Ficus #2

[Hbhaska]

Starting a thread for this tiger bark Ficus. I bought this tree from a lady on craigslist who was trying to get rid of some of her large collection of potted plants 2 years ago. I saw the trunk on this thing and immediately got interested. Paid her $20 she wanted for the tree and immediately repotted into a slightly bigger container for health reasons. Also chopped down a single tall leader that was the driver for the girth of the tree. The tree has been growing well although it has been slowing down recently and I knew it was time to repot.

Summer in San Diego starts late. Even now it’s not that warm, with a max of 70 today. But it is supposed to warm up starting tomorrow and next week is supposed to be close to 80! I decided to repot today. Upon inspection of the roots, there were several big tap roots. Fortunately, there were enough fine root structure that I removed most of those thick roots. Repotted into a flat similar to an Anderson flat that I got from Daiso.

Will repot this and let it recover this summer. Depending on how it responds, I might cutback early Fall, which is still pretty warm in SD with a few hot spells. Excited to develop this tree. I want to show the difference between this and a somewhat advanced Tiger bark (#1). You can see how the foliage on that one is much smaller compared to this one below and you can follow the progress of the other tree here -

Ficus #1

Starting a progression thread for this Tiger-bark Ficus. You can see the previous post on this Ficus here - https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/ficus-repotting-in-hot-weather.57259/ Let this Ficus grow wild for a few years to gain strength. The leggy branches were cut off and sealed. Put a mini...

www.bonsainut.com

This is the correct front of the tree, however -

 

[pandacular]

Nice ficuses. do you attribute the finer foliage to growth management, or is that a difference in the cultivar?

 

[Hbhaska]

Nice ficuses. do you attribute the finer foliage to growth management, or is that a difference in the cultivar?

Same species, the one on the left is a little bit more advanced in training and pruning.

 

[luvinthemountains]

This is the correct front of the tree, however

I actually feel as though the side shown in your third photo might be more pleasing. Smoother taper and good branch placement. But the angle of the photo is a little skewed, so I could be off.

Great find for a houseplant! I would really struggle with the fat roots that are running away from each other, though, even if they do end up in the "back." Have you thought about ground layering somewhere higher up? I know you would lose a lot of girth going that way, but right now I am not sure the fat part is helping the image all that much. Once it recovers from the repot, you could just cut the bark where you want roots, put a nursery pot with the bottom cut off around the base, and fill it up with the same substrate. Maybe add a little sphagnum on top to keep the pot humid and stimulate root growth.