Willow leaf ficus repot

[cheap_walmart_art]

I've had this willow leaf broom since my first year in the hobby. I put it in a bonsai pot as soon as I could, cause you know, that's what you do. Not having much of a clue at the time, i left a ton of potting soil on it and did very little root work. Consequently, it lifted itself in the pot big time and also had a solid chunk of rock like potting soil around the trunk. Water would just sluice off, also washing away bonsai soil. Since my climate has hit a mild streak, i decided to repot to give a couple months of recovery time before I bring it in for winter.

Heres how it was looking. Note the fat, ugly aeriel roots. I thought they looked cool and splayed them out as far as possible during the first repot. I grew to really hate them.


So i got it out of the pot, and looks like we has some good feeder roots, but it was still full of thick, fleshy gnarls.




This is where i may have gotten overzealous. I wanted that hardened potting soil OUT and i also realized that with the massive flesh roots, this thing will never sit low ina pot.

I broke out the orange bonsai saw.



I began to have doubts at this point. Am I pushing it too hard? I figured fuck it, I've tried selling this plant twice now with no luck and im really running low on indoor space since bringing back two gnarly scheffleras back from my trip to Fuku Bonsai early in the year. Im going to sort out these roots. I reached for the saw again.



Ok, i think that will do it. I wired up my pot using a fantastic tutorial from bonsai tonight: https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/12/27/secure-bonsai-pot/

Once I had it secure and worked all the soul thoroughly under and around it, I reduced all the outer foliage for light and air exposure and to try and compact the canopy a bit. Looks too small for the pot now, but hey its what I got. Ill let it rest on my shade bench a couple weeks to see how it foes and move back to full sun toward the end of the month.

 

[Colorado]

Looks much better. I just repotted mine about 2 weeks ago. Did the same root saw. Stuck it right back in full-ish sun (~7 hours from sunrise to about 1 p.m, then shaded by my house) in 90 degree heat. Didn’t skip a beat.

 

[Forsoothe!]

You've done well! Now, wire every branch and then move them around. You will find better looking locations and give it that pizzaz you're yearning for.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

You've done well! Now, wire every branch and then move them around. You will find better looking locations and give it that pizzaz you're yearning for.

Thanks. Ive sat this guy on my turntable so many times with intent to wire the heck out of it and came back with zero ideas each time. Somewhere along the line I decided Id just clip and grow it into a lazy man's broom style. Maybe now that ive cleaned up that eyesore of a base inspiration will come to me.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Remember, when a branch is too long, it's just right to wire. You can't do much with short branches.

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Do as forsoothe says, that was probably the most helpful thing someone told me when I was thinking of styling my tree. Wire everything, then you put everything somewhat in place and what you doesn’t fit, cut; what you don’t want, cut; what you’re unsure of leave until you are sure. It makes the whole styling process much clearer.