Ficus Stump with lots of Aerial Roots

[BonsaiElmo]

Picked up this large ficus stump from Dragon Bonsai the other day.

I had gift certificate, fantastic present, knowing you have money that can only be spent on trees.

I told myself I would not buy a fig as they already make up a lot of my collection, but I loved the aerial roots on this and thought it had potential.

I think this could be the front

2013-01-12 Large Ficus Aerial Roots (3).jpg

2013-01-12 Large Ficus Aerial Roots (5).jpg

Not so keen on this view, not sure if I can encourage more aerial roots to grow on this side...

2013-01-12 Large Ficus Aerial Roots (1).jpg

Temp got up to 39 degrees here today - trunk is vigorously shooting new leaves, so seems healthy

2013-01-12 Large Ficus Aerial Roots (8).jpg

As you can see it is quite large

2013-01-12 Large Ficus Aerial Roots (11).jpg

It does not have a huge amount of taper, could I encourage more aerial roots lower down the trunk to make the bottom appear wider?
I think I'll just let it grow for now, might repot into a poly box.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Cheers
BonsaiElmo

[Bougy Fan]

If you want to try and get some taper cut all the higher roots off and just leave the lower ones. Repot into styro box is a good idea - put it in a free draining mix and give it heaps of DL. Wherever there are aerial roots that area will thicken as it's extra food for that part.

[Ash]

Your a lucky lad. Nice material.

This is similar material to what I started with for this tree viewtopic.php?f=133&t=11017&hilit=+strangler. My approach would be to keep all of the aerials but bind them close to the trunk to encourage them to fuse and add texture like a strangler. In the meantime I would let every one of the shoots grow like crazy to give the roots strength to meld. It would give added texture to the trunk, especially the upper part which may appear smooth and straight if the upper part removed.

regards

Ash

[BonsaiElmo]

Thanks Bougy Fan, Ash.

I had thought of taking off the upper roots or making the cut lower down the trunk but think I will follow Ash's suggestion. I really like the strangler look and that is why I grabbed this fig in the first place.

Thanks for the link, very nice to see what can be achieved.

When binding the roots would grafting tape be best, or could I use screws to attach the larger roots to the trunk?

Cheers
BonsaiElmo

[Ash]

Hi,

If the roots are pliable enough you could bind them in with grafting tape (to retain moisture) then with heshian or similar cloth tape over the top to pull them in hard against the trunk. You can screw them in if they are really hard, but they look like they would still be pliable.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

Ash

[bonsaiboy50]

Hi, I would take a different approach, I would not bind the airials close to the trunk > Instead i would Firstly repot into a much larger pot or grow box. On repotting I would tease out all the airials and roots around the base of the tree , fanning them out to form what you could loosly call buttresses. This in time, as the roots and airials grow will give this tree more structure and the ilusion of taper. Good luck with it.

PS, If you try this idea I would select another front as the one you have chosen has too many roots coming forward .