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And they must be wired!

That soil is clumped tighter than my cats litter tray. My trees drain faster than this and they're planted in cat litter! Though I would never let them piss in my diatomeceous earth.

I have seen the gnarly old nothofagus mooreii at Barrington Tops, NSW. These are described as semi deciduous but apart from the red new growth, the leaves don't hold a torch to the Gunni. Love your elm @MichaelS, keep doing what your doing.

Minor details needn't matter, we all know @Adair M is a fan of formal upright :p

I would definitely encourage you to give them a try, I'm not sure how cold hardy they are but they are quite possibly the most vigorous species I'm playing with. This one put on 3 times the weight that my tiger bark figs did, all were same diameter cuttings put in the grow bed at the same time...

If you're using an inorganic mix, garden soil will work its way down into your mix. Try using drain mesh as a wall. Moss also works a treat.

Here's the cutting chopped down to size, from thumb thickness to regulation size in under 2 years. Needs some more attention to the nebari, dropped it into a colander for now. I also discovered that they grow from root cuttings. The other 9 foot of growth has been made into multiple cuttings for...

Unfortunately it is more common than people would think. This is the reason Eucalyptus in Australia are referred to as 'Widowmakers'. Mother nature has a warped sense of humour.

Very well done. Natural and believable :eek:

True, I didn't' go quite as hard up top. I'm still trying to balance this tree in regards to growing 100% mature foliage. I think I already know I took off too much and it will mostly revert to juvenile foliage, but this exercise was mainly just eliminating the junk and shortening the runners...

LOL I refer you to page 6 for the earlier shots. But fresh pictures would be better for us drooling over the tree

You had the same feelings on page 6 :p This is a lovely tree, @JudyB . Great bark and nice movement throughout. Reviewing this thread, I quite liked the angle of the photos in post #96, seemed a bit more balanced however, some movement is lost. Any chance of more photos from around the tree?

I do agree it does appear very straight from the front view, there is movement in the branch but THAT is being hidden by a foliage pad... we will see how it appears when the tree fills out again. @sorce I just tinkered with the lowest pads, any better? I think the left most one still seems off...

12 months in between photos of this pre-bonsai stock I purchased a few years back. I don't have earlier pics but the main trunk was over twice the height of the tree now. It was cut back and jinned and the tree was born through the first branch. Still a long way to go but it was nice to finally...

Had a few 90F days with 91% humidity last week, got things really rolling. Pop on the auto sprinklers to increase humidity. Once you've got a canopy the aerial roots really start popping!

@Cypress187 here's a look at what's left of the surface roots. After taking off the majority of large tubers I will be able to get this into an appropriately sized bonsai pot in future. For now, its back into its kitty litter tray and kitty litter soil for another 2 years

Check out the pic in my last post, those roots are following the shape of the rock, once they reached the bottom I tucked them under. So to expose the rock I've still got another 2 inches to uncover. In any case, there's no real need in my climate to re-bury the trunk, I'll be able to get aerial...

I tend to feel the same, when I look at it from that view I don't feel as uneasy, but I do want to continue bulking up that low branch to hide those roots. Just enough to make you want to get up close and see what's really going on under the canopy. Hard to say exactly what type of Fig as I...

Admittedly not the best tree to use on this rock but its all a learning curve. I found it in the desert while travelling for work

Haha! That was my exact thought while typing up this thread, good eye! If I can take away the top roots it would at least remove one distraction. More time for the branches to fatten up and gain character may help.

This Fig started as a pencil thick seedling in one of my my MIL's pots in 2013. It was defoliated, root pruned, and wrapped in a moist paper towel to sit in the car for the 4 hour journey home. The tree grew vigorously in its 1st year and as most Ficus do from seed, they develop bulbous roots...

I would expect them to fruit by late spring after its first big growth flush. And I also expect the tree to be fully recovered and looking full again at that stage.

You gotta put down the pruners if you want it to really thicken. Or run a sacrifice down low and one up top. That's about 8 months growth in my climate. Ground is obviously faster but I would advise annual root pruning until the nebari is formed. But the beauty of Figs is they do thicken and age...

I would call them seedlings. They are trees. Pre-bonsai? Not by my definition, a pre-bonsai should have some orderly training of roots and trunk. These are just seedlings put in overly deep pots for a few years to fatten the roots, then exposing them to make it look like some kinda octopus trunk

I admit, I hate seeing these unhealthy mallsai trees but if we look at the work needed to transform them into something nice, its the same as what we do with any tree. Collected or nursery bought plants with bad root systems are cut back heavily or layered all the time. That's really all these...