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Hi,

One of my bonsai a ficus retusa, since more then a month or so has been constantly droping leaves. But the leaves don't just turn in a normal yellow similar to when they get to much water or to less, they are some how spotted.


In this time the tree has lost approx 50% of it's leaves...


On top of that 2-3 leave on my other two ficus benjamina have had this as well, but just 2-3 leaves.

Does any body have any idea what the problem could be?

Here is my background, maybe it helps:
- I started with bonsai a year and half ago, have around 20 bonsai most of them are ficuses, read 2-3 books so i dont consider my self a pure biginner
- all of my trees rest on a south oriented window, and I live in North Germany where the temperature are 18-28 Celsius in the summer and 2-15 Clausius in winter, a lot of rain with humidity (same as in UK)
- I fertilize them with some green sticks that you put in the soil every 2 months in the summer and half of the dose in winter (10-7-9)
- Soil, I use a mix of compost, Akadama and sand( not the best option but it what i can find locally)
- Water from the tap unfortunately as i live in a flat, the water is very hard and it would start to deposit lime on the trunk and pot. Because of that i started using an anti lime solution in the water since half a year.

The trees don't have any signs of diseases or pests from what i can tell. So because of that I am think that it might be the lime solution or fertilizer.
Just to see what happens i stopped using the solution and haven fertilized in a month just to see if things would go back to normal, as of yet nothing as changed...

Thank you

I dont have any experience with this species and are a beginner just like you.

When i see yellowin like that in any plant the first thing i thing i do is to exclude spidermites. Those can not always be seen by the naken eye. But you can put a White paper under the yellow leaves and tap Them gently. The spidermites becomes easier visible once on the paper.

Good luck
Magnus

Here are two shots that i took with my macro lens but i cant see any spider or other insects ..

raynes88 wrote: Here are two shots that i took with my macro lens but i cant see any spider or other insects ..

You can't see spider mites because there aren't any.

My guess is that it's under- or overwatering, or more likely low humidity.

Well exclude spidermites makes no harm really. Telling that they dont have spidermites just from a photo is risky, very risky.

Low humidity is a big problem in central heated houses. Not only for the plant itself, but also as that is The environment spidermites prefer.

Br
Magnus

And, yea....never fertilize an unhealthy tree. Wait until the problem is solved and you see the tree growing again before next time.

Br
Magnus

Hmm don't know what to say about this.... here are my arguments:

- i have around 20 trees 80% are Ficuses if i water too much or to less that would be reflected on all of them, which is not the case as only one is effect this badly
- i have started with bonsai on year and half ago and at the beginning i did water to much or less and leaves would fall but 2-3 across a few day, I've gone through that experience i know what to much or less means at this point in time
- one of my other bonsai was growing aerial roots this summer, if the humidity was bad that would not happen
- i have this tree since February the first week he lost 4-5 leave probably because it was moved and after that it did not lose any it had the best or second best growth from all my trees during the summer and now it looses around 10 leaves per week

With all of this in mind I doubt that watering is the problem, but thank's for the reply

It' difficult for us to give you a 100 procent correct answer. But I can give you some reasons why trees gets yelllow leaves, and then you can pick the one reason you think cause the problem. You know the trees better than us:
Under/overwatering
Chlorosis
Seasonal chance
New enviroment or too cold enviroment
Chemicals
Spider mites

Use the exclusion method.

Really good points there!

I am with Auk on humidity. When the weather gets colder in the nothern hemisphere. We tend to put our heating up. Central heating systems is really a problem for most plants living indoors because it is drying the air.

In the summer the humidity was higher, hence why it was shooting aerial roots. Now it is different season.

Br
Magnus

Like I said new enviroment or seasonal change.

Again tropfrog you are the first one to answer a thread with a useless advice. Haven't you understand what we tried to tell you the last couple of days? You must be trolling us.