It sounds to me like your tree is trying to die so maybe you need to do an emergency repot. Why don't you lift the tree out of its pot, pick the root ball around the edges to loosen the roots a little and then replant it in a sligtly larger pot in straight perlite. That will do the least root damage and improve the drainage. Next spring you should do a complete repot into proper gritty bonsai mix. Good luck, Jack

You're keeping it indoors so the time of year for re-potting doesn't really matter. I wouldn't recomend going with straight perlite (sorry Jack) they benefit from being well-drained but evenly moist (not wet) all of the time. It sounds like your soil is drying out totally before you water? They don't like that at all.

I'm going to suggest regular potting soil and about 50% perlite, mixed in well.

Putting it into a larger pot would be a good idea however. I'd imagine it's in one of those little 'mallsai' slip pots, give it room to grow.

Yellowing/dropping leaves are caused by two things; if a lot are yellowing and dropping--yes, too much water. If it's an occasional leaf that is simply a chararistic of the tree. Older leaves will be shed on occasion like most evergreens.

Flowering and fruit: if the tree isn't healthy you won't get either--or it will set buds then they will drop. I have one that's gotta be in it's teens and has never produced fruit. Like most semi-tropicals it needs the right conditions. Flower buds dropping or dropping as they open could be health. Mine lose flowers due to mites, you may want to check for them.

The mites don't seem to cause any problems with the tree but they do love the flowers. An easy control for them is to mix a little kennel bedding in when you re-pot, that will work to control mites, fungas gnats and some other pests.

Now, if you do all of this work and it drops everything...don't panic. With any major change most tropicals/semi-tropicals will defoliate--it will bounce back in time.

Bob

okay so i repotted it i didnt have enough perlite to make it 100 percent more like 80 percent its staring to do better

HAHAHAHA , " fukien " that word looks so bad . Sorry , it just makes me laugh everytime I see that word .

I'm pretty sure the OP has moved forward, but I'm sorry, I don't think a mix of potting soil and perlite is appropriate for this plant, or any plants in shallow pots. You cannot start with potting soil, mix it with an equal volume of perlite, and expect it to drain well. Adding that amount of perlite to the soil does not significantly change the drainage characteristics of the soil, it only reduces the total volume of water in the soil. The height of the PWT in the pot will be the same as if there was no perlite added, but WITH the perlite added, there will simply be a reduced volume of water in the PWT because the perlite is displacing some water.

We can go back to the pudding thing again. You cannot add perlite to pudding and make it drain well. In the same vein, you cannot add perlite to potting soil and make it drain well ..... unless, you have a very high % of perlite, which is what Jack suggested to begin with. It's just very difficult to find a place in bonsai culture for soils that have a notable presences of fine particulates. I think that is pretty much accepted across the board.

If we assume it's a root issue, I would have carefully removed a portion of the soil around the root mass and repotted the plant into a larger terra-cotta container or a container with mesh sides, filled with a 50/50 mix of chopped sphagnum moss (not peat - sphagnum moss) and either perlite, screened Turface, or NAPA floor dry (which is calcined diatomaceous earth). I would have employed a wick, inserted into the drain hole to assure there was no perched water in the soil during recovery.

It's a very distinct possibility that the problem is insect related. Please look the plant over carefully for the telltale bumps on branches and foliage that advertise the presence of scale, as these plants seem to be magnets for the pests, and treat if appropriate.

Al

Al...she's in USDA zone 7 from what I can gather, it's kept in a south facing window, she lets it dry out totally before watering it. It's a little Wal-Malsi plant, when she bought it it was probably just klinging to life as it was/is.
Everything she's doing (because she doesn't know any better) is killing the tree...what you advocate will only speed up the process. Hmmm...just thinking...would be more mercyfull maybe...

Bob

.... better to learn to water properly and use an appropriate soil than to compound problems by continuing to water improperly (or inappropriately) and use an inappropriate soil.

What I advocated is a very well known and effective method of revitalizing trees in severe decline; and my offering was actually geared more toward leading readers away from a mix of equal parts of perlite and potting soil than anything else.

Al

Of course the OP has moved on...not seeing a pic of it I would suspect a (sick) stick-in-a-pot from Wally World anyway. The person said they had the perlite on hand and it was a quick fix. There was a major change in its environment and care so it's gonna throw a hissy-fit anyway, then throw in winter in North America. I just moved my big one 10' in the back courtyard and it aquired an attitude for a while but, I knew it would do that.

Bob

okay well i havent been on here in awhile but seeing as people keep posting i will just say it has started growing very well new shoot are coming up every where thanks

Speaking of pests;
Al posted about these being a magnet for insect pests, specificly scale. Here we have every pest known to man and a few you don't even want to know about...trust me.
My FT's are highways for most of them however, although scale and aphids, mites (all 3 kinds) and others are always running around on them, they have never been bothered other than destroying flower blossoms right before they open.
The spider mites do that very well. I've never had an incident of scale on mine.

Scale...you wanna see scale...you say you wanna see scale and aphids and god knows what else??!! My big Kumquat is a magnet for every pest known to man/woman...right now it looks like flocked like a Christmas tree!! Hmmm maybe I should add some lights? Merry Christmas to all.

Bob