| Life form | Shrub, tree |
| Family | Moraceae |
| Origin | Southeast China, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, North Australia |
| Ease of cultivation | Easy enough for growing a plant. |
| The size | In the room, most often not more than 1.5 m. In nature, up to 25 m high. |
| Growth rate | Not very tall. |
| Lifespan | Perennial |
| Temperature | In the summer: 64,4-73,4 ° F, in winter not below 60,8 ° F. In case of extreme heat, ventilation is necessary. |
| Humidity | High. Daily spraying of plants with water at room temperature is required, especially in winter. It is best to grow the plant in a pallet with wet claydite. After spraying the plant, it should be shaded from the bright sun. When the heating is on, the plant should be placed away from the radiators (not less than 2 m). |
| Lighting | Bright diffused light. This species is light-loving enough, especially in winter, but in spring and summer it is necessary to shade the plant from the hot sun rays, because from too bright light the leaves burn out. Ficus microcarp suffers partial shade, especially easy to tolerate the lack of lighting grade Golden Gate. Can grow in artificial light. |
| The soil | Ficus microcarp is not too picky about the soil. Fertile, weakly acidic or neutral: 1 part of the turf ground, 1 part of the leaf earth, 1/2 part of the sand, you can add a little charcoal. Either 1 part of the turf ground, 1 part peat, 1 part of the leaf earth, 1 part sand (pH 5.5-7.5). Good drainage is necessary, the best option is if its lower layer is claydite, and the upper one is sand. |
| Watering | In summer regular moderate watering with standing warm water (1-2 times a week), before the next watering the soil should dry well. Avoid overmoistening. From excess watering, the plant sheds leaves. In winter, watering is reduced to 1 time in 7-10 days. |
| Fertilizer | From spring to autumn, every 2 weeks, liquid fertilizer, alternating organic and mineral. |
| Reproduction | Upper cuttings 10 cm, at least with three pairs of healthy leaves, in spring in a greenhouse (or covered with polyethylene) in a mixture of peat and perlite or earth with sand, at a temperature of 77 ° F. Cut the cuttings better to pre-treat with corn (or heteroauxin). Set for germination in diffuse light conditions. A month later, tilt the stalk and see if the roots formed. In case the roots appeared, it is necessary to remove all the leaves except the upper pair and after 2 weeks you can slightly feed the plant with diluted fertilizer. 3 months after rooting, put in a pot about 10 cm in diameter.The ficus of the microcarp is also propagated by layers, root offspring and seeds. |
| Bloom | Like all ficuses, it forms syconia – small globular flowers of purple color about 2 cm in size, reminiscent of berries. |
| Transfer | In February-March, young plants are transplanted annually, increasing the diameter of the pot by 4-5 cm. Then it can be transplanted every 2-3 years. After transplantation watering time limit, the plant is placed in a bright light. In adult plants, if the pot diameter exceeds 30 cm, you can replace the top 3 cm of soil. When growing a ficus of a microcarp in the form of a bonsai during transplantation, it is necessary to cut up to 10% of the length of the roots. |
| Features of care | In the summer, the ficus of the microcarp is useful to take out on a balcony or on the street. In order to form the crown, it is necessary to shorten the shoots regularly during the spring-summer. Ficus microcarp is suitable for bonsai culture and is most often sold in this form. This species is considered the best for those who are just beginning to engage in bonsai. Particularly interesting is the thick, powerful root of the plant. When forming a bonsai tree, each branch should be shortened by the appearance of 6-10 leaves to 3-4 leaves. |
| Difficulties | It is affected by mealybugs, whiteflies, as well as aphids, shields, thrips. The new shoots are thin, and the leaves are small, either as a result of a lack of light, or with a lack of nutrition. Leaves most often turn yellow and fall off due to insufficient watering. If the green leaves fall, the reason, on the contrary, may be excessive moistening of the soil.The leaves may fall due to changes in lighting conditions or watering conditions. Usually after 1-2 weeks the plant adapts to the new conditions. The reason for the fall of the leaves can be low temperatures (below 42,8 ° F), low light conditions or exposure to drafts. |
| Air cleaning | – |
| Toxicity | – |
