Hi all,
I bought this bonsai from Ikea last year and, unfortunately, due to the change in environment, it lost all of its leaves, even though I was taking good care of it. I have since been regrowing it and it is doing much better.
I water it around once a week or whenever the topsoil is looking really dry and mist it daily to keep the humidity up. However, where the majority of the new branches have grown from nothing, they are very thin and flimsy (some more than others). I was wondering if anybody had any advice on how to thicken the branches and make them more stable? Thank you in advance!
P.s. I kept pruning to a minimum over winter and will prune it soon to tidy it up a bit and once temperature is in double figures, I will move it to a semi-shaded area outside. You can see a couple of the clippings taken growing in separate pots behind the plant.
Hi Bartlam,
If you wish to thicken the branches on your ficus bonsai it is best to let them grow long with lots of leaves on them. Cutting them back constantly will slow the growth of the branch down. You can allow the branches to grow out very long and as they grow they will thicken, when you are happy with the desired thickness you can then cut the branch back to how ever long or short you would like it and the tree will send out new shoots which you can turn into secondary branching.