Morton Bay Fig - Defoliation

[Blyth]

Hey all,

Fifteen years ago I purchased a 20 year old Morton Bay Fig as a gift for my mother, at the same time I purchased some books on Bonsai as this plant was her gardening venture into the area of Bonsai.

For some time now it seems to be defoliated but seems to still have the will to drop out one or two leaves and some shoots - it wants to live!

I have noticed that the leaves that do grow curl and seem to have little bumps on the outside and some spider like web around the branches. (See attached photo)

It would be awesome to get some advice on getting this tree back to health and full of leaves.

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[bodhidharma]

Get it out of that pot and into a large growing pot or polystyrene box. Shorten the branches and leader by at least half and slowly increase fertiliser. Water sparingly (a little bit each day) until you see buds popping then full watering and feeding regime (see our wiki) it should power on. It is also good to let us know, at least, which city you live in as regimes for trees vary. Good luck but it will be fine.

[Blyth]

Thanks bodhidharma!

The bonzai is in Concord in Sydney.

Will give that a go and let you know.

[Hackimoto]

Where are you keeping it? It looks like it is kept in a bathroom or on a dark veranda. I would lightly fert and place in a somewhat sunnier position first, to try to get some health back, before any drastic work was carried out. Spide like web is probably red spider mite from being kept inside and no water ever getting on the leaves.

[The-Calli-Kid]

Hey, my dad has one very similar that he got back from his mother in-law about 4 months ago...
I told him to take it out of the pot, trim 1/3 the roots, add fresh soil and repot into same pot > water everyday in a sunny position.
....(It has came back to life really well!, even with MASSIVE leaves!, next step is big chop down.. ))
CK

[Blyth]

Where are you keeping it? It looks like it is kept in a bathroom or on a dark veranda. I would lightly fert and place in a somewhat sunnier position first, to try to get some health back, before any drastic work was carried out. Spide like web is probably red spider mite from being kept inside and no water ever getting on the leaves.

It has spent its life outside but it is in the shade for some of the morning due to being placed against a pergola upright. The rest of the day it gets full sun till about 4pm. It is about to be moved up to an outside table so it gets more light. It does seem to have very tiny web towards to the end of the branches, more so where the two leaves are.

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As for water, after reading the wiki on Watering and Fertiliser as bodhidharma suggested this does need to change, as watering has been neglected to some degree.

Hey, my dad has one very similar that he got back from his mother in-law about 4 months ago...
I told him to take it out of the pot, trim 1/3 the roots, add fresh soil and repot into same pot > water everyday in a sunny position.
....(It has came back to life really well!, even with MASSIVE leaves!, next step is big chop down.. ))
CK

Thanks for that, its important to me to keep this Bonsai thriving and your suggestions are the way of doing that.