Ginseng Grafted Ficus Bonsai Care and Growth: Beginning to Present

Interested in Ginseng Grafted Ficus bonsai care? Curious how this tree develops over time? Well, you’ve come to the right place! I will inform you on how to care for this kind of bonsai tree and show you how mine have developed over time.

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Current Condition

This wonderful specimen is the largest Ginseng Grafted Ficus in my collection. I took these pictures earlier this week.

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This tree has done nothing but flourish ever since I received it. I have been caring for this tree for a little over a year now and have been through several moves with it. Besides the occasional yellow leaf that appears out of nowhere, there are no complaints about the tree’s growth or development. Read more below about my Ginseng Grafted Ficus bonsai care for successful tree development.

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The Beginning

I first received this Ginseng Grafted Ficus as a gift from my mom when I came home from college last summer. She purchased it at our local Walmart for around $15! This was shocking to me. Similar specimens sell on eBay and Amazon for upwards of $50 and sometimes even $100. I still consider this an amazing find, really the “right place at the right time” situation.

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This is what the tree looked like right when it was brought home from the store. You can also catch a glimpse of my Golden Gate Ficus and my cat, Astro. Please be aware!! Ficus trees contain a white sticky sap that is poisonous to animals! This sap is not visible if you are just looking at the tree, however, if you cut a leaf off or scrape some bark off the tree the sap will quickly appear. Do not let your pets ingest any of this sap! If enough sap is ingested, your pet may become sick and in the worst cases, can be fatal. Be careful not to ingest any yourself either or you may get an upset stomach. Don’t worry though, Astro sniffed the plants and never went near them again. I wonder if he knows the plant would harm him.

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Re-potting

I have found that Ginseng Grafted Ficus care is extremely easy. Once the tree was brought home, I quickly purchased a pot for it online and re-potted the tree into its new home. At the time of re-potting, the tree had five medium-sized branches all pointing towards the sky and very interesting trunk features. Since the Ginseng Grafted Ficus is a fast-growing plant, I chose a very large pot to allow for massive root development to provoke lots of canopy growth. This particular pot has a built-in humidity tray, but, I quickly found that it was awful at retaining water and a replacement would be needed. I settled on placing a casserole dish under the pot as an additional humidity tray.

This was the first re-potting I ever performed. I wasn’t quite sure if I was supposed to throw out all the old soil and replace it or if I was supposed to replace only part of the old soil. I decided to keep some old soil and mix in some new soil as well. Be sure to keep the root ball moist if you are doing a re-potting. It’s important to keep the roots from drying out or else the tree could die. Additionally, be sure to dampen the new soil before you place your tree in it and then once again after the tree has been placed.

Once the tree and the new soil mixture were placed in the pot, I used a pencil to push down all the soil to ensure no air pockets were left anywhere in the dirt. This is a very important step! If you leave air pockets near the roots, there is a potential for water and air to build up and create conditions that promote root rot. Root rot is a very deadly condition for any type of plant and is usually fatal. Be very careful to eliminate all air pockets in the soil to ensure optimal health for your bonsai tree.

It should be noted that in most re-pottings this is the point where you would secure the tree in place with wires. However, with this pot there was nowhere to feed wires up from the bottom. I went ahead without using wires to secure the tree in place and after a week or two the tree grew into its new soil and rooted firmly into place.

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Positioning

All ficus bonsai and tropical plants have the ability to be grown entirely indoors. I have been growing my Ginseng Grafted Ficus exclusively indoors ever since I received it. I place my Ginseng Grafted Ficus in front of a south-facing window if there is one available. While I have owned this plant, I have lived at four different locations, sometimes south-facing windows are not a possibility. Don’t worry, this is perfectly fine. I have also had my trees placed in front of west-facing and east-facing windows. I never noticed any negative changes to the tree’s growth while placed in the different window directions.

The biggest thing that affects the growth of my trees is the intensity of light they receive. The closer the tree is to the window the better it grows. When my trees are placed further away from a window, they receive less light, and I have noticed they grow slower and develop more yellow leaves than normal. I strongly suggest that you place your bonsai trees in a place where they receive strong light for upwards of eight hours a day. It doesn’t matter so much about what direction you place your trees in, rather how much light they receive.

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Watering

The most critical thing you can do to maintain the health of your bonsai tree is to water it. Obviously, right? I use the same watering technique on all of my trees. When the soil feels dry, it’s time to water. It’s that simple! Don’t worry about watering your trees on a schedule. Depending on your tree and its living conditions, watering it on a schedule could lead to overwatering or underwatering of the tree. The safest and easiest way to ensure your tree is getting enough water is to water it when the soil feels dry to the touch.

You can also purchase special instruments that tell you the moisture level in the soil. These tools are handy and can help you perfect your watering skills. To have an idea if your watering technique is adequate, monitor your tree for yellow, brown, or white leaves.

Discoloration of leaves can mean different things depending on your watering techniques. If you notice that your tree is developing yellow or brown leaves, this could be a sign of underwatering. Yellow and brown leaves are a sign that the tree is suffering from moisture stress. Make sure your soil is not drying out and start to water your tree more. Monitor for any improvements in the tree’s health. On the flip side, if your tree starts to develop a white film on top of its leaves this could be a sign of overwatering. When a tree takes too much water consistently, it starts to develop a white film over some or all of its leaves. This white film is a form of fungi that can develop on the leaves or branches of the tree. If this overwatering continues, root rot may ensue so be very vigilant of this.

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Whatever method you use to water your tree, as long as you are ensuring the soil stays moist and isn’t overly damp all the time your tree will flourish. This is my Ginseng Grafted Ficus after five months of care.

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Pruning

The best time to prune the Ginseng Grafted Ficus is in the spring or the summer. Having said that, since the Ginseng Grafted Ficus is a tropical plant and requires no dormancy period, you can prune this tree any time of year. I suggest pruning in the spring or summer because this is when your tree is growing the most. When I prune my Ginseng Grafted Ficus during the spring or summer months, new growth appears within a few days! Comparatively, when I prune it during the fall or winter months it normally takes a week or two for the new growth to appear. For this tree, I do not have any desired shape or design so I choose to let it grow freely. I prune off discolored leaves and overly large leaves but other than that I don’t fiddle too much with this tree.

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Propagation

One of my favorite things to do with my plants is to propagate them. The only thing better than one bonsai is two, right? So far, I have taken two small cuttings off of my large Ginseng Grafted Ficus tree.

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Here you can see the large Ginseng Grafted Ficus with the two small cuttings on the front right of the pot. I took the cuttings ten months ago and have had varying results. One of the cuttings is doing great while the other one has been struggling to survive. The cutting on the far right, with the three small green leaves, has slowly but steadily grown a small root system and a tiny bud of new growth at the top of its trunk.

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On the other hand, the other cutting has lost all of its leaves, has shown no new canopy growth, and has zero root development. I keep almost giving up on this cutting, however, every so often the tiniest spec of a green bud begins to appear. This is exciting but every time this happens, the trunk of the tree shrivels up and the new green bud turns brown and dies. I haven’t given up all hope on this cutting yet but I feel the time is nearing for this tree.

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Despite the failed cutting, Ginseng Grafted Ficus care for cuttings is extremely easy. I treat the cuttings exactly the same way I care for my large tree. The only thing that I do differently is fertilization. I don’t apply any fertilizer to the cuttings yet because the added chemicals from the fertilizer may burn the roots since the plant is still so underdeveloped.

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Fertilizer

Another crucial aspect of Ginseng Grafted Ficus bonsai care is fertilization. Once you’ve started to take care of your tree for a while, its time to consider adding fertilizer to your tree. Fertilizer provides nutrients to the plant that it doesn’t receive from the soil alone. There are different fertilizer types that you could get. The most popular are liquid and slow-release pellets. For my Ginseng Grafted Ficus, I use slow-release pellets. Normally, they last anywhere from four to nine months and once you place them in the soil you never have to worry about them again.

To use them, poke holes in the soil spaced out evenly throughout the pot. Measure out an appropriate amount of pellets for your tree. This amount is usually specified on the instructions for the fertilizer. Drop the pellets into the holes, cover the holes up, and thoroughly water your tree. As the months go by, occasionally check on the pellets to see if they have dissolved. If they have, just follow the process again to replenish your plant’s nutrients.

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If you have cuttings, I suggest you refrain from using fertilizer on them until they develop a decently sized root ball. Fertilizing cutting too early can burn the roots of the tree and cause major harm to the health of the tree.

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Insect Problem

For the first two years of growing bonsai trees, I managed to have zero insect problems. However, for the past six months, I have been dealing with a springtail infestation. Springtails are tiny hexapods that feed on decaying plant matter. They are harmless to plants and humans. While they don’t pose any danger to myself or my plants they are annoying. Their ability to jump is insane. When I run my finger through the soil these little bugs jump all over the place trying to avoid my finger. You can learn more about springtails here.

In order to combat them, I used diatomaceous earth. This is a type of rock that has been ground into a fine powder that shreds an insect’s exoskeleton as they walk through it.

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In order for the diatomaceous earth to work effectively, you have to cease watering your plant. I attempted this and made it to a week without watering my plants. The springtails were still running rampant so I decided it was time to water my plants again. Since then, I have decided I will just have to live with them for now until I find a better solution.

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Wrap Up

The Ginseng Grafted Ficus bonsai care is so easy and rewarding I would highly recommend this plant to anybody who is interested in getting into bonsai trees. It is a fast-growing and forgiving plant that can tolerate moderate over and under watering and varying light conditions.

My Ginseng Grafted Ficus has thrived and serves as a stunning visual display. Its intricate trunk that separates into two main bulbs that transition into multiple pillars that plunge into the soil. To complement the base of the trunk, the tree also features a towering canopy with leaves that spread out in all directions filling in all parts of the tree.

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Stay tuned for more pictures and updates of my Ginseng Grafted Ficus! You can also check out the Gallery for more pictures of this plant and all my other plants.