HENDO
Shohin
For perspective
Not the most fun tree to move around! But worth it.
[Dingus] ficus benjamina "too little"
- Thread starter LittleDingus
- Start date
For perspective
Not the most fun tree to move around! But worth it.
That's a damn big "Too Little"!
More info on the war of "too little" vs "not too little"
The nursery where I originally bought this has them in stock again. What they have in stock looks identical to what mine in leaf size, shape and coloration. They are labeled "too little" which I know doesn't mean much.
Compared to @HENDO's specimen (which is pretty damn awesome!), the leaves on mine are comparable size:
View attachment 378149
Remember, my tree has no ramification...some of my leaves are still on the larger side.
Coloration wise, mine has that same lemon/lime coloring of new/old growth. My picture is bad because it's raining, but, if you look close, mine has the edging of yellow specks in the leaves as well. If it's not "too little", it's close enough for me
Anyway, it's starting to fill in some again.
View attachment 378150
What is the website address of the store where you bought this ficus? I read your messages about the name of the variety of your old ficus. Your ficus is very similar to the type of ficus that grows in Vietnam. In Vietnam, there are two popular varieties of ficus benjamin, sanh nam điền and sanh quê.
sanh nam điền I really want to buy it, it's very nice, unfortunately I haven't found a way to buy it yet.
Your ficus variety is very similar to Sanh quê.
I got mine from the Facebook auctions but they only shipped within the US.
LittleDingus
Omono
Well, I almost killed in it the move from Kansas City to Chicago earlier this year. Here is this tree in February after having not been properly watered and wintered for far too long 
We had a cold wet spring after that. I was genuinely worried I had killed it for good.
But, it's a survivor! Here it is today:
Once I saw it coming back, I meant to pot it up to help it recover. But I had too many other projects going on with the new property. So here it still sits in the same pot. It's been a solid 3 years since it was last repotted!
I have a little decision paralysis on this one. I like it at this size. I'm ok with the pot it is in...but I had bought a shorter teal pot for it that I think I would like better. Then again, I thought about putting it into a grow back for a few years to grow a mother tree for future trees to work on. I had cut the top off this one a while back and kept the cutting as a spare, but it's also been neglected and hasn't really taken off.
If I keep it as a tiny tree in roughly this form, I may need to top it again soon. The scare from the last chop is starting to bulge too much and nothing seems to be filling in around it on the bac side:
But worse, that front root...which was never that attractive to begin with...has really started to beef up and draw more attention to itself. It's getting a gourd like shape with a thin neck where it comes off the tree and then fattening up before disappearing under the soil...a root with reverse taper!
So, I don't know. This one's future is uncertain. As much as I've grown attached to it, it might have been a little too neglected and have a few too many issues to keep developing at this size. It might be best to let it grow out for a couple of years and possibly get a couple of shohin sized trees out of cuttings on down the road. I was hoping my spare cutting would have done better to make the decision easier.
Here's a front view with measuring tape for scale (sorry...all out of bananas).
We had a cold wet spring after that. I was genuinely worried I had killed it for good.
But, it's a survivor! Here it is today:
Once I saw it coming back, I meant to pot it up to help it recover. But I had too many other projects going on with the new property. So here it still sits in the same pot. It's been a solid 3 years since it was last repotted!
I have a little decision paralysis on this one. I like it at this size. I'm ok with the pot it is in...but I had bought a shorter teal pot for it that I think I would like better. Then again, I thought about putting it into a grow back for a few years to grow a mother tree for future trees to work on. I had cut the top off this one a while back and kept the cutting as a spare, but it's also been neglected and hasn't really taken off.
If I keep it as a tiny tree in roughly this form, I may need to top it again soon. The scare from the last chop is starting to bulge too much and nothing seems to be filling in around it on the bac side:
But worse, that front root...which was never that attractive to begin with...has really started to beef up and draw more attention to itself. It's getting a gourd like shape with a thin neck where it comes off the tree and then fattening up before disappearing under the soil...a root with reverse taper!
So, I don't know. This one's future is uncertain. As much as I've grown attached to it, it might have been a little too neglected and have a few too many issues to keep developing at this size. It might be best to let it grow out for a couple of years and possibly get a couple of shohin sized trees out of cuttings on down the road. I was hoping my spare cutting would have done better to make the decision easier.
Here's a front view with measuring tape for scale (sorry...all out of bananas).
LittleDingus
Omono
Aw heck...while I was thinking about it, I went and pulled out the last cutting I have from this tree and put it into a pot that was intended for this tree before it got too big for it.
Maybe that will help me pay attention to it I can at least fit it into the group of indoor plants I see more often.
I had originally made a community pot of a cutting from a tiger back, a willow leaf and this "Too Little" with the intent of separating them back out after the move and growing them into mother trees. That didn't happen and now the tiger bark has pretty much taken over! It's nearly 2 feet tall and has strangled out the willow leaf completely and was in the process of shading out this bengimina as well.
I still have 2 larger willow leafs to start a new mother tree from and the tiger bark is clearly well on its way...but these are the only "too little" I have these days. Hopefully they do well over winter and I can get a mother tree out of one of them somehow...even if it takes a few years.
For comparison:
Maybe that will help me pay attention to it
I can at least fit it into the group of indoor plants I see more often.I had originally made a community pot of a cutting from a tiger back, a willow leaf and this "Too Little" with the intent of separating them back out after the move and growing them into mother trees. That didn't happen and now the tiger bark has pretty much taken over! It's nearly 2 feet tall and has strangled out the willow leaf completely and was in the process of shading out this bengimina as well.
I still have 2 larger willow leafs to start a new mother tree from and the tiger bark is clearly well on its way...but these are the only "too little" I have these days. Hopefully they do well over winter and I can get a mother tree out of one of them somehow...even if it takes a few years.
For comparison:
Mine does fine and grows well over the winter. Cuttings take pretty easily. I can start some more next summer and send them to you if you'd like.
LittleDingus
Omono
Thanks @Carol 83 , you are very kind
Cuttings do take very easy...I just had too much crammed into a single pot trying to keep things tidy for the move. Neglecting them for so long afterwards didn't help!
I don't think I'm in real danger of loosing these now that they've bounced back...but I did lose a lot of time and it may be several years trying to grow out a mother tree now. I may be without one in a tiny pot during that time is all
LittleDingus
Omono
This tree has enough flaws now that even I feel it's time to move it on to a new chapter...
I don't have any pictures from it's first year, but it was potted in a @sorce pot around the end of 2019. So it has been in this same pot now for 3 years without a repot.
Here's what it looked like at the start of this thread.
It's had a rough year with a move that nearly killed it followed by a cool wet spring that didn't do it any favors plus now it's in a full zone north of where it's used to thriving and where it loses about 2 months of outside time
And here is what it looked like at the start of today.
Flaw #1: The cute little crooked root that was almost a feature when it first started is a thick ugly beast now.
Flaw #2: The backside where I had chopped it to keep it smaller never filled in. The tree is a wide fan with little depth. And the scar from that chop is starting to bulge and get ugly.
Flaw #3: The stubby little bottom right branch is looking more and more like a bar branch and is slowly dying off from being shaded from the canopy above it. Without something filling that space, the lowest left branch feels too asymmetric to me.
The canopy could do with a little trim and some filling in...but those three strikes bothered me and were not easy to fix to my liking.
I do have this little guy lumbering along to take it's place on the shelf.
It's in an @ABCarve pot that I had bought thinking I would put the parent tree into. This little guy is not robust yet, but it's starting to spit out a few new leaves. I have enough confidence in it that I don't think I'll lose it now. By March it should be warming and getting bright enough where its at to start turning on some growth!
So time to start dealing with some flaws!
The ugly clubfoot is uglier and clubbier once out of the soil.
The end of the darn thing is thicker than the trunk!
There was another thick root under there too. So...snip...snip...
The tree already looked 1000x better with just those two roots gone. The basal flare is actually quite impressive! I almost trimmed back some of the fine feeders to expose the flare more and put it right back in its pot...but there are still 2 more major flaws that trimming won't fix
So, instead, the main tree went into a 1 gallon grow bag.
And the root cuttings went back into the @sorce pot.
If something comes from either of those cast-aways, I'll consider it a bonus
I've had an idea for a project for a much larger specimen of this tree for a long while now. I've never given enough care to the few tiny cuttings this tree produced to get something to grow out. Maybe now I will?? I actually want to decent sized trees: one for a mother tree and one for a project I hope to end up in the 2" tall range. So, yeah, still a number of years to go before I can start working on that project...
Since this tree is effectively "gone", I don't know that I'll update this thread any more. If the tiny cutting does well, maybe I'll start a new thread on it instead.
I don't have any pictures from it's first year, but it was potted in a @sorce pot around the end of 2019. So it has been in this same pot now for 3 years without a repot.
Here's what it looked like at the start of this thread.
It's had a rough year with a move that nearly killed it followed by a cool wet spring that didn't do it any favors plus now it's in a full zone north of where it's used to thriving and where it loses about 2 months of outside time
And here is what it looked like at the start of today.
Flaw #1: The cute little crooked root that was almost a feature when it first started is a thick ugly beast now.
Flaw #2: The backside where I had chopped it to keep it smaller never filled in. The tree is a wide fan with little depth. And the scar from that chop is starting to bulge and get ugly.
Flaw #3: The stubby little bottom right branch is looking more and more like a bar branch and is slowly dying off from being shaded from the canopy above it. Without something filling that space, the lowest left branch feels too asymmetric to me.
The canopy could do with a little trim and some filling in...but those three strikes bothered me and were not easy to fix to my liking.
I do have this little guy lumbering along to take it's place on the shelf.
It's in an @ABCarve pot that I had bought thinking I would put the parent tree into. This little guy is not robust yet, but it's starting to spit out a few new leaves. I have enough confidence in it that I don't think I'll lose it now. By March it should be warming and getting bright enough where its at to start turning on some growth!
So time to start dealing with some flaws!
The ugly clubfoot is uglier and clubbier once out of the soil.
The end of the darn thing is thicker than the trunk!
There was another thick root under there too. So...snip...snip...
The tree already looked 1000x better with just those two roots gone. The basal flare is actually quite impressive! I almost trimmed back some of the fine feeders to expose the flare more and put it right back in its pot...but there are still 2 more major flaws that trimming won't fix
So, instead, the main tree went into a 1 gallon grow bag.
And the root cuttings went back into the @sorce pot.
If something comes from either of those cast-aways, I'll consider it a bonus
I've had an idea for a project for a much larger specimen of this tree for a long while now. I've never given enough care to the few tiny cuttings this tree produced to get something to grow out. Maybe now I will?? I actually want to decent sized trees: one for a mother tree and one for a project I hope to end up in the 2" tall range. So, yeah, still a number of years to go before I can start working on that project...
Since this tree is effectively "gone", I don't know that I'll update this thread any more. If the tiny cutting does well, maybe I'll start a new thread on it instead.
LittleDingus
Omono
Since this is a progress thread, this might be a good way to wrap it up:
1/30/2021
The tree was getting too tall and skinny. It needed to be chopped. However, this chop left the back of the tree mostly bare. No budding ever formed to fill in/hide the scar. The scar eventually started to bulge and become a bigger problem.
7/3/2021
8/1/2021
This is my favorite view of this tree. The two lowest branches are at different levels and thicknesses and widen the canopy in a pleasing-to-my-uneducated-bonsai-eye way. The foliage is roughly an equilateral triangle. I'm sure I could force the fibinocci over that if I had to
2/18/2022
Whoops! The defoliation was not intentional! This is the event that killed most of the lowest right branch and threw the tree off balance in my eye.
11/20/2022
Since I almost killed the tree, I let it run wild. I should have trimmed the second branch on the right back to the profile, though. That may have given the lowest right branch enough light to come back more vigorously.
2/7/2023
Instead, that second right branch became even more of an eyesore. Sure, I could've trimmed it back but without that bottom branch, the asthetic I liked is lost. Also, since the bottom right branch stalled, the bottom left branch caught up in thickness and now the two bottom branches start to look more like a bar. And the front root has gotten way too fat!
There's probably still a tree in there that some would like...but it would need a lot of work to pull out. Instead...I thought it time to open a new book
1/30/2021
The tree was getting too tall and skinny. It needed to be chopped. However, this chop left the back of the tree mostly bare. No budding ever formed to fill in/hide the scar. The scar eventually started to bulge and become a bigger problem.
7/3/2021
8/1/2021
This is my favorite view of this tree. The two lowest branches are at different levels and thicknesses and widen the canopy in a pleasing-to-my-uneducated-bonsai-eye way. The foliage is roughly an equilateral triangle. I'm sure I could force the fibinocci over that if I had to
2/18/2022
Whoops! The defoliation was not intentional! This is the event that killed most of the lowest right branch and threw the tree off balance in my eye.
11/20/2022
Since I almost killed the tree, I let it run wild. I should have trimmed the second branch on the right back to the profile, though. That may have given the lowest right branch enough light to come back more vigorously.
2/7/2023
Instead, that second right branch became even more of an eyesore. Sure, I could've trimmed it back but without that bottom branch, the asthetic I liked is lost. Also, since the bottom right branch stalled, the bottom left branch caught up in thickness and now the two bottom branches start to look more like a bar. And the front root has gotten way too fat!
There's probably still a tree in there that some would like...but it would need a lot of work to pull out. Instead...I thought it time to open a new book
I think I have a couple of "Too Little" cuttings, if you want them.Since this is a progress thread, this might be a good way to wrap it up:
1/30/2021
The tree was getting too tall and skinny. It needed to be chopped. However, this chop left the back of the tree mostly bare. No budding ever formed to fill in/hide the scar. The scar eventually started to bulge and become a bigger problem.
View attachment 471616 View attachment 471617
7/3/2021
View attachment 471618
8/1/2021
This is my favorite view of this tree. The two lowest branches are at different levels and thicknesses and widen the canopy in a pleasing-to-my-uneducated-bonsai-eye way. The foliage is roughly an equilateral triangle. I'm sure I could force the fibinocci over that if I had to
View attachment 471619
2/18/2022
Whoops! The defoliation was not intentional! This is the event that killed most of the lowest right branch and threw the tree off balance in my eye.
View attachment 471620
11/20/2022
Since I almost killed the tree, I let it run wild. I should have trimmed the second branch on the right back to the profile, though. That may have given the lowest right branch enough light to come back more vigorously.
View attachment 471621 View attachment 471622
2/7/2023
Instead, that second right branch became even more of an eyesore. Sure, I could've trimmed it back but without that bottom branch, the asthetic I liked is lost. Also, since the bottom right branch stalled, the bottom left branch caught up in thickness and now the two bottom branches start to look more like a bar. And the front root has gotten way too fat!
View attachment 471623
There's probably still a tree in there that some would like...but it would need a lot of work to pull out. Instead...I thought it time to open a new book
LittleDingus
Omono
Thanks for the offer @Carol 83
I'll get less growth here in Chicago than I did in Kansas City, but they still grow pretty fast in big pots. In a couple of years I should have more cuttings than I know what to do with!
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