So I got this ficus the other day…

[StPaddy]

…and want to cut it down and pot it up. I have read now is a good time to pot these in my area. The plant is healthy and in good shape and was dirt cheap so…can I just bare root it and maybe cut half the roots and half the top this year? I have a deeper pot that is like 3.5” deep inside I can use that is an oval maybe 10” x 6” inside. I have bonsai soil…and I have a cool rock too for a root over rock….curious to hear opinions. The roots are buried but it looks like a cool twin trunk. Was like 20 bucks from my local nursery. My wife has a similar tree that is 20 some years old in a pot she has repotted I think once in its life….here are some pics. The first two are of my nursery plant and the last is of hers.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Once this tree is in bonsai soil in a decent pot, you can be a lot more aggressive with repotting. However right now it is in a nursery pot in potting soil, and there is a good likelihood that it was slip-potted every couple of years from the time it was a cutting. In other words... proceed cautiously. You may find an impenetrable tangle of roots under the surface that require you to take a saw to them... in which case you will want to be careful you don't remove too much root mass. In may take a couple of years and two repottings for you to go from a narrow and deep root mass (bad) to a shallow and wide root mass (good).

 

[StPaddy]

Once this tree is in bonsai soil in a decent pot, you can be a lot more aggressive with repotting. However right now it is in a nursery pot in potting soil, and there is a good likelihood that it was slip-potted every couple of years from the time it was a cutting. In other words... proceed cautiously. You may find an impenetrable tangle of roots under the surface that require you to take a saw to them... in which case you will want to be careful you don't remove too much root mass. In may take a couple of years and two repottings for you to go from a narrow and deep root mass (bad) to a shallow and wide root mass (good).

So should I leave some of the original soil? How much top and bottom should I remove? I have training pots too…

 

[Bonsai Nut]

So should I leave some of the original soil? How much top and bottom should I remove? I have training pots too…

It all depends on what you find beneath the soil.

In a perfect world, the roots would spread like a pie from the base of the trunk... equally spaced with lots of fine roots. This kind of root mass is easy to repot.

In an imperfect (nursery tree) world, there are few fine roots, and only a couple of thick roots that dive straight to the bottom of the nursery container, and then bend around two or three times before dividing into finer feeder roots. This root mass is hard to repot, because if you cut away the thick roots too aggressively, you risk killing the tree.

I have killed more trees trying to move them from nursery containers to bonsai containers than from any other cause. I almost feel like you need to treat a nursery tree like a tree you bring in from the wild.

 

[StPaddy]

It all depends on what you find beneath the soil.

In a perfect world, the roots would spread like a pie from the base of the trunk... equally spaced with lots of fine roots. This kind of root mass is easy to repot.

In an imperfect (nursery tree) world, there are few fine roots, and only a couple of thick roots that dive straight to the bottom of the nursery container, and then bend around two or three times before dividing into finer feeder roots. This root mass is hard to repot, because if you cut away the thick roots too aggressively, you risk killing the tree.

I have killed more trees trying to move them from nursery containers to bonsai containers than from any other cause. I almost feel like you need to treat a nursery tree like a tree you bring in from the wild.

Well I repotted it. It was a good scenario tho I have little experience with this. The roots were not bound. I cut off half and teased the top out. I worked quickly in the shade dunking them into water every minute or so as I went along (sorry no pic I was rushing) and took half the top off. The twin trunk was kinda binding so I put a wedge between them at the top. The pot is kinda deep that makes me feel better. Gave it some of that superthrive and a tiny bit of organic chunks of bio gold around the edge of the pot for when the feeder roots get to them…I’m hoping to learn something other than watching leaves fall off of it. Oh and I put some cut paste glue stuff (it has a Japanese label I can’t read) that is orange colored on the cuts too.