does is push long leggy growth (to try to get closer to a bright light source). The next thing it does is to drop interior leaves, because they are no longer photosynthesizing. The leaves turn pale because they don't have a lot of chlorophyll. It is the exact opposite of what you want when growing bonsai. Take the same tree and put it into bright light and it will exhibit tight, compact growth with short internodes, extensive interior leafage and budding, and dark green leaves.

Your trees are telling you, in every way they can, that they aren't getting enough light.

 

[GrimLore]

Hi thank you for the replies. I am in NY... but I also live in an apartment, and don't have a porch or balcony, so unfortunately, I do not have a way to put the trees outside. I can put the trees near a window that is south facing, but they will not be getting as many hours of direct light. There's also plenty of cloudy days/low light in the northeast.

I had read about watering ficus too much after making this post. So, I cut back and did not water over the last two days - this will be the first day it will get watered since I soaked it Friday. I will post a pic a little later.

Hang a window box off a windowsill - instant outdoor space for the cherry. The Ficus should be out there too until nights are 45F and dropping. Pretty certain you can find something the pots they are in can nestle into. Also recommend an inexpensive watering can - 1 quart DG stuff - the plants don't care if it says Bonsai on it and myself I think you will be in far better control of watering. The Ficus is kicking its heals a bit being moved there. It will back bud after dropping what it wants to and be fine - they often do that, sometimes looking dead for a few weeks. Less water but daily and the reason I recommend not soaking, the Ficus won't need as much water while dropping leaf but you don't want the roots to dry out completely.
As long as you use a full spectrum bulb in that fixture you should be ok with 16 hours on a cheapo timer for the winter while the cherry stays outside.

Grimmy

 

[Bonsai Nut]

For example, this light will grow both your ficus and your cherry. At 29,000 lumens, it will also light a good portion of your house

 

[f1pt4]

Or at the very least a couple HO T5's at 6400k

Or just splurge on a 4 bank with reflectors. And you'll be able to grow a few trees under there.

Something like this:

http://www.trendtimes.com/2-t5-ho-f...MIsaa8kfKL1gIVHrnACh0ExgZ4EAkYCyABEgJOovD_BwE