Ficus aerial roots.

charles_agius

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Hello people,

I`m a beginner in bonsai but for now had great success with all the project I have been working on :)

I saw some really nice ficus golden gate with aerial roots and wanted to try and do something of that sort. I was wondering, if you grow a tall narrow branch from the tree remove all leaves and stick it in the soil would it start growing roots from that branch?

I don`t know if this is stupid or if it is actually done that way because the tree I have seen looked as if it was done in that manner.

Thanks in advance for your feedback and hope you can understand what I am trying to achieve :)
 

bonsaichile

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If you remove all leaves, it will likely die
Ficus root well from cuttings, though. Just make sure you leave some green! To produce aerial roots, you need to provide almost a 100% humidity. Good luck!
 

charles_agius

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If you remove all leaves, it will likely die
Ficus root well from cuttings, though. Just make sure you leave some green! To produce aerial roots, you need to provide almost a 100% humidity. Good luck!
Thanks for your reply but I think I didn`t ask my question well. What I mean is that the brach would still be attached to the tree grow it long enough to reach the soil in the pot and stick it in the ground while still attached to the tree. Hope I'm more clear :)
 

Clicio

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I saw some really nice ficus golden gate with aerial roots and wanted to try and do something of that sort. Thanks in advance for your feedback and hope you can understand what I am trying to achieve :)

Charles, I live in Brazil, where Ficus thrive naturally; we can see tons of aerial roots every day around the city.
My project of aerials in Ficus bonsai is in course, and basically it's keeping the trunk and branches where you want the aerials very humid; I've been using Sphagnun moss.
Please see the pictures attached below:

EC9FA573-CBAC-4E02-B984-FEF7CF1C8348.jpeg CBC2C4C0-A0B8-479E-9976-7D390B80FB97.jpeg
 

bonsaichile

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Thanks for your reply but I think I didn`t ask my question well. What I mean is that the brach would still be attached to the tree grow it long enough to reach the soil in the pot and stick it in the ground while still attached to the tree. Hope I'm more clear :)
Use Clicio's method. If you take all the leaves out of a ficus branch, it will die. the branch will not root if you put it in yhe ground.
 

charles_agius

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Charles, I live in Brazil, where Ficus thrive naturally; we can see tons of aerial roots every day around the city.
My project of aerials in Ficus bonsai is in course, and basically it's keeping the trunk and branches where you want the aerials very humid; I've been using Sphagnun moss.
Please see the pictures attached below:

View attachment 186059 View attachment 186060
Thanks for your help Clicio will do! :D
 

cbroad

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@charles_agius
What you're asking about is called a ground layer (where a branch that is still attached to the tree is forced into contact with the soil, which usually causes the branch to form it's own root system). This is a propagation technique, but usually the branch is severed after it forms its own roots and treated as a separate plant.

I bet it would most definitely work with ficus.
 

charles_agius

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Use Clicio's method. If you take all the leaves out of a ficus branch, it will die. the branch will not root if you put it in yhe ground.
@charles_agius
What you're asking about is called a ground layer (where a branch that is still attached to the tree is forced into contact with the soil, which usually causes the branch to form it's own root system). This is a propagation technique, but usually the branch is severed after it forms its own roots and treated as a separate plant.

I bet it would most definitely work with ficus.
Thank you very much that was exactly what I was asking for!! I have bought a premade Ficus this weekend that looks spectacular and it seems it was done in this manner that`s why I asked to see if I can make something similar from a ficus I am training :)
 

cbroad

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Wherever the branch meets the soil, scratch a little of the cambium off to make good contact, you'll probably have to pin it or weigh it down somehow. Also, it would probably be a good idea to make sure that a node is coming in contact with the soil since this is one of the most active parts of the branch.

The thing is though that branch will always keep pushing buds so you'll constantly be rubbing off leaves. I also think it will look a little contrived and not like a natural aerial root.

Good luck though!
 

bonsaichile

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@charles_agius
What you're asking about is called a ground layer (where a branch that is still attached to the tree is forced into contact with the soil, which usually causes the branch to form it's own root system). This is a propagation technique, but usually the branch is severed after it forms its own roots and treated as a separate plant.

I bet it would most definitely work with ficus.
He ia asking abouy aerial roots, and ground layering ia not the way to get them. Ficus will naturally send roota down from the trunk and branches given a high enough relative humidity. ground layering, which is a different thing, will work in ficus as long as there are leaves on the tip of the branch. If not, the branch will die. And it will produce a second trunk, from which branches will come out, not an aerial root.
 

bonsaichile

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Not sure where you got this from, but it's completely false. You can fully defoliate a ficus with no problem.
I stand corrected, then. But in my experience whenever I have fully defoliated a ficus branch, it has died. That's why I always leave some green on them
 

cbroad

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He ia asking abouy aerial roots, and ground layering ia not the way to get them

Maybe I misread his question, but it sounded like he wanted to use a branch and make it look like an aerial root... The way for him do it would be to ground layer the branch and treat that as an "aerial root."
 

cbroad

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Sounds basically like a ground layer:

I was wondering, if you grow a tall narrow branch from the tree remove all leaves and stick it in the soil would it start growing roots from that branch?

What I mean is that the brach would still be attached to the tree grow it long enough to reach the soil in the pot and stick it in the ground while still attached to the tree.
 

charles_agius

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Maybe I misread his question, but it sounded like he wanted to use a branch and make it look like an aerial root... The way for him do it would be to ground layer the branch and treat that as an "aerial root."
Yes, that was exactly what I was asking for :)
 

charles_agius

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To make things more clear the one in the middle is the ficus I bought and I would like to make something similar to it with another ficus I`m training. To me, it seems it was done in that manner. I`m surely not an expert so please correct me if I am wrong.
30530930_10215911072710114_804857419363516416_o (1).jpg
 

cbroad

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I don't have the most experienced ficus eye but they look to me like natural aerial roots; there is one though that looks to have bulges up and down the length of it like it could be nodes. Not 100% but I don't think aerial roots would have nodes, or at least opposite arranged nodes.
 

sorce

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If you really want areal (new sp!) Roots...

Just get one of these...Capture+_2018-04-11-03-23-22.png
I can't believe we haven't seen this used yet at all.
They make all types of fittings for aquarium tubing...
I bet with the right reducer and manifold you could get this 5/8in? down to 8. 1/4in tubes putting humidity EXACTLY where you want areal roots to start.
A timer, a little ingenuity , an old cracked free Fish Tank.... Done.

Search 0soyoung about transpiration and humidity.

I never been to the tropics, but I been to my local Conservatory to Study. There is a Some kind of massive ficus that has, I dont know maybe Cuban cigar thick roots from about 12-16 feet up growing down over the koi pond....all barked up seeming to grow ever so slow.

That kind of areal root is different from a white tip root...dry spells won't kill this growth....
Same like on this Juniper, only tropical trees are more geared to go for it, where this just thinks its in soil still...hoping for soil?
20180323_115238_HDR.jpg

These are "true" areal roots...these ones that don't die.

There is a different aesthetic end to using white tip roots...
If the tip dries when they are too new, the whole root usually stops...
But after a certain point it can die and it will continue growing again. Tree by tree root by root basis.
But this death and regrowth is different in the End.

You can see both of these types of growth in those pictures above.

IMO....balancing these roots as a feature of a bonsai tree is difficult, and I believe often overlooked. Not given the importance it deserves.

I think the difficulty lies in that it must be both chaotic, and completely organized.
As difficult as Literati, more difficult, as each line must also agree with the others.

Also, as a representation of the tree in it's Strongest state, which for tropicals, IMO, should be MOST of the time....
They should display these roots that have not died. Tropical roots. Not "fish tank" roots.

I have observed Ariel roots to form almost anywhere, indoors or outdoors, up to the height at which there is a bit of wind protection, if kept "wet as shit".

I have cutting indoors in a baking dish and it is growing roots from anywhere below the rim of the dish.

Outdoors, below a 6inch rock wind block, I had one growing roots from about 4in above and down.

The theory says, with the right amount of water....
And the right lxwxd humidity wall...
You can get good natural areal roots to grow with out much effort.

So long as you find the appropriate balance beforehand.

Everything we do is finding the appropriate balance beforehand!
It just "depends" how long it takes to get it!

Sorce
 

SU2

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I never been to the tropics, but I been to my local Conservatory to Study. There is a Some kind of massive ficus that has, I dont know maybe Cuban cigar thick roots from about 12-16 feet up growing down over the koi pond....all barked up seeming to grow ever so slow.
Funny you mention that because a client near me (where aerials grow naturally&vigorously on yard/shade Ficus trees) whose ficus had "dreadlocks" (what we called them) that the ~10y/o girls would swing on, it was maybe 10" thick of 5-->20mm thick roots that ran-down from a limb that was like 20' off the ground. When someone did work and cut it, each of the individual 'dreadlocks' sprouted a ton of tertiary roots, as plants tend to do, and it became quite a spectacle will try and find the pics!

I dislike Saunders' style in-general but watched that vid you linked, found this ^ thread via google as I'm stuck and maybe you're the one who could help-- it's almost 'meta', I'm not looking for styling advice on any particular ficus' aerial root, or even a specific specimen's aerial-roots-layout, but want to know *anything* worth knowing about aerial-root-placement, styling, balancing/etc because I have a Microcarp that's developing aerials thicker than some of its branches, I kinda just angle them "out and away" from the trunk adn down into the soil at re-pots because I've got no idea if I should hug them to the trunk, spread them at angles, bundle them (with angles or not), etc....For eg I just got a yardadori Benji that's sporting a TON of aerials, both the clumps of thin brown 'dreadlocks' and some thick whitish-brown ones (they were growing through deadwood so I've been acclimatting them to open-air!) and I've finished the top&trunk of the tree but can't get myself to re-pot it because I've no idea WTH to do w/ the aerials, no idea what the "general guidelines of good-taste" are for use of aerials in a ficus composition!

Thanks a ton for any advice, you or anybody, can't believe I've done this several years in FL and am only now trying to get serious about Ficus, guess it's quality-of-stock as I now finally have a handful of ficus that I think can become really good specimen so it's not idle curiosity anymore!
 
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