Ficus rubiginosa

[Pup]

Last week I was looking for a volunteer to help me with a re pot. Some chance any way yesterday was warm and I decided I would defoliate, and do the repot today as it is cooler.
After defoliating it to lighten the load 2kgs of leaves.
I started and finished it an hour ago I did take pictures, I also did some heavy trimming of some solid roots with my trusty Arbortech chisel.
This technique of cutting the heavy roots under the soil is practiced a lot in Asia. The chisel needs to be sharp though so the cut is clean.

Any way here we are, the other thing is that when discussing mixes for trees we always say an open mix.
Most people will say for drainage!!. I know we have a few members here studying Horticulture. One of the reasons is for drainage, another is to allow the roots to breath and fill the pot slowly. When you get a plant from the nursery and knock it out. The first thing is you notice all those lovely roots ( if you have bought a healthy plant ).
The one common factor is all the roots run down the sides of the pot then across the bottom.
None or very little through the centre of the pot!! why because it cannot get any oxygen so it runs down the side to where the drainage is.

Now if you have that mix in your Bonsai it will push itself out of the pot very quickly. So more frequent re potting, which is not really good because each time you re pot
the tree needs time to recover.
So here then is a tree that was re potted 4 years ago. As you can see it was not root bound but it had filled the pot so it needed to be re potted.

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[Pup]

Second instalment following along the re potting process. One thing that not to many books will tell you is how you know when you have the tree at the right depth.

When the roots are spread as in this tree they should be hugging the soil.
The soil at the level, as you look at the pot at eye level, you should not see any soil from corner to corner.

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[Espresso]

Hi Pup,

Over the years i have always used a very coarse mixture with no soil for all my trees - NOW, i am using the Debco Bonsai potting mixture and seem to be getting good results, its amazing the different combinations that people are using out there.....I would like to hear more from all of you of why you use Akadama etc.

Cheers,

Grant

[bundyfisher]

Hi Pup
Excellent post mate very informative ,Don't want to sound silly but the reason you didn't get rid of some of the roots from say the corners is because you don't need any more ramification ? Do you have any trouble in making sure the slab of roots (lack of better description)mixes with the soil underneath in the pot or are the roots teased out more than I can see ? I appreciate the step by step description
Cheers
Tony

[Pup]

Hi Pup
Excellent post mate very informative ,Don't want to sound silly but the reason you didn't get rid of some of the roots from say the corners is because you don't need any more ramification ? Do you have any trouble in making sure the slab of roots (lack of better description)mixes with the soil underneath in the pot or are the roots teased out more than I can see ? I appreciate the step by step description
Cheers
Tony

G,day Bundy, I had to read your post twice to figure out what you meant. Bloody old age slows ya a bit. The pictures I have shown, do not show how much was taken off. The root mass was reduced by another 5cm all round. So what you see as having the corners left is not so.

Grant, I use Akadama because it is an excellent medium, and is now cost effective here in WA. It has been used in Japan for centuries.
I have had excellent results with it. I have in the past tried various mixes as a trial, but I always come back to my mix. Of two parts Akadama two parts crushed gravel
( aka Aquarium gravel ) one part coco peat, by volume, in other words 4 litres of aka 4 litres gravel 2litres coco peat.

Cheers Young Dog

[bundyfisher]

Thanks for the reply Pup Sorry mate english is my second language (I'm yet to find my first ) How often do you repot ?
Cheers
Tony

[Pup]

Thanks for the reply Pup Sorry mate english is my second language (I'm yet to find my first ) How often do you repot ?
Cheers
Tony

That's alright Tony I have been practicing English for 70 years and still have trouble. Thank god for spell check.
This tree was last re potted 4 years ago. I read just recently that they should be done every two years.

I only re pot when necessary on any tree. I watch for it pushing up from the pot or a slow down in growth. Or roots coming out the drain holes that is always a good sign
it needs re potting.

Cheers Young dog

[Jerry Meislik]

Pup,
Nice repotting sequence. Good photographic progression.
Thanks mate.
Jerry

[john tapner]

Hi Pup, my oldest tree is a PJF which I started in 1975. I have always repotted on a yearly basis and have used Akadama in the mix when available in Sydney. I used 50% Akadama with about 40% Ray Nesci's mix and zeolite to round the whole thing off. A good handful of blood and bone also seems to be beneficial. Repotting when the nighttime temperatures reach 16C, generally mid October here, then defoliate mid November. 35 years old and still going well (the tree that is).................

John T

[cactuscandy2004]

Hi Pup,

This will probably sound a silly question to the more experienced, but here goes:
I notice you are cutting the large roots horizontal to the base of the tray... bit by bit. Did you totally remove those large roots, or leave some intact and possibly seal with cutting paste. Is it better to do the hard heavy prune, or would you recomend the removal in several stages.

Cheers CC