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Hi guys, love the courses and demo's.

I would like to ask you about two ficus trees that my wife and I got from a local nursary about 6 weeks back. We are really just starting out in bonsai although I did have a passsion for bonsai in my younger days that had been forgotten after I lost my old stock. I would class us as beginners. We live in Victoria Australia, where summer temp is between 20-35 normally and winter between 3 -18 on average. It's autumn now and the temp is sitting around 22.

The trees were in 100L bags and had been there as long as some of the staff could remember. IN fact they had forgotten they were there at all and We got both trees for $300, about €130 I think. We were keen to get the trees re-potted and cut back as soon as possible as we had read that ficus prefer a summer repot and cut back and they were so pot bound we were not sure if they would last much longer. They were around 2 -2 1/2 meters high so we gradually cut them back leaving some leaves on where possible. Then cut them from the old pot/bag and raked some of the stinking dead earth from the roots. About half of the rootball raked, we chopped some of the big roots off and potted the trees into a basic potting mix, gave pleny of water kept them out of the sun for 2 weeks. After this time they were moved back into the sun and water every 2 or 3 days. I would say at the moment they are in around a 60L pot. They have started sprouting the last 2 weeks so we are hopeful.

Things I would like some advice on .
1) we expected to lose old leaves as we read this is common in ficus after stress. Although the older leaves have taken on reddish spots and also the leaves/twigs seem to be weeping water from joints/ leaves. After searching google and re watching bonsai basics course we think this is probably an osmosis problem? Maybe the tree was balanced in such a way after never being watered. (Only rain) I have drilled more holes in the pot and watering has stopped for now. Is this enough? Are we correct?
2) the plants future. We will look at letting them grow until next summer then possibly take of the rest of the "too thick" branches and possibly cleaning the rest of the draculars cript soil from the roots and another reduction on the root ball, maybe 50%. Assuming they make it this far and are healthy. Is this too early? Should we maybe cut back but leave roots? Also is there any way to reduce scars from taking these large branches? I do not know the variety of ficus.

Please see attached pics and if you need any more info/pics please let me know.
Thank you,
Gnash, Melbourne Australia.

No idea why the pics came out are different orientation on upload! Sorry.

If you add pictures, then hit the insert button, then the picture is fully visible.
I live in Indonesia, Ficus don't mind a harsh cut backs, they start shooting new leaves very soon.
The leaves look like they had either to much water or a fungus. If the leaves roll up look for pest.




These black critters (forgot the name) can be nasty to get rid off, either cut all the leaves off and spray with insecticide.
Place in direct sunlight. Ficus don't mind dry periods too, I have seen them growing on roof spaces and cracks on walls with no rain at all for many month, however we got very humid air in Indonesia, and the moisture form the nights is most of the time sufficient enough for them to survive.

Does not seem to be any bugs. The water leakage also seems to be stopping


Hopefully they should be ok