LittleDingus
Omono
I just repotted this guy into a real pot so thought I'd start a progression out of it. I have some vague plans for this guy but mostly I'm just trying to learn more about how their arial roots grow for some larger trees I'm trying to grow out over the next few years.
I bought this schefflera aribicola in a 4" pot sometime in the early summer of 2019 for ~$15. I don't remember exactly when but likely early July. The earliest picture I could find of it is from when I repotted it into a 10" plastic drip pot in August of 2019.
I was goofing around over the winter and made little straws of sphagnum moss to keep a couple of the arial roots humid enough to grow while in the house. They did! I managed to get two banyan roots off them (I only tried 2). Short ones...only about 2.5" long from branch to soil...but enough to prove the method works in a dry winter home!
In the spring, it went back outside and grew quite vigorously. So vigorously that a couple of weeks ago I trimmed 5 large cuttings off it Each cutting is larger than the original tree! Our local heat and humidity had me breaking of arial roots that were not where I wanted them about once a week! They tend to want to form closer in to the main trunk probably because that wood is older. I did manage to get one to grow and root further out from the trunk and there are a few more that haven't made it to the soil yet that are far enough out I let grow.
I came across a pot I liked so I broke down and bought a "real" pot to get this guy out of the plastic drip tray. The new pot arrived today, so I went right to work! Its a tropical and tends to grow all winter where I keep it, so I'm not worried about working it "out of season" or too close to when it was trimmed or whatever. These things are pretty robust. It's still warm enough for another week or three to keep it outside. That should be enough to recover before bringing it in for the winter.
I combed out the roots really well...being careful of the delicate arial roots. Once combed, I trimmed about half the length of the long roots that were lapping the pot. That ended up being about 1/3 of the overall root mass. I pretty much left the rest alone. The new pot is slightly deeper than the drip tray so it fit pretty readily without having to cut back a lot of root mass.
And here it is in the new pot.
The long term plan is to keep it long and low. The only branch I didn't cut back for a cutting is the long one in the back on the right. It needs a little more length to reach where I'd like it. I will pull that branch lower and forward a bit and try to get some banyan roots next summer when the wood hardens enough to grow them. There are a few roots on the front branch to the right that can be seen in the picture that I'll also try and encourage to root in the soil. There are also 2 roots in the back that can't easily be seen. These will form the framework for the eventual canopy.
Once I have that initial set of low banyan roots, I'll try to raise the canopy a bit so they can be seen and then fill it in. I don't ever want the tree to be super tall. I'd rather emphasize the spreading nature the arial roots help support.
At the end of the day, this entire tree is just one large experiment to learn some things. It took me a year to get here from a stick in a 4" pot. The cuttings I took are that original stick in a pot times 5 so I should have plenty of new material to play with next year as well.
The mass on the right in the picture are the 5 cuttings starting to root in a 1 gallon grow bag. If they root fine, I might try to root over rock one of those cuttings next season.
I bought this schefflera aribicola in a 4" pot sometime in the early summer of 2019 for ~$15. I don't remember exactly when but likely early July. The earliest picture I could find of it is from when I repotted it into a 10" plastic drip pot in August of 2019.
I was goofing around over the winter and made little straws of sphagnum moss to keep a couple of the arial roots humid enough to grow while in the house. They did! I managed to get two banyan roots off them (I only tried 2). Short ones...only about 2.5" long from branch to soil...but enough to prove the method works in a dry winter home!
In the spring, it went back outside and grew quite vigorously. So vigorously that a couple of weeks ago I trimmed 5 large cuttings off it Each cutting is larger than the original tree! Our local heat and humidity had me breaking of arial roots that were not where I wanted them about once a week! They tend to want to form closer in to the main trunk probably because that wood is older. I did manage to get one to grow and root further out from the trunk and there are a few more that haven't made it to the soil yet that are far enough out I let grow.
I came across a pot I liked so I broke down and bought a "real" pot to get this guy out of the plastic drip tray. The new pot arrived today, so I went right to work! Its a tropical and tends to grow all winter where I keep it, so I'm not worried about working it "out of season" or too close to when it was trimmed or whatever. These things are pretty robust. It's still warm enough for another week or three to keep it outside. That should be enough to recover before bringing it in for the winter.
I combed out the roots really well...being careful of the delicate arial roots. Once combed, I trimmed about half the length of the long roots that were lapping the pot. That ended up being about 1/3 of the overall root mass. I pretty much left the rest alone. The new pot is slightly deeper than the drip tray so it fit pretty readily without having to cut back a lot of root mass.
And here it is in the new pot.
The long term plan is to keep it long and low. The only branch I didn't cut back for a cutting is the long one in the back on the right. It needs a little more length to reach where I'd like it. I will pull that branch lower and forward a bit and try to get some banyan roots next summer when the wood hardens enough to grow them. There are a few roots on the front branch to the right that can be seen in the picture that I'll also try and encourage to root in the soil. There are also 2 roots in the back that can't easily be seen. These will form the framework for the eventual canopy.
Once I have that initial set of low banyan roots, I'll try to raise the canopy a bit so they can be seen and then fill it in. I don't ever want the tree to be super tall. I'd rather emphasize the spreading nature the arial roots help support.
At the end of the day, this entire tree is just one large experiment to learn some things. It took me a year to get here from a stick in a 4" pot. The cuttings I took are that original stick in a pot times 5 so I should have plenty of new material to play with next year as well.
The mass on the right in the picture are the 5 cuttings starting to root in a 1 gallon grow bag. If they root fine, I might try to root over rock one of those cuttings next season.
