Fertilizing Ficus

Redwood Ryan

Redwood Ryan

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Hey everyone,


So I feel like I'm at that crossroads in this bonsai hobby. Part of me wants to continue this hobby, but the other part of me is frustrated. This never-ending battle against mites and bugs is getting old.

One of the big issues I'm facing is a total lack of growth. It's not due to mites killing it off, the new growth just isn't there. The trees didn't even really grow over summer either. I'm totally perplexed as to why this could be, especially considering I've spent hundreds on lighting that should be getting me decent growth.

My mix is pumice/lava rock/pine bark. I've got BioGold in fertilizer baskets. Other than that I don't add any other type of fertilizer, which I think is my problem.

Long story short, what do you indoor growers use to feed your trees? If I saw more growth I think I'd feel better about this hobby.
 
It sounds like it may be due to the mites.
If it's that bad.

Everything else sounds right, short the lack of happy!

I spent some time swabbing the underside of every leaf on some trees.
Its relaxing, concentrated, brings you back to one with them. I would do it.
Yes, I know you gotta Lotta leaves!

You might find some other stuff that's real in the process, other bugs, other issues, but I think it's more internal than external.

How happy where you in the snow on the Hammock. That was you right?!

That makes me laugh everytime I think about it!

Sorce
 
HA, it was a pool lounge chair, that made me real happy.

I'm honestly not certain it's the mites. When I've had mites in the past, I at least still saw growth, even if it was attacked by bugs. I'm thinking it's due to a fertilization issue, seeing as I don't truly feed the trees.

What do you swab the underside of the leaves with? With my trees, that'd literally take hours so I'm not sure how feasible it is.
 
I would use the ass oil spray now, I think I used alcohol then. Or another mite spray.
I forget.

I gotta go to war again soon to. I just sprayed(water blast in sink) a lot of em, but of course, the big ones didn't get It.
I'm hoping to Get em all outside this 70's week and spray em good with the ass oil.

Wash down my newly configured spot.

Far as fert. I love the fish. Alaska 511.
Its loose so it really won't clog any soil up.
The smell goes away pretty fast, except for sniffing the pot.

But I rock miracle grow cactus drops cuz it's easy to put a bit in AlL the time, and Vigoro 101010 when there's no dishes in the sink! About once every 2 weeks! Lol.

But I do fert a lot. I try to not put the chemicals on new growth leaves.

I see lava pumice akadama as a "modern substrate". But really whatever anything is in, I wouldn't put anything thicker than the fish in It. It's just messy s mess to me,

I love the fish!

Sorce
 
Damn.

Maybe that light has you under watering!

I know I added 2 more 4ft bulbs and I have to water way more.

I try to water on every day but forget.
When I do water more. They grow more.

If not. It's a reverse placebo.

The good light makes you think things will grow better so you slack a little and all goes to hell.

But I got 20 on the water.

Sorce
 
I use miracle grow powedered and granuals. I have ficus and Brazilian Rain trees.
I also have had battles with scale on my ficus and have had to use the soap, neem oil, alchohol mix on my trees.
When you keep them inside there are no predators for those pets so they become a problem.

I kept my trees in side all this summer but next year I am going to make a better effort to get them outside. I think it is healthier for them.
Good luck
 
I've been using Plant Tone. Didn't bother to make cakes just sprinkled it into the soil surface and tapped the pot to settle it in then watered. I attempted to add liquid fertilizer ( fish emulsion or a random miracle grow) once a week but it really needed up being whenever I remembered. I also put some miracle grow slow release on the soil surface of a few plants at random. It really turned out that the plants that I repotted the previous year grew a ton while any that were recently repotted didn't do much. How often are you repotting?
 
KennedyMarx said:
I've been using Plant Tone. Didn't bother to make cakes just sprinkled it into the soil surface and tapped the pot to settle it in then watered. I attempted to add liquid fertilizer ( fish emulsion or a random miracle grow) once a week but it really needed up being whenever I remembered. I also put some miracle grow slow release on the soil surface of a few plants at random. It really turned out that the plants that I repotted the previous year grew a ton while any that were recently repotted didn't do much. How often are you repotting?
Click to expand...

Once every couple of years at this point.

I've been considering adding slow release in the form of Osmocote, but I'm uncertain of how it does with a very porous soil and indoors.
 
I've had good luck planting in straight pumice with the indoors, helps them dry out quicker and prep for fresh air and water. Best thing I've found for mites is a 55gallon drum full of water. Its a hassle, soils gonna float etc., but after a couple hours you'll be able to see a dead film of mites on the surface. Osmocote and biogold for me too.
 
I don't think I'd be able to soak these trees, they're just too big. All I have are large trees now, easily weighing close to 70+ lbs. It could very well be underwatering, but I'm not certain anymore.
 
Ryan,

are they really Tropical ?

On our side temperature range is high 80's to low 70's deg.F if we hit the 90's it's for half an hour.
By Christmas until March once in a while 68 to 66 deg.F, but it will hold from say 10 p.m to 8 a.m. same for the 70 deg.F
Presently growing in 1" deep pots by 10" long and going to 3" trunks [ 1 to 5 or 1 to 6 - trunk to height ]

Humidty range 45 to 80 %, the 80 % even with heavy and constant rain, Trinidad is mostly bright and cloudy , but only sunny on some days and only for periods, before the clouds take over. Breezy, most days especially on hills facing east.

Soil mix just 5 mm builder's silica gravel plus 1/9 aged compost by volume

Bugs, neem and if you can find it a systemic - TEST first on rooted cutting .
Used to use Furidan - very effective - now banned.

Problem noted - Benjamina cultivars aer easy to grow -------- difficult to really train as other than thick trunk/roots with a crown of leaves.
So we shifted to the local willow ficus - Ficus p.

Idea of cultivation ------ observation that the Ficus p. grows easily on gutters, concrete walls, stone, does not need much soil.

Fertiliser - not fussy - but applied diluted 1/3 and to moist soil, once a week after March and until July,after taht rains take over, our Rainy season.
Best Wishes.
Good Day
Anthony

* Also growing one of the types with darker green centres in the leaf, lighter green on the outside, same soil mix as above - works.

2015 image still has to be done . Last image is 2013 - 4th year.



Ficus 1st year.jpg


Ficus 4th year 9 2013.jpg
 
I'm still on the hunt for a fertilizer. I may just end up using Miracle-Gro, as it's better than nothing.
 
4 months with no fertilizer?

Man, for inside, there's nothing like the Schultz drops.
Crazy easy, 7drops, no mess , micronutrients.

Got mine at Menards....Ace usually has it too.

Sorce
 
I have been thinking of changing because of the sodium but life is about learning. The Hard way or Easy Way You Gonna Learn Today
 
Ryan I use standard Miracle Grow with added Humic Acid (thanks @Smoke ). All of my trees are in development so inorganic ferts once a week at full strength works very well. No need to fuss with cakes or fancy, expensive "bonsai fertilizer" for a long time because I don't have anything in stages of refinement. I need high N and I need it available to the plant immediately after application. I don't think fertilizing is worth overthinking. After I wire my ficus they will start biting into the wire within a few weeks.

I use cheap T5 HO lights and get great growth. I just cut back my tropicals for the third time this winter last night. And I don't fertilize during winter.

I think your problem is your root systems. Foliage growth comes with root growth. From what I remember you were previously growing in a heavy mix from Meehan's, right? Is that all out of your current soil system?

Regarding the two big ones you bought within the last year I remember asking you about them on reddit and you said that your repot was very light and that you basically removed them from the existing pot, gently raked the root balls, and put them into a larger grow pot with lava and pumice. Is that still the case?

If you've got leftover mix from Meehan's in the center of your rootball or you still have that old, compacted akadama dominant mix left in the bigger trees it's an issue. Roots aren't going to grow through that sludge into the open lava and pumice. You may need to be a little more harsh on your trees before you see the results you want. When I get new stock ficus I cut off 95% of the root mass, completely remove any old or organic soil, and put them in bonsai soil. If I have time I'll try and remember to upload some pictures and post them. I flat cut them with a saw. After the period of new root formation in the next few weeks to months you should get explosive growth. Start fertilizing regularly and it will be difficult for you to control all the growth you get. I get great growth on tropicals in Michigan, even under lights in winter.

I look at bonsai as a logical "A, B, C, D, etc." progression. "A" is always getting a perfect bonsai root system unless you're ground growing or growing a trunk or nebari. Healthy trees have healthy roots. The more feeder roots you have the more water and nutrients your tree can absorb. Be brutal and cut off anything that is too big. Let the tree grow a new system of fine, feeder roots.

That's my advice. I think the issue is bigger than no fert because, as I said, I get great growth indoors with no fert. And by comparison my lights are a lot worse than yours. Stop buying and selling lights and buying and selling plants. Figure out how to get your small plants growing and then apply those same techniques to your better trees. I was tempted to buy that big ficus you have with the large scars just to see how fast I could close the wounds. I think I could do it in 3-4 years comfortably.

In spring I would take a small tree you don't care about and chop the roots back hard until you think you've almost killed it. Put it in lava and pumice, put the pot in full sun, water once a day, and fertilize at full or double strength at least once a week. That's what I do and my experience is the opposite of yours so far. At this point it can't hurt to try.
 
Mike MoMo said:
I have been using a variation of this adding two teaspoons of powdered milk per eight ounce portion per use. The results have been favorable until my over watering episode.
Click to expand...

The whole thing sounds bad to me, to be honest. Baking soda introduces sodium to your soil which is normally used to kill vegetation. Ammonia is basic which should only be applied to plants that like soil basicity. Generally speaking, more plants like neutral to acidic soil conditions so that would again not be appropriate for a general fertilizer mix. Epsom salt is fine and I use it but I would be careful of dosing your plants with excess magnesium. It's generally regarded as a trace element. I use it once, twice a year, max.

I don't know what powdered milk would do to potted plants but any scenario I can come up with in my head is negative. This would pretty easily turn rancid and promote aerobic rot in your root systems. Bad news.

What is your soil made up of? It should be difficult to over water.
 
Jester217300 said:
Ryan I use standard Miracle Grow with added Humic Acid (thanks @Smoke ). All of my trees are in development so inorganic ferts once a week at full strength works very well. No need to fuss with cakes or fancy, expensive "bonsai fertilizer" for a long time because I don't have anything in stages of refinement. I need high N and I need it available to the plant immediately after application. I don't think fertilizing is worth overthinking. After I wire my ficus they will start biting into the wire within a few weeks.

I use cheap T5 HO lights and get great growth. I just cut back my tropicals for the third time this winter last night. And I don't fertilize during winter.

I think your problem is your root systems. Foliage growth comes with root growth. From what I remember you were previously growing in a heavy mix from Meehan's, right? Is that all out of your current soil system?

Regarding the two big ones you bought within the last year I remember asking you about them on reddit and you said that your repot was very light and that you basically removed them from the existing pot, gently raked the root balls, and put them into a larger grow pot with lava and pumice. Is that still the case?

If you've got leftover mix from Meehan's in the center of your rootball or you still have that old, compacted akadama dominant mix left in the bigger trees it's an issue. Roots aren't going to grow through that sludge into the open lava and pumice. You may need to be a little more harsh on your trees before you see the results you want. When I get new stock ficus I cut off 95% of the root mass, completely remove any old or organic soil, and put them in bonsai soil. If I have time I'll try and remember to upload some pictures and post them. I flat cut them with a saw. After the period of new root formation in the next few weeks to months you should get explosive growth. Start fertilizing regularly and it will be difficult for you to control all the growth you get. I get great growth on tropicals in Michigan, even under lights in winter.

I look at bonsai as a logical "A, B, C, D, etc." progression. "A" is always getting a perfect bonsai root system unless you're ground growing or growing a trunk or nebari. Healthy trees have healthy roots. The more feeder roots you have the more water and nutrients your tree can absorb. Be brutal and cut off anything that is too big. Let the tree grow a new system of fine, feeder roots.

That's my advice. I think the issue is bigger than no fert because, as I said, I get great growth indoors with no fert. And by comparison my lights are a lot worse than yours. Stop buying and selling lights and buying and selling plants. Figure out how to get your small plants growing and then apply those same techniques to your better trees. I was tempted to buy that big ficus you have with the large scars just to see how fast I could close the wounds. I think I could do it in 3-4 years comfortably.

In spring I would take a small tree you don't care about and chop the roots back hard until you think you've almost killed it. Put it in lava and pumice, put the pot in full sun, water once a day, and fertilize at full or double strength at least once a week. That's what I do and my experience is the opposite of yours so far. At this point it can't hurt to try.
Click to expand...


Thanks Bobby!

In regards to the soil, I no longer use a bagged mix from Meehan's. I use a pumice/lava rock/pine bark mix.

I may have to be more aggressive when repotting, but the two giant trees weren't in the best of health when I got them so I wanted to be careful.

The lighting has always been an issue. I'm thinking I'll probably go back to T5 lighting, as the LEDs haven't shown much of a difference. I've gotten great growth on one of my Ficus, but not so much with the others.

It could also be over or underwatering, though I doubt it's overwatering in this mix. I will certainly give the miracle gro a try though.

How do you hang your lights above your trees?
 
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