Ficus microcarpa #1

In December 2003, I bought a cheap ficus from a supermarket to restart my bonsai collection after taking a break for a few years during high school.

May 2004

I repotted and trunk-chopped it early in 2004. Around that time I had just learned about akadama and biogold. I also applied my first wire to this tree.

August 2004

I asked for styling advice on an online forum. The result wasn't pretty, but at least I learned how to move branches. I had also defoliated the first branch early in July.

September 2005

I cut back hard, defoliated, and wired the whole tree in the middle of June and it responded quite well during the summer.

June 2006

At the end of June 2006 I only defolied and wired the first two branches and according to my notes it responded poorly this time.

April 2007

I repotted the tree into a mix of 80% lava and 20% akadama, too early in the season. I put a layer of larger lava on top of the substrat for some reason.

I defoliated it again in late August 2007, which was too late in the season, but it had a lot of natural light indoors so the reaction wasn't too bad.

July 2010

I skipped defoliation in 2008, defoliated in July 2009, and again at the end of July 2010.

October 2011

After five years of cultivation, the branches were looking pretty good. The trunk chop was almost invisible, but the lowest part of the trunk hadn't thickened much.

July 2020

Between 2011 and 2020, the tree was left alone in a garden without fertilization, and overwintered in a cold greenhouse instead of indoors. It lost all its lower branches but survived. I got it back after the first covid lockdown and repotted it into some akadama and lava I had lying around, 13 years after the previous repotting.

June 2021

At first it was extremely weak, and it was very easy to overwater it by mistake. I set up a greenhouse and let it grow there during the summer.

July 2022

After two years it was in better shape and ready for another trunk chop, resetting it just like I had done 18 years earlier.

July 2023

It reacted strongly to the trunk chop the previous year. I removed all the branches I didn't need, without cutting anything back.

May 2024

I let those branches grow for another year without intervention.

July 2025

The lower trunk had thickened after a few years of uninterrupted growth. It was time to cut back all the branches and repot the tree into a bonsai pot.

December 2025

The tree reacted very well and continued to grow through the rest of the season before moving indoors.