How to keep bonsai small but healthy?

[CoolBonsais]

I have this awesome Ficus Religiosa that is more than 2 years old. How can I style this tree, to look cool, stay small (under 2 feet) and stay healthy and vigorous?

 

[Eckhoffw]

Just let it rip. ‘Tis but a twig.
revisit in a couple years.

 

[ShadyStump]

Allot of what we do is growing a tree out, then cutting it back to potting size. He's right, yours is just a twig right now. Put it in the biggest pot you can find, and let it grow like crazy. By the end of summer it will show you what you can do with it.

Where are you, a where have you been keeping it? Outside in the sun is the best place for it to grow out for a season or two.

 

[Paradox]

Where are you, a where have you been keeping it? Outside in the sun is the best place for it to grow out for a season or two.

The key to this question is your location. You put that outside in some places right now and it will die.
My tropicals do not go outside until mid June to early July when temperatures have no chance of dropping below 50 degrees F.

@CoolBonsais Please put your location on your profile so we can give you proper advice for your trees/
Much of bonsai info is dependent on location

 

[Potawatomi13]

Research Sustainable development. Explained in detail on Mirai Live.

 

[Shibui]

I have this awesome Ficus Religiosa that is more than 2 years old. How can I style this tree, to look cool, stay small (under 2 feet) and stay healthy and vigorous?

Ficus r. is tropical so first thing is to make sure it stays warm all year round. In tropical areas ficus can be outside all year but temperate areas will need to be protected indoors through winter. As mentioned, how you do this depends where you live. Please add location to personal profile.
All ficus love fertilizer. Feed regularly. Any plant fert will do. Figs not fussy or demanding.
Water when the soil starts to get dry. Keeping soil perpetually soggy will cause root problems and encourage fungus gnats to breed in the soil. Ficus can tolrate some temporary dry so good beginner plants until you learn to water properly.
Plenty of good light, some sun if possible but beware of moving tree from shade or indoors to sudden sun - sunburn is temporary but frightening for the owner and ill obviously set back growth and development while new leaves grow.

To keep ficus small pruning is important. Ficus try to grow straight up (adaptation to reach rainforest canopy quicker than competition) Pruning will cause new shoots to grow from nodes on the trunk. Regular trimming whenever new shoots get 4-6 leaves will build good canopy.
Need to prune lower than finished tree because new shoots almost always grow longer and upward. First chop around 1/3 of final size so for a 2' tree chop around 6-10", lower for smaller tree.
Repeated chop and grow will develop branch ramification as well as much needed trunk and branch taper.

Ficus are generally really good at sprouting new shoots, even from older trunks so this can be used to thicken trunk a bit quicker. Put it in a larger pot and allow it to grow unpruned for a year or 2 then chop low as above. Use new shoots that emerge to develop more trunk and branches.
My ficus all seem to thicken even when confined to small pots so this is one genus that does not really need the large pot treatment. larger pot will definitely speed up thickening but you'll still get good results even in a smaller bonsai pot.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Trying to keep small a Religiosa is counterproductive in my opinion, they have big leaves and long internodes, you need to at least built a dencent trunk thickness to have something plausible that dont look like a stick with giant leaves