new tree tips

[maverickheath]

Yeah....I'd chop it at the first branch.....

Maybe another airlayer....of the top.

That top would be useful for cuttings to root and bind.....but that's about it IMO.

Nice base though.....definitely worth working it down to.

Sorce

Woowww slow down there noobie here lol

 

[sorce]

I'd airlayer the top So you can play with it.....and have cuttings available for root grafts, and such.

Then
Chop it at the red line.....all this tree is down there!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

@sorce plan sounds like a plan

Important tip:
- keep smoking but stop watching football and watch rugby instead, but cheer for France (even if it's really not easy to cheer for the French XV these days )

Otherwise regarding your ficus: retusa are really tough guys, you could basically do whatever you want to them and they'll survive.
They grow fast, however in England it will mainly grow during summer (does summer actually exists in England, I don't think so... )
During winter: I don't have any specific set-up for my ficus inside during winter and they don't care.
I just put them close to a window (in order to get the most sun/light as possible) and I take care that they don't get too cold (never below 55 - 60F - approx 13 - 15C -) and don't get dry. They just grow slower. If you want you could put the pot on top of a tray/plate with water inside in order to get a more humid atmosphere but without having the base of the pot soaked in water.
Put it outside during summer, the sunnier the better. If the weather in England didn't change too much since I left Europe you shouldn't have any problem regarding the watering If exceptionally it doesn't rain then water it, if your soil has a good drainage you shouldn't be able to over-water it.

You could layer where Sorce showed you and if the layer doesn't work (ie if there is no roots growing there) you may certainly be able to just chop it, plant the trunk in a pot and it will most certainly roots from there, the remaining part of the trunk will bud back.
If you do the 'chop, plant and wait for roots' plan you might want to prune it first in order to reduce a little bit the foliage (and get a sort of balance between: enough leaves to bring processed sap to the growing roots, not too much in order to avoid to have too many leaves to feed with a trunk with no roots). If you don't do it your ficus will most certainly do it itself by loosing the existing leaves anyway.

In fact you could chop/layer your ficus basically wherever you want and every cut will give you a new tree. Example with the much less than 50 shades of blue below:



For the picture you showed asking if it's a problem: no it's not.
It's just a 'scratch' in the bark, your tree will be fine with that however you might want to carve it in order to make it nicer (in the 'hollow part of the trunk with nice scar' department).
At one point you might want to de-pot your tree also in order to check its roots and see if you can't get a nice nebari with them.

Last point: I like the base of your tree.
For a tree that seems obviously to come from a general retailer (i.e. not a bonsai specific nursery) I find it really nice, normally these kind of mass produced retusa aren't that cute.

 

[maverickheath]

very good ideas guys one big problem is i don't want to make it smaller Aka chop or air layering i love the size of the beast so i don't want to make it smaller !! and thanks alain on the info

 

[Alain]

very good ideas guys one big problem is i don't want to make it smaller Aka chop or air layering i love the size of the beast so i don't want to make it smaller !! and thanks alain on the info

It's not a problem and certainly not a big one.
It's your tree, you do whatever please you with, the main point is that you like it.

The chop/layer idea only came (I didn't read all the comments but I'm pretty sure of that) from the fact that your tree is of out of proportion from a bonsai point of view.
From the base to the red line in Sorce's pic it's fine but then the part between the red line and the start of the foliage is too long and straight (no taper) to fit the bonsai magic numbers.

However if you want to keep it like that as I said it's your choice but in this case:
1) you may have some serious work to do on the branches/foliage in order to make this straight part of the trunk kinda disappear,
2) you may never get an 'attaboy' from the B-nuts community because your tree will always shifted from the bonsai aesthetics. Which is perfectly fine as you may actually not give a rat ass of the 'attaboy' of the B-nuts community

 

[maverickheath]

1) yeah that's what id like ideas on what to do with the /foliage come spring ill re pot it because its really pot bound so after its re potted im going to have a lot of the big roots on show i think that will look cool
2) dont care

3) if i cut where the black lines are and wire the new branches (green lines) straight up that may look good

 

[aml1014]

1) yeah that's what id like ideas on what to do with the branches/foliage come spring ill re pot it because its really pot bound so after its re potted im going to have a lot of the big roots on show i think that will look cool
2) dont care

I'm the same way. here's one of mine that I love the top because I've been working on it for 2 years but I hate how tall it is so I'm gonna chop the top at the low branch I'm letting run and root the top as a cutting, that way I'll have 2 trees

 

[sorce]

dont care

Atta boy!

Rebellion is Key!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

Atta boy!

Rebellion is Key!

Sorce

And may the force be with you... (seems to be the general mood right now)

 

[Alain]

1) yeah that's what id like ideas on what to do with the /foliage come spring ill re pot it because its really pot bound so after its re potted im going to have a lot of the big roots on show i think that will look cool
2) dont care

3) if i cut where the black lines are and wire the new branches (green lines) straight up that may look good
View attachment 89153

In fact this might actually don't work out as planed...

See: if you cut at the black lines as your foliage is still very strong your tree may never bud back where you put your green lines but instead keep developing its canopy. Nature is just a lazy bitch, she always take the easier path.
If you want to have some branches going up where the green lines are then you could probably just prune and wire the ones that are already there.

For the re-pot: don't get your hope too high in the 'lot of big roots' section. This kind of mass produced retusa have generally quite a shitty root ball, then when you re-pot it do it in a larger pot with the existing roots well disposed, flat and in a star-like arrangement, and let them grow like that for a while.

 

[sorce]

Nature is just a lazy bitch,

@Vin another one for the quotes page....
But I'm not gonna comment on it. Not me!
No way!

Sorce

 

[maverickheath]

d

In fact this might actually don't work out as planed...

See: if you cut at the black lines as your foliage is still very strong your tree may never bud back where you put your green lines but instead keep developing its canopy. Nature is just a lazy bitch, she always take the easier path.
If you want to have some branches going up where the green lines are then you could probably just prune and wire the ones that are already there.

For the re-pot: don't get your hope too high in the 'lot of big roots' section. This kind of mass produced retusa have generally quite a shitty root ball, then when you re-pot it do it in a larger pot with the existing roots well disposed, flat and in a star-like arrangement, and let them grow like that for a while.

dont need to be exactly where i put the green lines thats just to show what im thinking

as for the roots i dont really want to change the size of the pot its huge (9.5" x 6"x 2.5") already im just thinking of trimming the roots its that pot bound its pushing its self out of the pot there's gota be some nice roots there i hope heres a picture or should i just do what you said?????

 

[Alain]

No you should never do what I say!

you see it better than me, it's your tree, follow your feeling
It's seem that your retuse comes from a much better producer than mine anyway, the roots could be also much better, hard to say just with pictures.

Also what I meant: if you cut where you put the black lines, right to the trunk, seems to me that you have much more chances to end up with nice round scares on the trunk than buds.
And when I said 'work the branches to mask the long, no taper, part of the trunk I was thinking of bringing the top branches down, not the bottom ones up anyway

 

[maverickheath]

No you should never do what I say!

you see it better than me, it's your tree, follow your feeling
It's seem that your retuse comes from a much better producer than mine anyway, the roots could be also much better, hard to say just with pictures.

Also what I meant: if you cut where you put the black lines, right to the trunk, seems to me that you have much more chances to end up with nice round scares on the trunk than buds.
And when I said 'work the branches to mask the long, no taper, part of the trunk I was thinking of bringing the top branches down, not the bottom ones up anyway

I geuss I'll find out about the roots when I repot it

And yeah that sounds good I'd need cut them all and then wire them down that will look good be a bit like a Rastafari bonsai haha

 

[sorce]

Aaahhhh!

That's not the kind of rebellion I meant!

Clean that string and brown thing!

Lol.

Those branches could make nice little starts on their own! Root em root em!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

I geuss I'll find out about the roots when I repot it

And yeah that sounds good I'd need cut them all and then wire them down that will look good be a bit like a Rastafari bonsai haha
View attachment 89236 View attachment 89238 View attachment 89239

Don't know about Rastafari
But yeah, wired down for a sort of mushroom-like canopy... Something like that.
Anyway at one point you'll have to prune and simplify a little (not so little in fact) this bushy canopy.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would not cut until you are certain the tree is in active growth. Most Ficus, including the 'Tiger Bark' only grow vigorously when temperatures are over about 65 F (18 C) if it is cooler than that daytime or night time, growth will slow to a crawl. While they are famous for surviving low light indoors, in shade they sit almost dormant. For bonsai purposes you need active, fast growth. I would wait to do anything with this tree until you are sure it is growing vigorously. If your home is cool, especially at night, it may be sitting near dormant, and doing major pruning, or repotting will set the tree back. Defoliation should also not be done in cool weather, unless the goal is to send the tree into dormancy, making the tree easier to store in a cool dark shady place until spring. Defoliation in late spring, early summer when the tree is in active growth and growing vigorously, done then, it is tolerated easily, leaf replacement is rapid. In warm climates, you can work on Ficus year round. In cool climates like mine, I only have a 3 month period in summer where mine are growing rapidly.

As to chopping, also take your time, because there are many options for your tree. A round or two of pruning in active growth, all of the terminal buds, will for some back budding. If the trunk buds in that straight section of trunk, those branches can help you disguise the straight section. I would grow it for a year before doing any major styling. Keep reading in the mean time.

Jerry Meislik wrote an excellent book on Ficus as Bonsai. It is available on his website and likely a dozen other places including Amazon. His website is very informative also. See Jerry Meislik's website: http://bonsaihunk.com/

 

[maverickheath]

I would not cut until you are certain the tree is in active growth. Most Ficus, including the 'Tiger Bark' only grow vigorously when temperatures are over about 65 F (18 C) if it is cooler than that daytime or night time, growth will slow to a crawl. While they are famous for surviving low light indoors, in shade they sit almost dormant. For bonsai purposes you need active, fast growth. I would wait to do anything with this tree until you are sure it is growing vigorously. If your home is cool, especially at night, it may be sitting near dormant, and doing major pruning, or repotting will set the tree back. Defoliation should also not be done in cool weather, unless the goal is to send the tree into dormancy, making the tree easier to store in a cool dark shady place until spring. Defoliation in late spring, early summer when the tree is in active growth and growing vigorously, done then, it is tolerated easily, leaf replacement is rapid. In warm climates, you can work on Ficus year round. In cool climates like mine, I only have a 3 month period in summer where mine are growing rapidly.

As to chopping, also take your time, because there are many options for your tree. A round or two of pruning in active growth, all of the terminal buds, will for some back budding. If the trunk buds in that straight section of trunk, those branches can help you disguise the straight section. I would grow it for a year before doing any major styling. Keep reading in the mean time.

Jerry Meislik wrote an excellent book on Ficus as Bonsai. It is available on his website and likely a dozen other places including Amazon. His website is very informative also. See Jerry Meislik's website: http://bonsaihunk.com/

Thanks pal great advise