Recommendations with soil / style

[Brockie1996]

Good morning / good evening wherever you are!

I’m a beginner with bonsai, I have recently just purchased a Ficus Microcarpa (tiger bark ficus) I’m sure it is. I’m contemplating a re pot to change it to a proper bonsai soil, and to maybe bring it up a bit more as I think I see potential around the base of the tree. Im looking for advice on this as im new to it but i have been doing a lot of research.

Around the base of the tree it looks like the trunk goes a bit further into the soil, and there are what look like some very thick roots down there! I will show you some pics, i have brushed away a little bit of the top soil around the base to check it out but not too much. It is 16 hours after watering, it drained very well but it still pretty wet.

I’m thinking about buying a bag of the bonsai mix I have posted with this, if there are any people out there who would be so kind as to possibly shed some light on where to maybe go with this I’d appreciate it! thank you so much for any advice I get from you!

 

[pandacular]

Glad you’re settling in and asking questions! I like where your head is at doing some soil exploration. During a repot and root prune on a tree like this, you’ll often find that nurseries plant trees rather high, which can result in small, high roots. Generally, I try to cut high roots above where the largest roots emerge from the soil.

As far as timing of repots, summer when they can be outside is the best time for tropicals. I recommend watching several videos from different people doing repots, and have a couple of books I recommend to beginners often if you’re interested. Do you have an outdoor location for this tree?

That soil should work well. I would use something to sift off the dust; you can use a regular old kitchen sifter if you’re not sifting for size.

You’ve done a really great job applying wire to that first branch, but I think it could be improved with some nice movement. It looks like it’s been pulled down, which is nice, but give it some nice arcs left to right and up to down. We want 3-D movement all across the branch.

Good luck! I recommend picking up a few more trees to prevent loving this one to death. 5 is not so much harder to manage than 1 for the first several years.

 

[Brockie1996]

Glad you’re settling in and asking questions! I like where your head is at doing some soil exploration. During a repot and root prune on a tree like this, you’ll often find that nurseries plant trees rather high, which can result in small, high roots. Generally, I try to cut high roots above where the largest roots emerge from the soil.

As far as timing of repots, summer when they can be outside is the best time for tropicals. I recommend watching several videos from different people doing repots, and have a couple of books I recommend to beginners often if you’re interested. Do you have an outdoor location for this tree?

That soil should work well. I would use something to sift off the dust; you can use a regular old kitchen sifter if you’re not sifting for size.

You’ve done a really great job applying wire to that first branch, but I think it could be improved with some nice movement. It looks like it’s been pulled down, which is nice, but give it some nice arcs left to right and up to down. We want 3-D movement all across the branch.

Good luck! I recommend picking up a few more trees to prevent loving this one to death. 5 is not so much harder to manage than 1 for the first several years.

Thank you so much for this reply and all your advice it means a lot! I had a feeling that there would be some interesting stuff that was under the soil stuck to the base of the tree so I brushed it back and had a look and found some very thick roots down there!

I have done a tonne of research on aspects like repotting and pruning and watering and soil mixes but there are so many different options out there! So I’ve narrowed my search down to the tree I have which has helped, but also getting advice from people personally is always better!

I don’t have a permanent outdoor location for it but the window it is at, it has 2 windows so it gets good light either side of the tree, it gets a good solid 5 hours of sunlight each day (when it is sunny here in the UK ofcourse!) I understand they like humidity so I do mist it once a day too. The soil it’s in does retain a good amount of water as it stays moist for up to 4 days as I have figured.

Thank you for noticing my wiring on the first branch, I will definitely take that on board and make some changes to it, to give it a bit more shape

I’m definitely going to get a couple more to add to my collection, so I can have a few there as little projects I’m very eager to learn and I’m excited to get started with them!