Is that scale? I see still lots of it - but understand you just treated it...That must have been quite an infestation! Not sure if r.u. is enough in this case!

I also see lots of healthy stems, so it should make it - as long as the bugs are gone.

Pretty sure it is scale yes.

This is the plant after chopping.

I still need to replant into a new pot with fresh soil but want to give it another go over with the isopropyl before doing so.

I just hope I haven't hacked too much off!

It was a pretty bad infestation :(

Oh, I should have guessed your photos are 'before'!

Looks like quite a root ball. It should regrow. Maybe slow, but trunk also looks quite good.

Goodness me, if only that ‘first pic’ could have been the ‘here it is now‘ pic you would have one of our most lovely looking bonsai shaped trees! That is such a shame. Sincerely hope that it responds to some TLC and goes on to look like it’s former self. Appears to be a nice sturdy trinket ‘Gollum’, which is a great find...good luck :-)

Gill

When I first saw it I thought it would make a lovely bonsai. It was living in a cafe close to me and the last time I was there it looked like this so I offered to take it home and give it some love :)

I'm not sure what you mean by trinket gollum though?

‘Trinket Gollum’, lol, it was meant to say ‘a sturdy trunked Gollum!!’ That is so funny, autocorrect scores again as I didn’t spot the correction before I pressed submit!

Gill