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Hi All,

Well.. As promised.. My Ficus Elastica finally saw the light, and partially went to heaven :S . I have a full garbage bag, one clipping in a pot hoping it roots & replaces the main stem, which is now ready to start life as a banyan-style ficus bonsai. Some pictures were demanded in different threads.

So.. Here is the series..


My Office. Notice the Ficus growing behind the Banana tree in the foreground.


The parts that were trimmed off. The floor was covered. Notice the piece a little on the right. This is the base for my other Ficus Elastica bonsai.


The leftover trunc, with many natural airroots. I am not sure how to proceed with this one. Any suggestions are most welcome..


Finally, the office AFTER the whole thing is over; Sorry Ficus.

Lol those trees were going mad in your office! I really like the roots on the tree they look great

:blink: I want an office like that when I grow up! :woohoo: Seriously, that is absolutely awesome. I didn't realize how huge your office plants were. Looks like a good base, and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Hey J,

Oh My Gosh!!! That banana tree is a Monster!!! :woohoo: I'm surprised you didn't have nightmares of it swallowing you whole, hanging over your chair like that. LOL!

The trimmed off piece in your second photo should do well...after all, it already has roots near the base and I would apply some rooting hormone on the end cut below those roots.

I'm not surprised that your Ficus partially bit the dust...it was being far too dominated by the Banana tree as shown in photo #1. The first thing I would suggest for the left over trunk is to give it considerably more space away from the Banana than what it has now as shown in photo #4.

Excellent chop job and was probably the best thing you could have done for this tree. It is covered in little nodes that hold lots of potential for new banyan roots and branches providing you "mist, mist, mist" .

After a full recovery of the chop work and, when the timing is right, I would repot this into a much wider pot but certainly no deeper and focus on thickening the base of the trunk and developing a strong nebari. Of course, this will likely involve some root work depending on the conditon of the roots. Would building a rectangle box lined with a heavy plasic liner be out of the question? You could also build a matching drip tray slightly larger than the width and length of the box, also lined with heavy plastic and filled with hardball sized stones. Would look great, don't you think?

In the meantime, I would gently wire and train the existing banyan roots that are not yet attached to the soil to curve nicely down toward the soil. Eventual placement of these onto the soil will be much easier once the tree is in a wider pot. Monitor the new upper growth, pruning and debudding when necessary to create smaller leaves and slowly working toward a style (which I think the trunk is already suggesting).

But then, you already know all this, right? Hope I haven't made too much of a fool of myself!

Leslie

Hm.. I think the piece on the right is actually what I used to create a new plant for my office, and not for the float-style bonsai.. We'll see.

Note: This tree started 4 years ago from a branch I found on the street in Rome. Since it have been trimmer down from 3 meters (10feet) back to maybe half of that. Last trim was over Christmasn 2010. The green side-branches that are on the ticker branches have grown since then: These plants can grow!

Leslie: The banana was more under threat than the ficus. The ficus had the ligh-advantage, and slowly my office was getting dark & one of the two banana stems had all but died off for lack of light.

Leslie: Seriously? Thicken the trunk more? The bugger is serious already; The branches that I took off were 1 1/2 inches. The base of the plant is about 3 inches / 7,5cm. Just wonderin if I should trim it down even further, removing the higher of the 2 forks. Rule of thumb I think is: Circumference of stem * 6 = max height of tree for well-balanced plants. That would give me 7.5 * 3.14 * 6 = 141 cm tall tree. Tht is not a bonsai anymore. Or am I off here? Naturally, ficus Elastic has massive leaves which reduce to maybe 1-2 inches (2-5cm). So a large bonsai is called for..

My idea for this was to not put it in a bigger pot; But just keep is where it is. Leave it for a month or 2 untill it has some new sprouts, start to pull these horizontal and when they are some 4-6 inches / 10-15cm long remove the growing tips. The idea would be to create a very wide tree with near-horizontal branches comming off themain truncs, having loads of air-roots dangling down to the ground.

The little nodes are all for air-roots. Will wait with pushing those untill I trim the rootball. I think adding moisture to the plant at that time will have them running. At that time I will also try to re-organize the airroots. The pot the tree sits in now is effectively just one root. So that will be dificult => The tree needs to seal the wounds and recover before I can do anymore work.

Hey J,

Whatever Ficus you use for your office is your choice and is, I believe, irrelevant to your post.

I agree...your Banana was/is in rough shape however, I assumed your primary focus is on the Ficus. The top half of the Ficus may have had the light advantage however, the lower half was wedged between the Banana and post and very crowded from what your first photo showed. As you said below, your office was getting very dark and this, combined with the crowding ultimately effects the health/growth of your Ficus. According to your fourth photo, I would still moved the Ficus further to the left infront of the window's centre post in order to benefit both plants.

Jelle...I was referring to expanding the very bottom of the trunk. Perhaps what I should have said was the transition of a wide nebari into the base of the trunk. Does that make more sense? You must remember that it is impossible for me to gauge circumference, height, etc. from a photo.

I placed a tape measure against the wall and I see what you mean by the height...141 cm is pretty high. I'm wondering if you could get away with a maximum height of 120 cm and still look balanced? It would be a shame to cut off the higher of the two forks; I think it has great potential for an off-centre, upper canopy. The lower fork could be trained into a separate, lower canopy slightly off-centre on the opposite side. What is the maximum height of the double fork now?

Are you sure those massive leaves would reduce to 1-2 inches??? That seems quite extreme. I have read however, in bonsai it is not the size of the (large) leaf that creates the mass of the canopy but rather the number of many, smaller leaves that creates the mass.

With regard to putting this tree into a bigger pot...I recall saying "after the plant has fully recovered from the chop and, when the time is right..." That could be next Spring. Yes, of course you must leave it to heal it's wounds and has well begun to develope some hearty, new growth. I assumed that as a given.

Your idea to create a very wide tree with near-horizontal branches coming off the main trunks is a fabulous one! This will be perfect for creating loads of banyan roots! In fact, what about pulling the highest branches of the double fork into a wide and slightly downward arch while training the lower branches of the same fork into a tigher, downward arch? This would create an upper canopy in which the "majority" of the leaf "mass" is below the top of the fork and covering some of the trunk. I think this would also create a more balanced overall look.

Your plan for the air-roots is bang on. You said the pot that it sits in now is just one root. So, essentially it is one long tap-root? That "is" a challenge! It will have to be seriously yet, gradually reduced as it developes new side roots. I think you could follow the same chopping ratio recommended for the above ground plant which is what?...1/3 of it's length/height? I can't remember at this moment. It will take a lot of work however, it will definitely be worth it in the long run.

Leslie

Hahaha, the nebari is hidden underneath layers and layers of roots. So.. I meant to say: There are so many roots in the pot, that the whole pot has become one root. Not so much that I have just one taproot. So I will need to soak the bugger in a big tub of water for an hour or so to get the roots loosened before I can do much to is. Hm.. Maybe I *should* do that now it does not have much foliage. Hm..

So.. Nebari growing: I do not know what it looks like. I expect the nebari will be nice, or can be grown out a little when forming a canopy.

The fork on the tree is completely immobile. I cannot move them. It is stay as it is, or get rid of it. These are 2-3cm thick stumbs; They'll break before moving a cm.

As for competition: These were ahppily growing trees; Only the banana was unhappy. The fact that I got 1m of growth in 8 months prooves that. Moving the ficus would mean I could not sit at my desk anymore

I am not planning on doing anymore stem groing on this; So I would reduce pot size rather than increase it, I think; I am still contemplating letting it grow out for anotyher half a year or so, in order to close the wounds a little, and reduce cut-marks. Sigh, Dificult looking into the future.

What? You mean you don't have a crystal ball for looking into the future??? :ohmy:

You could always sit or lay on your desk! :lol:

Reading the banter between you two is highly entertaining. I'm learning a lot!

OK.. Changed my mind. The top fork is coming of. Yesterday I ring-barked it, to stimulate branching lower down, and placed a plastic foil wrapping around it, with some soil.