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| So I was waltzing through Wally World today with the wife & kids, and as we went through the garden area, looking for a fancy bulb planter, a small ficus benjamina "little golden angel" caught my eye. There were about 6 of them, but this perticular one called out to me. It was the only one with a single trunk, and because of that it was a bit thicker, and it also was growing crooked, so I snatched it up, to form up a bonsai.
Thing is, I never much thought about wanting one of these, but now I have it. It's in a small pot, filled with what looks like ALL peat moss. From previous posts, I've gotten the drift that now is probably not the ideal time to bare root it, and slap it in some gritty mix, am I right? I get impatient with the whole repotting thing, because I never like the chincy plastic pots, and I don't like the peat soil, but I want to do this right. Now, on to the bonsai part. What is the recommended way to approach this? Should I be letting it grow, and plan to trunk chop, or do I grow and prune toward my desired shape, while pinching to contain the apical dominance, and direct growth. Will this method thicken up the trunk, or is it a lost cause without chopping? I'm shooting for an informal upright style. Thanks in advance. Joe |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by simsedward 6- MI (My Page) on Sat, Apr 30, 11 at 8:37
| Hey- It really depends on the status of the tree - a pic would help us answer your questions better. I would say for SURE get it out of the peat and into some gritty mix and a nicer looking pot. You do not have to prune the roots heavily if you are worried about that. Just have a spray bottle at the ready and keep the roots moist - don't let them go bone dry. Try to pot out of the wind and sun. I usually repot all of my ficus in May here in Michigan and I do ok. I've had two for ten years now. I am assuming, of course you will have it indoors until it warms up there. Good luck - have fun. |
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| I usually keep almost ALL of my plants indoors year round, except for some of the sun lovng succulents. I will put them out in the sun for a few hours, but I never leave any tropicals outside, because for one, my deck faces south, and is a VERY hot microclimate. Also, since I quit putting all of my plants outside, I seem to have absolutely no insect problems. And, as you know, our warm season up here in the north is all of 2 or 3 months, and even then, there's a chance of getting a colder then tolerable night. I'll try & get a pic, although I don't have an image hosting thing. I am a kind of "low key" internet person, minimizing the things I am involved with, and having nothing to do with social network sites. Anyways, if I take a picture, what you'll see is a dense mound of small leaves, about 8" tall and wide. Inside is a trunk that extends from the soil on a 30 degree angle or so, and then grows back straight, with many little branches inside. I'm not necessarily looking for anyone to tell me exactly how to style it, but more how to actually approach it, and the preferred method. Basically, how do YOU style such a tree? Thanks! Joe |
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| Leaf size and internode length and a feel for how dense it grows will tell us a lot about what's appropriate. Joe. Some of the smaller-leaved varieties if benjamina (like 'Too Little' for example) lend themselves nicely to being styled into palm-sized bonsai, while the species plant with its long internodes & larger leaves might not reduce enough to be suitable. I would encourage you to get your plants outdoors in the summer, and to pot them in larger pots so they have room to stretch out, and so their growth won't be inhibited by tight roots. A quick spray with the systemic Imidacloprid in the fall before you bring them in should eliminate any hitchhikers that might want to come along for the ride, and if you use it as a soil drench, it will take care of any subterranean denizens as well. Lol - I often have good intentions about 'designing' a tree from the outset. I do this all the time with cuttings I start, but invariably what happens is I see something later I like better & it all goes out the window. Let the tree tell you what it wants at first, but building taper into your trunks is always going to produce a more believable (natural looking) bonsai .... unless maybe you're working in the literati style. You can plan ahead on how to approach this 'trunk chop' think. Here are a couple of pictures of a larch in the process: before clearing some branches to let light to the bottom - where my tree will eventually be Now the instructional part. You can see that I already have the first branch wired into place on the right, and the new leader is wired into place on the left, pretty much in a diagonal line with the first branch. I'll chop the trunk an inch or so above that line & decide what to do with the deadwood. Larch heals quickly, so I may cut it close & allow the scar to heal, or create a deadwood feature. If you look closely, you'll also see lighter wire on the branch that comes back to toward the trunk, which is also a leader and makes the tree an informal upright. The fat branch with the heavy wire that moves up and to the left is a sacrifice branch. I've removed branching from it near the other leaders so there is no chance of it blocking the sun from the branches I intend to keep. After it does its job of fattening the branches/trunk below it, it will be pruned off ..... before it gets so large it would leave an unsightly scar. This procedure can be leapfrogged up the tree for as long as you have patience for. I have trident maples in the ground that are less than a foot tall with 3" trunks using that method of building taper. I use it on almost all my trees to add character and believability, which is a very big part of the essence of bonsai. AL |
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