How To Make Ficus Bonsai Leaves Smaller

Usually around may or june depending on your location the leaves have hardened we can remove them and a second smaller set of leaves.

How to make ficus bonsai leaves smaller. If you want to totally defoliate. Choose an area where defoliation will be done. Defoliation removing leaves to reduce the size of new leaves is one of many bonsai techniques beginners often find mysterious. Progression 1 ficus with air roots.

Bonsai defoliation involves cutting all the leaves of a tree during the summer. This is one of the most common misconceptions in all of bonsai. By removing the larger existing leaf the dormant bud will be stimulated to develop. This mature bonsai a premna microphylla is a good example of how much this tree have reduced its leaf size.

Defoliation is more useful in the final stages when smaller leaves show the trees in a more suitable scale as well as developing more ramification and finer branches. We are trying to reduce internode length. Make sure that this is free from dust dirt and any oils. Clean your cutting scissors with soap and water.

In doing so you force the tree to grow new leaves leading to a reduction in the size of leaves and an increase in ramification. However it is sometimes done to plants in training particularly seedlings in the first year or two to get a series of close internodes low on the trunk. This technique should only be used on deciduous trees healthy enough to withstand this demanding technique. The bud eventually sprouts new leaves.

A previous video has been done already and this. Dip it in ethyl alcohol just before you use it. Keeping a seedling a little on the hungry side and a little root bound. If you fertilize it in the spring it will grow like crazy.

As seen in this photo where the stem of a leaf is attached to the branch there is a dormant bud. Feeding bonsai to reduce the size of the leaves and the internodes.