Chunky Ficus - Future Banyan?
Posted: March 10th, 2017, 11:15 am
Good Morning All,
Thought I'd post some pics of a Ficus I'm hoping to develop into a banyan. Very new to bonsai, so I've decided to focus on some Ficus and try out a bunch of techniques. This victim was purchased as 2 plants in 8" pots a month ago.
Any consensus on the correct naming? Nursery said White Tigerbark Retusa. I'm calling it Ficus Microcarpa "Retusa". Can't find any references about the "white" naming?
I constructed a grow box for the little fellas while they develop.
There was a large knob on one plant where a heap of branches had sprouted & been left to grow. This was sawed off & turned to the inside. An area of bark on the opposing side was roughed up & the 2 tied with raffia.
The roots of both plants were sawed off to 1/3 & arranged to fit together. Left over roots were attached to the trunks to fill in empty spaces. Seeing how readily Ficus fuse & grow from root cuttings, I've simply pinned 2 roots to the trunks after slicing off a layer of bark & sealed with PVA. I like experiments! The root that mattered most was attached with the more accepted method of T-Cutting the bark & inserting the grafted root underneath. No cut paste on hand, so I soaked a strip of paper towel in PVA & wrapped the wound.
Trimmed off what was growing in the wrong places, wired the branches out & It's been growing great ever since. Still pushing out new growth, but I guess they don't slow down much in Brisbane.
Thanks for looking!
Thought I'd post some pics of a Ficus I'm hoping to develop into a banyan. Very new to bonsai, so I've decided to focus on some Ficus and try out a bunch of techniques. This victim was purchased as 2 plants in 8" pots a month ago.
Any consensus on the correct naming? Nursery said White Tigerbark Retusa. I'm calling it Ficus Microcarpa "Retusa". Can't find any references about the "white" naming?
I constructed a grow box for the little fellas while they develop.
There was a large knob on one plant where a heap of branches had sprouted & been left to grow. This was sawed off & turned to the inside. An area of bark on the opposing side was roughed up & the 2 tied with raffia.
The roots of both plants were sawed off to 1/3 & arranged to fit together. Left over roots were attached to the trunks to fill in empty spaces. Seeing how readily Ficus fuse & grow from root cuttings, I've simply pinned 2 roots to the trunks after slicing off a layer of bark & sealed with PVA. I like experiments! The root that mattered most was attached with the more accepted method of T-Cutting the bark & inserting the grafted root underneath. No cut paste on hand, so I soaked a strip of paper towel in PVA & wrapped the wound.
Trimmed off what was growing in the wrong places, wired the branches out & It's been growing great ever since. Still pushing out new growth, but I guess they don't slow down much in Brisbane.
Thanks for looking!