Gained two 5+ year ficus's, need some advice.

Hey guys

I was visiting my grandparents the other day and pop had two ficus's in a couple of small terracotta pots, he apparently brought them about 5-6 years ago as 'bonsai' but has done nothing to them at all, even said a few years ago the busted out of their original pots. He's just had them as little shrubs. I think these are pot bellied ficus?



So i now have these two almost twins, obviously just been growing straight up for a number of years, so first thing i did was look up ficus, and i found something that really threw me out, i live in melbourne australia, and we get cold winters (not ice, but cold) nights will drop to 3C (38F), and days can be only as high as 12C (54F) in the middle of winter, average day is about 17C (62F), one of the first things i read is how tropical ficus's are and how much humidity they like, finding forums where people have built small box greenhouses to keep them warm/humid. My grandfather having the army mentallity he does, "stick it in a pot, it'll be right" and has had it outside for the last 5 years, all year round, clearly the plant doesnt mind.

So my first question is, this whole tropical thing... whats the deal? should it be alot bigger/healthier than it is because maybe its just "surviving" the cold, or is it really not that big of a deal? Should i be bringing it inside for the winter? we have a nice upstairs bathroom that gets ALOT of light, and of course being a bathroom humidity will keep pretty high.

Second, aesthetics... its obviously got a large rootball since it broke out of its last pot, and its just growing straight up.. so can anyone give me advice on:

A) Repotting, should i ? Shouldnt i? Cull the rootball back a bit? Get it into a shallower pot?
B) General shape and direction, its completely lacking, i've seen people post pretty good virts with ideas, if anyone had any of those based on this it'd be great
C) Do I need to snip back the long tall branches to try and force some more folliage out of the lower ends?

Thanks heaps in advance!

Not sure of the exact toe of ficus as they're usually grafted onto those roots, but most should be fine to stay outside in your climate. Protect them from freezing, but down to 0 C they should be fine, especially if they have been outside.

A. Spring is generally the time to repot. I wouldn't do it now unless there is an issue with getting enough water, or poor drainage causing root rot, etc. they look happy enough so I wouldn't worry about it right now.

B. I'm not an expert with the virts, but you'll find that the huge exposed roots are a bit looked down on by serious bonsai artists. Some would tell you to cut it off and treat the top as a cutting, or air layer above them. I've also heard the idea of encouraging aerial roots to disguise it. Bottom line though is whether YOU like it or not, plus having a tree given to you buy your granddad makes it cool in its own way. Do some image searching on google and you would find lots of great ficus bonsai for inspiration.

C. Don't cut anything without a plan. Ficus usually back bud well, but it would still be frustrating to decide you need a branch exactly where you just cut one off (it's happened to me).

Good luck, hope that helps!

Hey Lackhand,

Thanks for the info, yeah know what you mean about the branches, will have to search some images for sure,

Did you have any idea bout the length of the branches? if i should be snipping the ends off to force some growth lower down?

Cheers

If it were me, I would pick one branch to grow out as a leader to make the new trunk line, wire it up with some movement, and let that one go nuts to thicken it up. If you are trying to funnel energy into one leader, then it would make sense to cut the other branches back a bit. I wouldn't worry too much about developing lower branching right now though.

Generally when building a bonsai, you start from the ground up. Roots and trunk take the longest, and are probably the hardest to get right. You can worry about roots when you repot, so focus on the trunk for now.

With these trees I would go for a powerful trunk in an upright style if you plan to keep growing from the current base. In order to do that, you need a strong leader and let it grow thick enough that the transition between that fat base and the new trunk looks reasonable. It will probably take a few years. While you're working at it, your tree won't look much like a bonsai, but once the trunk is good you can start to develop branches and ramification and it will quickly turn into a nice tree.

All of that being said, if you want to just make it look like a bonsai now, then yes, cut the branches back and build some ramification. It really depends on the tree you want to build, and just about everyone would design it a little different. That's half the fun of bonsai!

I mentioned cuttings and air layers before. Those are intimidating to most new growers, but ficus respond really well to both techniques, so they're great to experiment on if you're interested. A quick search here or on the web should turn up a wealth of information.

Lackhand's advice is probably what I'd go with, but since you have two you might want to try something different with each one. I found a blog post a while back where a guy actually created a decent canopy on one and it doesn't look half bad:

http://lennardsbonsaibeginnings.blogspot.com/2013/02/ginseng-pot-belly-ficus.html?m=1

I would also check out this blog post as well -- deals specifically with the "Ginseng Ficus."

http://adamaskwhy.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/what-shall-you-do-with-a-ginseng-ficus/

The post is informative and humorous (often a rare combination when reading up about bonsai techniques).

It's kind of funny, as much as these are looked down on in some circles, this thread and those blog posts just shared kind of makes me want to go buy one and see what I can do with it. Ficus just grow so strongly, it's kind of ridiculous what you can do with them. Like the one blog said, "I have yet to kill one." Same here. And heaven knows I've done my best.

Hey Both, thanks again for the responses, will have a good look at them tonight, might give one a solid leader and the other might try and air-layer, but i also like the idea of getting a rock under one... choices choices!

Either way with the weather here at the moment looks like i'll be needing to wait till spring as things start warming up from reading the different blogs.

Will let you guys know how it goes in the future!