Advice for my poor little willow leaf

I ordered this one off of eBay before I knew what features to look for in material. The trunk is super straight with almost no taper and the branching at the top is so clustered that its going to cause reverse taper. There are already a couple of bulges in the "canopy." I realize that it's pretty low quality to start with, but it would be silly not to make the best of it.

So it's been about three months since I got it. I repotted it probably two months ago (I really need to start keeping a bonsai journal) and it dropped almost all of it's leaves. All of the leaves have grown back now and it seems to be doing pretty well with my watering schedule and indoor lighting setup.

I'm tempted to slip pot it into a colander so that I can really get some good root growth going, but since it responded so poorly to my initial post-purchase potting I'm wary to mess with it again. The same with removing a lot of the top foliage. Should I just let it grow over the winter and then prune it in the spring? I've read that ficus can take quite a bit of work year round as long as you have it growing well.







Any advice is welcome.

If it were mine I would let it grow without pruning it or worrying about the top at all. What you've got now is just a skinny telephone pole. By letting it grow out more you'll have a thicker telephone pole that will need a chop to gain taper. So I say let it be.

They are pretty tough, but I'd just let it be for the rest of the winter.

I picked up a couple last winter and they both dropped most of their leaves within a month or two - probably the shock of moving from a greenhouse to my fluorescent light setup. They limped through the winter, I repotted in the spring and they took off when the weather got warm. Indoors now and still holding most of their leaves, though they have stopped growing.

How did the roots look when you repotted? Did you remove roots?

Chris

This thing needs to grow and get heathy,i would keep it in a well lit, warm place until it starts growing and leafing out. Then move to a larger training pot,with a more organic medium(soil),and let it grow,grow, grow. Don't start cutting the top. Right now a little heating matt under to pot might help,just warm.. not hot,and a bit of misting.
Then start thinking about style and movement,this this needs to thicken up a lot. Other wise all you got is a little lollie pop house plant.

unless

you want a shohin, or Mame, cut off the top and root it and grow it on. The bottom will bust out new buds which can also be mame, shohin or let to grow. A mame is possible because these leaves reduce easily.

I decided to let it get healthy and cut it down to the first branch. I figured it would be easier to put movement into it even if the growth will be a little slower at first. Plus hopefully I get some back budding lower on the trunk.

This is what I always do too. I cut it back to the first branch then let it grow. I have never wired a leader up though I just wait for a new sprout to take on the task. Good luck with your stick shaped bonsai. I have about 20 of them from the greenhouse last year. 3 more from this year. Will you put it outside in nice weather?

It's going outside as soon as the night time temperatures are warm enough to leave it outside. It's in the 60s during the day now, but it's been in the 40s at night. I thought about taking it in and out, but I'd rather just leave it and not try to stress it in any way.