How's my new ficus look?

[ConfusedWoodElf]

This is my very first tree, so forgive any stupid questions!

After a lot of searching and waiting, a garden center near-ish to me finally got a shipment of bonsai in. The selection wasn't huge, but I'm still pretty happy with this microcarpa. I dumped off a lot of the extra fertilizer that was just sitting on top, trimmed off a couple leaves that had insect galls, watered it, and cleaned up the roots a little bit, but other than that I'm not sure what else I should be doing after bringing it home. I've got it under a full spectrum light (too cold to put it near the windows) with a fan blowing humid air from over my 36 gal aquarium onto it.

It looks pretty healthy to me, but is there anything my inexperienced eyes aren't seeing? I will note three areas of possible concern: some of the leaves have small brown spots (inconsequential insect damage?), some of the leaves have a dusty, almost limy (as from hard water) film on them, and there are localized areas of pretty chunky fungal growth in the soil. I even found some tiny, dead mushrooms, which was kind of fun I suppose. Should I be concerned about any of those? Is there anything else I should be doing? I have not taken a look at the root ball yet. I figured I could do that when I repot? And for that matter, when should I be repotting? I know the general advice is spring but things get a bit hazy when you're growing stuff indoors...

The entire specimen:


Other side:


Brown spots:


Dusty/limy film. Many of the older leaves have this on the underside too, just in a thinner layer. This is a dramatic example for clarity:



Apparent fungal growth (+ algae):


When I repot, it's going into a roughly equal-sized pot (gonna let it grow crazy for a while before I start really working it, so no bonsai pot yet).

I had been hoping for something that hadn't been trained at all or only very minimally. But again, there weren't a WHOLE ton of options. In fact they really only had, uh... four Ficus within my budget. But this one spoke to me the most. I can identify a couple branches that could make good leaders in the future, and it has the start of, at the very least, a not-boring nebari lol. But the first step is keeping the dang thing alive! So I want to try and catch any issues as soon as possible.

 

[SWfloirda]

Probably about as healthy as a ficus can be in Minnesota in February. Have fun with it.

 

[WIlliam_Butler_Yeets]

I've got one kinda like that, the lime-looking deposits are just hard water stains, would recommend repotting into a bonsai substrate this summer, that will help it grow better and also help remove the fungus issue

 

[Michael P]

I don't see any obvious health problems. The brown spots do not look serious. The white coating is almost certainly mineral residue from hard water. Mushrooms and/or fungus might be from past over-watering.

About re-potting, you are right the general advice is to do it when the tree is outside, night time temperatures are above 60F, and the tree is actively growing. If your indoor conditions are really good and your lighting is strong enough, the tree may start growing before it goes outside. But wait until it is actively growing before a re-pot. Something you could do right now is to gently scrape off the top 1/2" of soil, avoiding any roots, and replace with fresh bonsai soil. This will remove the fungus? mats and old fertilizer pellets. If you want the trunk to thicken and the nebari to improve, you could use a larger but shallower pot.

Ficus microcarpa is a nearly bullet proof species and the true silly putty of bonsai--you can design it in almost any shape. Get it really healthy and then post more pictures.. You are also right about there being several possibilities for a new top, and I see several possible air layers or cuttings that would give you two more trees to work with.

 

[ConfusedWoodElf]

I don't see any obvious health problems. The brown spots do not look serious. The white coating is almost certainly mineral residue from hard water. Mushrooms and/or fungus might be from past over-watering.

About re-potting, you are right the general advice is to do it when the tree is outside, night time temperatures are above 60F, and the tree is actively growing. If your indoor conditions are really good and your lighting is strong enough, the tree may start growing before it goes outside. But wait until it is actively growing before a re-pot. Something you could do right now is to gently scrape off the top 1/2" of soil, avoiding any roots, and replace with fresh bonsai soil. This will remove the fungus? mats and old fertilizer pellets. If you want the trunk to thicken and the nebari to improve, you could use a larger but shallower pot.

Ficus microcarpa is a nearly bullet proof species and the true silly putty of bonsai--you can design it in almost any shape. Get it really healthy and then post more pictures.. You are also right about there being several possibilities for a new top, and I see several possible air layers or cuttings that would give you two more trees to work with.

Thank you so much! I'll probably remove that first 1/2 inch within a couple days, seems like a good idea and will make it look a little prettier lol. And thank you for the pot recommendation. I definitely would like to improve the nebari, and a little more thickening in the trunk wouldn't hurt.

While I'm waiting for it to acclimate and grow I'm gonna play with some possible directions in my head. Long-term, I'm almost considering taking the (nice, but overdone) S-curve and turning it into a semi-cascade, kinda like this person did. And I'll keep an eye out for any good branches for propagation!

 

[Michael P]

You definitely could do that, but take it slowly. Cascades are tricky, especially for a beginner.

A number of our members are really good at doing diagrams and virtual images on photos. You may be tempted to do some pruning now, but wait until the tree is growing strongly. Even those spindly lower branches may be useful. Develop a strong plan for the tree first, you can change it later if it doesn't work the way you want.

 

[ConfusedWoodElf]

You definitely could do that, but take it slowly. Cascades are tricky, especially for a beginner.

A number of our members are really good at doing diagrams and virtual images on photos. You may be tempted to do some pruning now, but wait until the tree is growing strongly. Even those spindly lower branches may be useful. Develop a strong plan for the tree first, you can change it later if it doesn't work the way you want.

For sure. At most I’ll only go for a SEMI-cascade anyway, which might end up being halfway towards a slant anyway lol. I’ll use the time it takes for it to grow strongly to really settle on a plan

 

[Colorado]

Looks like a great first tree!

This species is really excellent for bonsai. As mentioned above, they are pretty much bullet proof. Extremely forgiving. But they also thicken quickly in the trunk when you let them grow, and also can easily get fine ramification with regular pruning. Very easy to wire and bend. One of my favorite species, although I sold mine awhile back because it was too big and I didn’t have a good spot to over winter it. Maybe I’ll get another someday in shohin size

Anyway, you can repot it any time you want. During the summer is a good time, but I’ve repotted this species during the winter also, while inside, and mine never skipped a beat. I wouldn’t do that with many other tropicals, but this species really is so forgiving it doesn’t matter when you do it.

Obviously, don’t expose it to cold temperatures. Some people say they can handle temps down into the 30s, but I never felt like rolling the dice on that. I always protected mine from any temps below 50F.

I’ve found that these can take about as much sun as you want to give it, provided that you water it plenty, of course.

Have fun!