hi all.
i'm trying to take care of my first bonsai (which isn't a mallsai, was received as a gift which was ordered online, and even came with a pruning kit).
it's a miniature winegrape, and had been doing pretty well for the first 4 weeks that I'd had it. I've been giving it 16-18 hrs of flourescent light (using a timer). giving the leaves and the soil a good misting every day and a root bath once or twice a week. its entirely indoors, no real sunlight (but also no insects) and the temperature is pretty consistent and not too cold (i dont feel cold, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to AC thats too strong)
then I went out of town for about 2 weeks and had someone else care for it... and when i got back, some of the leaves had started turning colors and looking a little dried up and since getting back (been back for about a week) it has dropped a few leaves.
so.. i'm not too sure whats going on with it. I think it might be time to prune it, but i have no idea what to prune. I guess its structure is kind of different from other bonsais since its adapted from a vine... but it's got something like 4 green vine/branch things shooting up from it. One of those is really long and comes out of a side. then theres a smaller shoot from the other side of the trunk, and two more small shoots coming from the top. the really long shoot has some leaves that are turning colors and dropping near the bottom, but at the tip, its still sprouting new healthy looking leaves. As for the small shoots, I'm not sure that they're sprouting as much, but they're not turning colors as much, although some are looking like they want to dry up.
i hope that was a thorough enough description
you can also see pictures of it here:
http://skayam.funformentals.com/bon...cture%20001.jpg
http://skayam.funformentals.com/bon...cture%20002.jpg
http://skayam.funformentals.com/bon...cture%20003.jpg
http://skayam.funformentals.com/bon...cture%20006.jpg
please let me know if you have any suggestions... changing water habits or light or pruning something and what to prune. unfortunately, the instructions it came with are kind of vague. all it says about pruning during the growing season is "more for aesthetic purposes, remove long shoots that haven't fruited leaving two nodes. This creates good branchlet structure and canopy development." I guess it suggests removing the really long shoot that I described, but I'm more concerned with the tree's survival then aesthetics right now. =P