Some Ficus Advice

[TreeHugger]

Hi all....I acquired this ficus a couple of weeks ago and im just after some advice on whether it is worth turning into a bonsai or not. I know its been in a huge50 liter pot for the last 5 or 6 years so some serious root pruning will need to happen at some stage in the warmer months. From the base to first branch is approx 50cm high, and a circumference of 25cm, apart from the great looking claw nebari there isn't a lot else going on with the trunk in the way of movement. All the foliage seems to be on the outside of the tree and inside is just long bare branches of nothingness which tells me it probably hasn't been pruned hard at all.
Also if anyone knows what kind of ficus it is please feel free to to let me know

love the base of this one

FicusTrunk.jpg

Any idea what sort of Ficus this is??

FicusEdit1.jpg

Ficus Edit2.jpg

some expert advice would be greatly appreciated
Looking forward to your feedback

Cheers
Lee

[Andrew F]

Ficus Benjamina. Nice base.

Air layer it in spring.


Rintar posted the same thing a week or so ago.

[karraway2]

i would do the same. Air layer the top off about half wY up trunk. Once seperated prune a lot of the top foliage off so you balance the new roots more. Then you have the base with nebari to start forming a new tree from the shoots that grow out after the chop.

[Bougy Fan]

To my eye the roots are too big for the trunk. The tree is probably an old plaited standard. Unless you particulary like the trunk I don't think it is great bonsai material.

[TreeHugger]

Thanks for the Id and advice Velvet i thought it might have been a Benjamina
Thank you too Karraway im yet to do an air layer so i reckon im going to have a crack at it this coming spring and see what happens.

Bougy Fan i think you may be right ....the trunk definitely looks as though it was plaited and has eventually grafted itself together over time......If anything it will be good practise and a great learning curve for me. nothing ventured nothing gained is my motto

Thanks again guys

[Craig]

OK so it's really hard to tell but circled in red looks to me like a place the Benji would backbud at . That would be my aim, produce a new shoot from there to use as a new leader.
Then the twist in the trunk shows some nice movement , so maybe a chop back to there (sort of up the red lines) and create some taper through the trunk , hope you see what i see

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[TreeHugger]

Awesome craig i can see exactly what you are saying ....that circled area is a knob or callus, not knowing to much about figs but after reading i hear that they can bud anywhere after being pruned hard so it works .....definitely achieve a lot more movement in the trunk cutting it like that.... that's for sure

Thank you very much....much appreciated

Lee

[Andrew F]

^^^ Great virt.

The leader follows that nice bulge in the trunk too. I think the base is worth using for sure.

[Craig]

Awesome craig i can see exactly what you are saying ....that circled area is a knob or callus, not knowing to much about figs but after reading i hear that they can bud anywhere after being pruned hard so it works .....definitely achieve a lot more movement in the trunk cutting it like that.... that's for sure

Thank you very much....much appreciated

Lee

Benji's are not famous for the ability to backbud , do a search and you should be able to find heaps of info on them ,

If it were mine, come warm weather i would either chop the trunk completely and risk the tree not backbudding , possibly dying or cut every leaf and branch off the tree except say 6/8 leaves on a short low branch or 2.With some degree of luck and a little it'll backbud on that callous/node. and go from there

[TreeHugger]

hmmmm definitely something to think about now.......not sure whether to risk it or not.

Ive seen footage of a guy drilling a hole through the trunk then taking a cutting which has already taken in a small pot, sliding it into the hole, tying the pot to the tree and waiting for it to grow. Theory is once the cutting grows bigger than the hole it then becomes part of the tree and the small pot and rootball is chopped off leaving you with a new branch. If that makes any sense...... not sure how successful this is though.

maybe i will just chop back the roots and prune back the foliage pretty hard this coming spring and see if it backbuds after that

plenty to think about anyway.......thanks again craig for your advice

cheers
Lee

[karraway2]

If the tree cost you nothing then you can afford to experiment on it with different ideas and techniques. I have a number which will never amount to a good bonsai but i use hem to play with and see the results of my action. i have a maple, ficus, cotenestar and elm for this purpose...

Just a thought...

[Tony Bebb]

hmmmm definitely something to think about now.......not sure whether to risk it or not.

maybe i will just chop back the roots and prune back the foliage pretty hard this coming spring and see if it backbuds after that

cheers
Lee

I would stick with that Lee. As Craig said Benji's do not bud back as well as most Figs, and as such I would not contemplate cutting it back to the red marks yet. Great option if the shoots come from there. Any hard cut should be a flat cut above where you want growth to occur, providing there is a node there.
I would cut and thin in spring to encourage as many shoots as possible along the trunk, and make decisions from there.

Tony

[Chris H]

My view is that this is not great material, if you want to experiment go for it.
But the roots are strange and the trunk odd
it's a benji so it'll be touch and go which branches die back and which shoot back

Have a play, if you want to do a thread graft take some cuttings and plant them in spring, they'll be ready to thread by summer

Otherwise agree with Tony, cut it back a little thin out the top and see if it cuts back, an air layer mightn't work as you hope.

[TreeHugger]

Agreed Tony...thank you all for your input

[Rintar]

I have 3 or more benji coming my way so this is a very interesting thread for me. Vs you have air layered benjis before haven't you? What was your succes rate of both top layer and bottom.


Rin

J