8 Years Later - Now What?

LMU_Greg

Seed
Messages
1
Reaction score
2
Location
Los Angeles
I bought this beautiful tiger bark ficus 8 years ago off eBay and haven't dont anything but water it. Obviously long overdue for some Bonsai love.

Here are my thoughts:

- Upgrade to larger pot (currently 7x4") + resoil with good quality soil
- Start fertilizing

Any tips on what to use (soil, where to get pot, do I add drainage medium to soil, etc)? And should I even begin to think about trimming or proceed with these steps first?

Better late than never? I love this plant and want to see:

- bigger (thicker) trunk
- smaller leaves

THANK YOU

Greg
 

Attachments

  • 40D27636-70B8-49A8-95E5-E57901CB7CFB.jpeg
    40D27636-70B8-49A8-95E5-E57901CB7CFB.jpeg
    223.9 KB · Views: 108
  • 78A0D811-F16B-4170-AA43-A27499FC1C7C.jpeg
    78A0D811-F16B-4170-AA43-A27499FC1C7C.jpeg
    235.8 KB · Views: 109
  • 9CE36681-21A5-4EAA-9CE1-41975222B2D7.jpeg
    9CE36681-21A5-4EAA-9CE1-41975222B2D7.jpeg
    228.8 KB · Views: 98
  • F060514F-DFC4-4CCE-B592-1883568744DA.jpeg
    F060514F-DFC4-4CCE-B592-1883568744DA.jpeg
    207.2 KB · Views: 89
  • 65CACE16-76B9-4034-8021-F19DC31DF9D5.jpeg
    65CACE16-76B9-4034-8021-F19DC31DF9D5.jpeg
    209.3 KB · Views: 83

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
Messages
32,908
Reaction score
45,579
Location
Berwyn, Il
USDA Zone
6.2
Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce
 

MHBonsai

Chumono
Messages
669
Reaction score
2,056
Location
Nashville, TN
USDA Zone
7a
Welcome! Good work keeping it alive so far!
Some internet searching is the best bet to find soil and pot into, everyone has a different thought on it.

Smaller leaves + bigger trunk don’t really work together at the same time. You need lots of leaf mass to drive growth first, then once the trunk is the size you like you can start developing branching, which helps get leaf size down.

Best thing you can do is put it outside to grow hard all summer in pot twice that size with good soil. Let it grow!
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
Nice and healthy, quite good for 8 years of neglect. You have a green thumb.

The trunk you have is nice, "right size" for a pot the size it is currently in. You can go a little larger, if you want, or you can re-use this same pot. If I wanted to keep this tree small, I would just repot, prune off the bulk of the roots. Work on keeping only the wide radial flare of roots, get rid of anything growing downward. You are in Los Angeles, you can repot pretty much any time of year. Before you repot I would prune the tree. Myself I would prune it to a bare trunk and short little branches all around. The tree will back bud like crazy. You might not feel that adventuresome. It does need to be pruned back sharply. Read some of the thread about Ficus in the "Tropical" sub-forum.

Before you start
1. get your new pot, not too much larger, no more than 9 x 5, or a round, about 8 inches diameter.
2. read up and decide what bonsai potting media you want to use. I use a mix that is over 50% pumice. Pumice does not break down, so you can go multiple years between repotting. I use either a bark, & diatomaceous earth, & pumice blend or Akadama, diatomaceous earth & pumice blend. But there are a thousand different mixes will work. Have your potting media on hand. Also get a set of bonsai soil sieves. Sift you media to remove the fines. A good bonsai mix have a very uniform particle size. No fine particles, no overly coarse particles.
Have your mix ready, already sifted, ready to go.
3. put tie down wires in the new pot before you start, The tree should not wiggle when you are done tying it into the pot.
 
Top Bottom