Confused about watering!

tjeagles · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:01 pm Post subject: Confused about watering!

Hi,

My mother bought me a bonsai for our new home from Ikea. She is a Ficus Ginseng standing at around 10 inches and she is absolutey beautiful. Unfortunately the instructions that came with it were basic bonsai instructions and I wondered if there was anyone who could tell me when they say water frequently, what do they mean by frequently... daily, weekly, fortnightly?

I have spray bottle which I use to mist down my other plants otherwise I just use a jug to keep their soil moist which I do about every 2 weeks - of course these are not Bonsai's though!

I am a complete novice to plant care but am proud that I have been in our new home for 6 months now and nothing has died.

I really do love my new Ficus and really would be grateful for any tips you can give me about keeping her happy and most importantly, alive.

Sorry if you have already had to go through all this with someone else but believe it or not I'm new to forum's also!

Many thanks.
Teresa

Carol · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject: Confused about watering!

Hello, Teresa, and welcome to Bonsai Help.

Your ficus is a tropical tree, and will need light, warmth and humidity. Where do you intend to keep it? If indoors, it will need the best possible natural light you can give it. Also, as it's a tropical tree, it won't tolerate cold draughts, but also shouldn't be close to a radiator which will be too drying for it.

Soil should be free draining, which means that when you water it from the top, water should drain out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot within 20-30 seconds. Watering is aimed at keeping the soil moist, but not soaking wet, and the soil shouldn't be allowed to completely dry out at any time. This could mean watering daily or even twice daily if the weather is very hot, decreasing to maybe every 2nd or 3rd day in winter. You'll get to know when your tree needs watering by the weight of the pot, the colour of the soil or the condition of the foliage, but in the meantime, push a chopstick or similar into the soil, leave it for a few minutes, then pull it out and see how wet or dry the stick is. Rather like checking the oil level in your car with a dipstick!

Humidity can be provided by misting a couple of times a day as you're already doing, and by using a humidity tray. This is a tray/container appreciably bigger than the pot and filling it with stones, gravel, pebbles, marbles or similar and filling the tray with water. Place the pot on top of the pebbles, making sure the water doesn't come in contact with the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. As the water evaporates, it forms a "bubble" of humidified air around the tree. Just top up the water as needed. Just remember that these two techniques don't take the place of actually watering the tree - you need to do that as well.

Just one other point - ficus sometimes object to being moved, and will show their displeasure by dropping leaves. Usually new leaves will grow back, but if not, increase humidity by more frequent misting and/or try giving the tree more light.

Come back with any other questions you might have - I've assumed you'll be keeping the tree indoors, but if you intend keeping it outside there are a couple of other points to consider.

Congratulations on keeping your other plants alive - the lessons you've learned from them will certainly help you with your ficus. Best of luck - and welcome to the wonderful world of bonsai!

Cheers
Carol

tjeagles · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:42 am Post subject: Re: Confused about watering!

Many, many thanks Carol for your reply and the information you gave me for caring for my ficus.

I have her standing on the mantel piece above our fireplace in the living room which gets a lot of light from the bay window. We do not have the fire on at anytime in the year so the room is kept at pretty much the same temprature all year round from either the radiators or the natural warmth of the sun (when we get any!!).

Just one more question, what should I do with the ficus when we go away for our summer hols. We always go away for two weeks in August and just want to know what we should do.

Again, many thanks
Teresa

Crazeegang · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject: Re: Confused about watering!

The best thing would be to get someone to look after the ficus for you. You can even pay bonsai nurseries to have it for the two weeks. At that time of year though it would survive outside as long as it didn't dry out.

Regards

Toni

Stymie · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: Re: Confused about watering!

tjeagles
Hello, I hope that we shall hear much more from you.
I am concerned about the siting of a tree on the mantlepiece. It needs to be near to the window with light coming down to it from a natural direction.
Take note of Carol's very good advice. It's spot on.