ficus ginseng bonsai

Question

I purchased a bonsai about a month ago. Two days after arriving, it started to drop its leaves, and on daily basis has been losing more and more. Yesterday I found about 20 leaves in one day. Soon enough my bonsai will be just a root.

The leaves that are falling are completely green and look healthy. I have been keeping it moist, but not too wet, and place it near a window for a few hours a day and then back to the living room for the evening and night.

I don’t know what to do since this is my first bonsai and all the answers regarding leave falling is normally related to light or watering and I have followed all the instructions carefully.

Answer 1

The normal response of a ficus to lowered light is to drop leaves. The light you have it in is much lower than the light it was grown in, so it’s dropping its leaves. Find a place to put it in your house where it will get as much light as possible, and leave it there. They also don’t like to be moved around. If you have a special place that you would like to display it, you can try to put a supplemental light source over it. The good news is that as long as the ficus has at least a moderately bright light source, it will grow new leaves that are better suited to lower light. If the instructions you refer to are the ones on the tag that came with the plant, you should know that plant tags are notoriously inaccurate. To learn about bonsai and ficus, do as much research on both as you can. Here are a few articles to get you started:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/bonsai/first-bonsai.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/bonsai/bonsai-basics-starting-your-own-bonsai.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/bonsai/
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/ficus/ficus-tree-care.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/hpgen/fluorescent-lighting-for-indoor-gardening.htm