Are you sure it's meant to live indoors? What's it zoned for?

The bonsai store that I bought it from, the guy's pretty knowledgable about Bonsais and he said it should be able to grow indoors, but will still need a lot of light. (Also http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/powderpuff.html)

Not sure...maybe I'm not pruning enough to encourage growth, but honestly, there's not that much to prune on that powderpuff now haha.

If I was to guess, maybe....

1) pH is too low
2) humidity is too low

OOPS.................................

I see.

I just took another look at http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/powderpuff.html and it says it likes slightly alkaline soil.

COuld that be it?

But that shouldn't make much difference. What are you fertilizing with?

Dyna-grow fertilizer, I forget the two that I use, it's like 12-5-5 and 5-12-3, alternating. Like all the trees, I use them with my regular water diluting to non-circulating hydroponic concentrations. Keeps the pH at around 5.5 (so any alkaline soil loving plant might not feel at home). Serissas, boxwoods and mints respond well to this regime. Sometimes I fertilize every other time, but usually every time. The water/fertilizer mix mostly just flows through because of the coarseness of the soil so there is little accumulation. Anyway, it's not getting any better, but it's not getting any worse either. *shrugs* I don't know.

Sorry, but I'm afraid I just don't have an easy (or quick) answer... you seem to have addressed all the obvious things. Maybe that particular plant is a bit of a dud (it can happen),

haha, yeah it's possible that it could be a dud. It was growing so well when I first got it. I cut it down A LOT though. I think maybe by half, but I balanced the root pruning appropriately as well. The tree started new growths at first which was promising, growing out to new leaves, but then it hit on the brakes and just STOPPED growing. I think this was after the second repot, because I wanted to expose part of the tap root for decoration sake. (Is it bad to expose the tap root?) Anyway, the feeder roots are in the soil (or pruned). Even if new growths arise, they stay the bud size. (I'd say 2-3 mm, as a cluster of 5-6 leaves - beacuse that's how the powderpuffs grow.) It's just so confusing....I don't understand.

To narrow things down, what about the following:
Will an exposed taproot cause dormancy?
Will overfertilization of plant cause dormancy?
Will out of range pH cause dormancy?
Will too much light cause dormancy? (hah I don't really think that's the case)

I don't know.....but for now I've stopped fertilizing, started watering the exposed tap root as well, which narrows down the questions above to light (which would be silly)... I guess we'll see in a week or so if things get better??

It only has like 20 or less leaves on it now. :( Anyway, maybe I'm going around in circles, but I was hoping if I added more details, might ring a bell in someone's head. It's got a reall pretty branch structure (like wings almost) and I don't want it to die!

Why would you 'expose' the tap root? Is it attractive in some way that I might have missed :-)? Most people cut them off over a year or two, to encourage new feeder roots near the trunk to grow. Taproots are just buried carrots! But I don't see how exposure would induce dormancy! Neither will fertilizing or pH changes and the only 'light' that affects dormancy is the shortened kind (in autumn) along with temperature changes and ... genetics. What have you been reading? You need to seriously start reading up on growing things in general, then trees, and bonsai. Good luck.

Since it's just been recently top- and bottom-pruned, I wouldn't be very surprised that it has stopped (noticeably) growing. I don't know much about indoor bonsai (which I'm assuming that this is), but I would guess that it's simply taking time to get reestablished. The initial flush of growth that you saw probably used up the majority of the plant's immediately-available resources.

-Audric

Well Lucy, I've read that nutrient lockout due to too low or too high pH can induce dormancy, so it is a possibility. I have no idea what it is, but I got one side of the tree (one of the two trunks) to start budding and flowering by easing off on the fertilizer. Maybe it did just need to take time to get re-established. I suppose powderpuffs don't bounce back as fast as some other species...though most things indicate otherwise...

Matt

I have a bonzai powder puff tree that arrived in beautiful condition. After pruning & potting in a bonzai pot the leaves dried up & fell off. A few remained for several weeks, opeing in the day & closing at night. They have now fallen off. The tree looks dead. However,I nipped the tip of a couple of branches & found them to be bright green inside. Its been 2 months with no leaves & no growth, but the branches remain bright green inside. I'm considering planting in a regular pot & soil & putting it outside for the summer. I hate to toss it.

See my post on Margos plant.Since this topic is years old,my advice is if you try again,keep your Calliandra outdoors in summer in plenty of light as long as possible in the year.The indoor lighting you have should get it by until the next warm season...
ps,mines in plenty acid soil..that gets a bit too wet also.It does fine. Bottom line is light ,light,light,and avoid root pruning as much as possible-lol...