Progression of building nebari and fat trunk base for a Ficus microcarpa

[Chuah]

I have not posted on the forum for a while primarily due to vacation and working on the ficus I am bringing to the National Show next week. Its basically done, continue to snip here and there for the final touches. Finally I can work on other trees and found time to write about another ficus pre-bonsai I had been working on the last 9 years, correcting and building its nebari and trunk base. It was a long term project. The composite photo of 2007, 2010 and 2016 pretty much summarizes the transformation, and is self explanatory. Details are in a blog I posted this afternoon.

 

[barrosinc]

How large was the pot for the training period? Awesome growth and healing

That is a really nice transformation.

 

[Chuah]

How large was the pot for the training period? Awesome growth and healing

That is a really nice transformation.

Thanks, the first pot was about 14", the current one is 22".

 

[barrosinc]

Truly great

 

[ColinFraser]

Great trunk - nicely done.

 

[pitchpine]

This is a nice inspirational photo for my own F. microcarpa, which is a "recovering ginseng".

 

[markyscott]

Great tree - and a great read on your blog, Hoe. Highly recommend a visit to Hoe's blog to read the details. Here's the link.

Scott

 

[Giga]

What a fatty, love it!

 

[Chuah]

This is a nice inspirational photo for my own F. microcarpa, which is a "recovering ginseng".

"Ginseng", a good tonic for tree health.

Perhaps you can try using aerial roots to fill up gaps between the bulbous roots, a fast route to big fat trunk for a gingeng ficus.

What a fatty, love it!

My ficus follows my footsteps. As I aged, I lost my fine waist line and become fat. My wife still loves me.

 

[geargarcon]

I love searching through the archives and finding posts like this.

@Chuah, I know it has been a while but do you have any updates on this tree?

and what was the composition of the soil you used during its development?

 

[Chuah]

I love searching through the archives and finding posts like this.

@Chuah, I know it has been a while but do you have any updates on this tree?

and what was the composition of the soil you used during its development?

We had a disastrous freeze all over Texas in February 2021. The temp dropped to the teens for several days, Texas power grid authority was ill prepared and we lost power for 36 hours. My small propane gas heater in the greenhouse managed to keep the tree alive but it lost several branches. It has since recovered and is growing quite strongly, and I will be doing some grafting for new branches.

I will take a photo for you.

I use 50/50 akadama/pumice mix.

 

[vp999]

Any recent pics of this beast?

 

[Chuah]

Any recent pics of this beast?

I just took these photos. The big freeze killed the apex and a few branches as in the photos, I have since regrew new apex and branches. Fortunately the main trunk and nebari were intact. Root base is now about 14" wide

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Awesome! I see you have crappy water Your ficus leaves look just like mine looked when I lived in SoCal.

 

[Chuah]

Awesome! I see you have crappy water Your ficus leaves look just like mine looked when I lived in SoCal.

Yes, our water pH is 8.2-8.5 and full of calcium deposits.