I haven't been on here in a while. The nighttime temps are dropping and I'm late bringing in my tropicals. While I was bringing them in, I thought some deserved an update...
Like this one:
Lots of good growth on this one this year even though I barely fertilized it. It looks less square in 3d
The top does need some pruning but I'll leave it alone through the winter now. All I did to it bringing it in was snip off all the new hair roots that were over the rock...I don't want any more roots thickening up and hiding all of the rock!
We're on well water here and you can tell by how the crystal has browned up. In person it is still sparkly and crystal like but in pictures, it is certainly muted from when it was bright white! Maybe that's a good thing??
If you're a traditionalist and feel root over crystal _never_ works...there is a reverse side
In person, the straight trunk with the slight bulge looks more natural. It leans forward in the front view and has some barky texture. The overall scale it is right now makes it look like quite the natural tree. Long term, I'd like maybe a 25% larger canopy. It needs to have a little larger volume to be able to form some realistic foliage clouds and not be perfectly round.
It's inside for the winter now. It should have come in two weeks ago. A lot of leaves are yellowing from the nighttime chill. We'll see what it manages to hold onto for he winter. It might help if it does drop everything as that would make it easier to see where to prune.
It's also been 3 years since last repot. There are a lot of obvious surface roots starting to poke through. It's time for some root work as well.