Who told you they shouldn't be in direct sun? They LOVE the sun! As long as there's also some humidity available. They do like to grow in a pot that looks smaller than you'd normally think, so don't go overboard, but you should first (regardless of anything else) take it out of the pot and check for routbound-ness, and if it's bad, then trim off 1/4-1/3 of existing roots and repot into a fast draining gritty soil mix (no peat!). Now if you want it to grow bigger, don't trim the roots, but just loosen them enough to slightly spread the ball without undoing it all. Size of pot can certainly be somewhat wider to accommodate new aerial root spread, but how deep it is will be up to you. What do you mean "the greater the ... leaves'? And BTW, basic information on bonsai doesn't mean much, as trees vary tremendously in their needs. I can't look at your picture because when I click on the link a bunch of thumbnails come up with lots of plants (and parts of same) but no I.D., just stuff underneath the pix - one plain one of which would definitely help here, with some little thing next to it for relative size gauging.

Dear angierainbow83, Please think about the info from Jodi and Al. I add my own story below. Since thinking through my own experiences will help me too, I hope you don't mind. I believe for me, I need to separate the garden beds from my containers; just as a two bedrooms can be used differently while still being a room, a separate approach to garden beds (to use Al's words, more "organic") vs. containers (more "inorganic") is still gardening. Good luck on your journey! Over the past few years I seem to be suffering from a case of harvest envy. Due to space and location, I do not have the ability to grow vegetables in the ground due to shade, but I do have a very sunny spot where containers work fine. I have "successfully" grown various vegetables (and am lazily including tomatoes in this category). I say "successfully" since I have never been able to come close to the level of harvest that neighbors get when the essentially identical plants with similar methods EXCEPT the plants are grown in the ground. In fact, I can say this with with confidence since I have provided them with their plants. I have experimented with various combinations of top soil, organic potting soil, compost and small gravel. (I won't go into nutrient supplements I have tried.) I have used about 15gal lightly-colored plastic pots raised off the ground. Given my growing climate, young plants move into these pots in early May and typically are taken down sometime after Columbus Day. The plants are still producing, but the colder temps negative influences many of the types I grow. In the case of eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, for example, my plants are 5-6ft tall and produce a crop not quite sufficient for a small family throughout much of the season. When I take the pots down at the end of the season, I typically find the exterior soil to be damp/dry while the center below the stem and near the main roots to be very wet. Further, there are many small roots near the soil surface, possible due to the thin mulch layer I applied (thinking I needed more moisture retention). There are some larger roots that spread in the pots, but not a tremendous amount. The best fruiting, distribution and size of roots was in the year where I only used organic potting soil without a mulch cover. Although I can't say with 100% certainty that by making the soil more organic I caused this problem since from year to year I changed conditions (and growing conditions change too), the evidence is pretty well stacked against me.

The following should work for you. It is based on some 'playing around' projects I have been working on with great success. 1. Purchase a roll of landscape (weed barrier) cloth. It should be the type which has a sort of black, velvety appearance on one side. This runs through a sewing machine with ease. Sorry, I can't remember the name of this particular landscape cloth at the moment. 2. Cut out a piece the needed height and length for pot side and sew the seam together. 3. Now, cut a circle and fit plus sew it to the bottom to complete the 'bag'. 4. At Walmart's notion counter you will find a waterproof glue designed to attach beading to garments. This works well. There are other types of glue but this one is my favorite. Glue all seams with this. 5. Cut a circle of heavy plastic to fit inside bottom of bag. 6. Dig hole for bag placement, insert bag, add soil and plant. I can assure you that these will last for years. Once you begin working with the construction you should be able to figure out the method which goes together quickly. It is possible that you may want to fold over and sew the top of the bag for rigidity.

Thank you toxcrusadr and gardengal48! I currently have an avocado tree growing indoors which is doing well except the soil I used is too dense and as you two both know, it's been less than ideal and I'm worried about hurting the roots from overwatering. I'll check out the 5-1-1 and gritty course mixes. And I believe the olive tree should do fine indoors. My avocado tree is doing very well even considering my neglect of proper potting mix. I use a nice grow light called the Aspect. Isn't anything overpowering but helps plant and gives off a nice warm white light. Between the light and the proper potting mix I'm hoping it'll really thrive in my library. Thanks again!