Ficus Microcarpa Tigerbark

[Colorado Slim]

Picked up two ficus microcarpa kingman (tigerbark) this year, decided to try to combine them into one tree. It's been growing like a weed for the past two months so I decided to do some cutting and figure out which direction to go with this guy. Since we're coming into winter here and although my ficus will be kept in a controlled environment indoors, they seem to grow much more in the summer months than the winter anyway, so I didn't remove all the foliage I could have, but this gives me the idea of where I'm going... next up, some intensive aerial rooting I'll be working on over the next year, when all is said and done, this will probably never be an award winner, but I'm starting to like it.

all suggestions welcome, but please remember, this is nowhere near done yet

 

[bonsai barry]

You have a vision and a plan for this tree. I think you took two medicore trees and combined them into something interesting... given a few years.

 

[Colorado Slim]

mediocre is an overstatement, I'd have gone with "you must be kidding, right?!"... but I figured, why not try something a little different and I had this idea in mind. I plan on grafting and encouraging aerial rooting from the two main branches that extend out left and right of the two trunks, as well as try to encase the trunks in roots... my end result shouldn't show much of the trunk itself. Thank you for the comment, although I am clearly years away from a respectable piece, it's fun to track the progress.

 

[Kirk]

You may also consider propagating some cuttings and use them to fuse to your main trunk. That gives you more control over the shape/interest of the nebari. It's also a little easier than coaxing roots to appear where you need them.

Kirk

 

[Colorado Slim]

You may also consider propagating some cuttings and use them to fuse to your main trunk. That gives you more control over the shape/interest of the nebari. It's also a little easier than coaxing roots to appear where you need them.

Kirk

working on that exact thing now actually, that's really the only way I can see turning this tree from the Walmart Special it is now into something worth owning. The main reason I went for it was because of the "T" shape which I plan on grafting roots to to give a nice banyan look