Minnesota Ficus Hackback

[fourteener]

The history of this ficus is that it was at the University of Wisconsin-Superior in their greenhouse for over thirty years. Two summers ago they downsized their greenhouse and gave away a bunch of stuff. This ficus was 8-9 feet tall and we chopped it down to about 30 inches to get it into my vehicle. All the foliage is what has come back in just short of two years.

I also put it in a new box as the old was was bursting at the seams. After trying to make sense of this mess of tree, I finally just went for it and hacked it back to what you see today. Like a Trident, I'm hoping I get as much backbudding as we got the last time and get some branches growing in the right places.

After it come back to good health, the next major problem is to deal with the two enormous roots that were part of getting this trunk to be so large in the first place.

Maybe I'll give my lego guys some sharp tools. If Toy Story taught me anything it's that they come to life at night when I'm not there. Maybe they'll have a good idea.

Any creative ideas on how to deal with the oversized roots?

 

[thams]

Cool little (errr...big) tree! It's got a great back-story which adds to it's charm. I suppose you could always hack off the huge roots and build a new nebari. Or you could ground layer the whole thing and grow a nice root system.

 

[berobinson82]

Off topic but.... Man, I love those walls!

 

[MrFancyPlants]

great find! I think you should plant it deeper to ground layer.you wouldn't have to remove much except for the very bottom . A big mound of fine rootage on top of the existing roots could be dramatic. I would wait a awhile though because it is risky to remove all of the green from a ficus, especially not in the tropics.

 

[Poink88]

The roots need work but I think most of it can be used. I'll "ground layer" the big main root though and remove some of the crossing roots. IF that fails to fix things, then airlayer the tree.

Of course you do not have to do all those...just visualize it then go one route or the other.

 

[davetree]

Minnesota Ficus ? Is that a new cold hardy variety ? Nice trunk.

 

[fourteener]

Minnesota Ficus ? Is that a new cold hardy variety ? Nice trunk.

Field grown, indoors, here in the eternal winter of Minnesota. 12 more inches of snow today!!

Just trying to differentiate from a thread started at almost the same time!!

 

[davetree]

Snow here too. I have always done some repotting outside, at least my later trees. Not this year. I set up a repotting station in my basement. Even the garage is too cold.