It sounds like you got one of those premade so called bonsais. Once you bring them home dont repot it for about 2 weeks, so that it can become housebroken:) Ficus are pretty tollerable of dry soil, I would water it once a week at this point. Usually these trees have poor root systems, and hence dont drink as heavily as established bonsai. Does yours have glued on gravel?, if so remove it so you will be able to monitor soil moisture. You want the soil to become dry to touch between waterings, if its moist or damp, then dont give it water. In terms of the rot, I would carve out that portion to prevent it from spreading. You may want to mix up some new soil that is more pourous and drains better, because those wal mart bonsais are potted/packeged in a way(heavy soil) that will maintain moisture for long periods during shipping etc., which will lead to rot, but they dont care, because the plants are usually purchased before this happens. Im not sure what your intrest level in bonsai is, and Im not sure if you care about traditional styles, but I have personally never seen a bonsai come out of walmart that has a shape that even remotely resembles a tree at all. They are often root cuttings stacked together that have produced shoots. The wide spaces between the roots make any transformation into a convincing tree shape next to impossible. Yet from walmart, for even less money, you can find large 1gallon houseplants (especially the benjamin ficus), that can easily be converted into an atractive tree-like shape over a couple of years, by mearly pinching the ends of the branches anually (yet producing a show quality bonsai will require much more devotion and information), If this is what your looking for. good luck, and oh yeah, often those bonsais at walmart are made out of species that are popular for bonsai, so I have been known to buy these ugly plants for 2 reasons. 1-they are often cheaper and larger than the same species can be found anywhere on the internet. 2- even if they are ugly, I buy them just to remove branches or the tops off of them, to propagate these, because they still have potential because they havent been mucked around with yet, although if you like the way it looks already (whether "properly" shaped or not, and the plant makes you happy then great, thats the whole reason any of us start this hobby anyway. take care, castorcrap

This pic shows the heavy root mass down around the bottom of the rock. It's hard to get a good pic because the roots and the rock are both wet and about the same color. In the process of chiseling the rock/cement away from the bottom of the old pot I split the rock in about half however, the roots are growing around it so tightly that it didn't move much. Bob

If you look closely at the photo I've attached you'll see the new bud growth (4) at the bases of two of the three remaining branches. Because of a lack of proper sun light I've acquired a grow lamp that could be contributing to this new bud growth but I alse have to thank moochinka for the advise to cut back on some of the branches.These are the three remaining branches. They seem to be getting longer and longer, but on a positive note though there is the (4) new bud growth. Is there a safe way to control the growth length of these three remaining branches without damaging the tree? It just seems so stringly and spindly at this stage! Is there any way I can promote more new budding at the bases of the limbs? The orphan and its companions are thriving thanks to the knowledge I've acquired on the forum. Thanks bonsaiprice

The first bend in the trunk is result of a previous pruning. I noticed that when I was looking at the first images. Looks like the trunk bifurcated (split to form a 'Y') at that point and one side of the bifurcation was pruned off. In mid-June, the lowest branch marked in yellow should be cut back to 4 leaves. The long branch moving left/ marked yellow in the image above, and the branch moving right/ marked yellow should also be pruned back to 2 leaves. The leader, above these 2 branches and marked in yellow, should be pruned back to a leaf that points in the direction you want the leader to grow. This is called 'directional pruning'. Example: With the above pruning cut made, the new branch (shows as a leaf only, but it's a new branch) in the axil of the leaf on the right will want to grow to the right. If you wanted the new leader to move left, you would prune lower, to just above the leaf on the left. A cut above the leaf attached to the severed part would give rise to a branch growing away from the grower. Because there are other forces in play, like phototropism (tendency for plants to bend toward the brightest light source), there is no guarantee the branch will grow where you wish, so you might need to encourage the new branch that forms in the axil of the leader's top leaf to grow where YOU want it to. I mentioned this already, but I'll reiterate that your tree will respond to pruning with a much higher degree of enthusiasm if you do the pruning A) while the tree's energy reserves are highest, and B) when the tree's current ability to carry on photosynthesis is peaking, both of which will occur during the summer solstice (21 June). 'Father's Day' is easy to remember. If you intend to repot, do it at the same time you prune. While you could probably remove a little soil to cut through (2 cuts) the kinked root that emerges from and returns too the soil, I would do it at the same time you prune the top. Reason: Pruning the top decreases the volume of foliage the roots must work to keep hydrated. It also makes it less likely that a branch on the same side of the tree where the kinked root is attached will die. When a tree is unable to keep certain parts hydrated, it sheds those parts. Unfortunately, they seem to always choose to shed parts the grower feels are essential to the o/a composition/ shape/ style of the tree. Some trees, like junipers/ yews/ arborvitae/ .... , develop a dedicated relationship between individual roots and branches, such that damage to a particular root will kill a particular branch. Notice the live veins connecting roots to individual branches below: This tree ^^^ has 4 branches and 4 live veins. Other trees lack the direct relationship between particular roots and branches. For the genus Ficus, the relation is moderate, but the lower a branch is (and the shorter the tree is) the greater the likelihood that death of a branch or root will result in the dieback of it's counterpart on the opposite side of the root to shoot connection. When serious about earning a green thumb, the largest step a container gardener can take in that direction will come from understanding how water behaves in container media and what that means to the health of your plants' root systems; this, because issues with root function and/or health cause the most problems by far, with some of them seemingly unrelated to root health. Two examples that lend support to the later contention are infections by disease pathogens and insect predation due to a less than robust metabolic rate, caused by limited root function or poor root health. A healthy plant will remain forever elusive unless and until we are able to maintain root systems in an elevated state of vitality (health). Al