bonsai leaves

how can I make my bonsai tree leaves small ?

Your answer depends a lot upon the species, some respond to defoliation, but the season is critical. Also consistent tip pruning. If you have a specific species in mind we can be of more help.

First understand that trees dont waste resourses. Imagine 2 trees of the same size. The first has 1 leaf, the second has plenty of leaves. The first trees single leaf will grow as big as possible to maximize the ammount of sunlight the tree needs to survive. The second trees leaves will not have to grow as large to perform the same task. Put the second tree in the shade,or a darker place and the leaves need to be bigger. The key to smaller leaves is a sunny position and good ramification (more branches= more leaves).

Nice to hear from someone in Egypt for a change. Can you post a picture of your tree?
Iris

Billy M. Rhodes wrote:Your answer depends a lot upon the species, some respond to defoliation, but the season is critical. Also consistent tip pruning. If you have a specific species in mind we can be of more help.

Billy is right on the nose,i believe there are trees no matter what you do you won't get the desire reduce size that will be proportion to be bonsai,trees,location & climate??Here where the sun is tropical sunny we choose our tree to be Bonsai,others we just have to leave it to mother nature.By the way ..Welcome to IBC
Regards,
Alex

thanks for every one. I can specify ficus sp.

Ficus "in general" respond well to both defoliation and pruning techniques. However, the general advice is not to defoliate Ficus benjaminia or its relatives like "Too Little" or "Exotica."

With pruning allow a twig to grow four leaves and cut back to two. Keep this up and you will reduce leaf size.

On Ficus benjaminia and relatives I have had good luck removing up to 1/3 of the largest leaves every two weeks. Just be careful not to defoliate an entire branch as it will probably die.