The Ficus Ginseng is known by different names. The botanically correct name is Ficus microcarpa, translated as Chinese fig or laurel fig. The tree, which comes from East Asia, is a popular ornamental plant that can be grown well as a bonsai.
How to care for a Ficus Ginseng Bonsai?
How do I optimally care for a Ficus Ginseng Bonsai? For successful care, it requires a bright location without direct sun, regular watering and fertilizing, as well as careful pruning and wiring for shaping.
Where can I get a Ficus Ginseng as a bonsai?
You can grow a Ficus Ginseng yourself from a young plant as a bonsai. But you need a lot of patience, which a beginner often doesn't have. It is therefore advisable to buy a bonsai straight away. Ficus ginseng is often offered in this form, so it is not difficult to acquire one.
The most important things in brief:
- good to grow as a bonsai
- commonly found in stores
- sensitive to frost
- suitable for indoor cultivation
- can go outside in summer
- Location: bright, without direct sun, at approx. 18 °C to 22 °C
- water and fertilize as needed
- prune carefully and specifically
Can my Ficus Bonsai go outside?
The Ficus Ginseng is very sensitive to frost, but is happy to spend the summer in the garden. However, you should give it a well-protected location here; it doesn't like the blazing sun, wind or waterlogging. Slowly acclimate your bonsai to the change in air and bring it back into the warmth when nighttime temperatures drop to around 10°C to 12°C.
How do I care for my ficus as a bonsai?
Even if the Ficus Ginseng is not difficult to care for, it still has some requirements that you should not neglect. This means that the soil is allowed to dry out slightly, but never really dry out. It is best to water when the top layer of soil feels a little dry.
Give your Ficus Ginseng fertilizer from April to September in the form of sticks or liquid fertilizer (€4.00 on Amazon) about every 14 days. Special bonsai fertilizer is not necessary; commercially available flower fertilizer is sufficient. The bay fig is not fertilized in winter.
Cutting and wiring the Ficus Ginseng
The young, still soft shoots of the Ficus Ginseng can be shaped very well by cutting and wiring. Begin wiring in early spring and do not leave the wire on the plant for longer than four weeks.
The most important cutting measures:
- Maintenance cut: from May to September about every 6 weeks
- If pruning is done too rarely, no shoots will appear from old wood
- regularly remove any or unwanted shoots growing out of the desired shape
- do not remove too many young shoots at the same time
- don't let thick branches stand over thin branches
- Always cut 3 mm above an outward-facing eye
- Cut shoots with 5 to 7 leaves back to 2 to 3 leaves
Tip
The Ficus Ginseng is also ideal for beginners as a bonsai. It can be easily shaped by wiring.
