Hello everyone and thanks in advance for the replies. I have a ficus ginseng given to me by my brother who had more or less had it for 4 years, never repotted. When he arrived, he had lost many leaves, I wanted to make holes to drain the stick of earth that surrounds the bonsai, this is because the earth around it is very soft, while the stick that surrounds the bonsai is harder. So the water drifted to the sides and not in the middle where the roots are. Fortunately now the bonsai has recovered perfectly. It has many leaves and does not present any kind of suffering. So my question can I repot it now? and bonsai soil is okay or should I add something else? The bonsai inside the apartment

Dear Antonella,

congratulations for the care you took to your brother’s dying bonsai, without your help it would surely have been irreparably ruined. hard, not at all draining; therefore it is essential to be able to repot, to make sure that the roots can breathe, in fact in the soil that becomes so hard and dry the roots are not happy, as well as for the lack of water, also for the impossibility of having exchanges with the outside. Secondly, repotting will also serve to provide the plant with a well-draining and fresh soil, which can be crossed by water. In addition to this, the soil around the roots is now exhausted, and certainly contains only the mineral salts provided with the fertilizations. new leaves and new shoots; repotting now would certainly cause excessive stress to the ficus. I advise you to wait until late spring, April or May; in this way you will have a plant that stops producing leaves and branches quickly, but still in vegetation, so that you can quickly heal the wounds caused to the root system, and also to replenish the pruned roots. the ficus from the pot and try to remove as much of the earthen bread that encloses the roots as possible, using if necessary a knife or wooden sticks (often the small sticks that are used as braces are used, the ones you see in orchid pots : they are sufficiently resistant, but also flexible, and therefore do not completely damage the root system); at the end rinse the roots well and shorten them by about a third. At this point your ficus is ready to be repotted; being a bonsai already adult, or in any case already bonsaised for some time, it is not strictly necessary to change the container; if you want to change it anyway, look for one more or less the same size as the previous one.The ideal soil for the ficus bonsai consists almost entirely of akadama, mixed with a little universal soil (put your wallet, and always buy high quality soil, even if they are a little more expensive than the soil you find at the supermarket). Be careful to repot the plant well, compacting the soil around the roots, without exceeding, and letting it slide in all areas of the pot; during repotting, as you insert the earth into the pot, tap the container on the ground, or on the table, lightly, to prevent air pockets, which are very harmful, from being signed.