Variegated Ficus

Feb 2009

We got this beautiful variegated ficus clump some 10 years ago, and after doing so well, some years ago it had a devastating attack of scale. My heroic attempts to control the scale with alcohol, insecticidal soap, ear buds, etc. were in vain, and I just couldn't restore it to health. With a heavy heart I took the plant outdoors, and there it languished for probably two years, barely alive, but putting on a fight.

One of the cuttings: April 2019

Because I didn't want to completely lose the plant, I had made a couple of cuttings from the better branches and they have survived and are now thriving.

Original Clump: April 2019

About year and a half ago, I decided to rescue the original clump (whatever was left of it), and moved it to a shady spot, sprayed and debugged it, re-potted it and it responded very nicely. So nicely that I decided to move it indoors again. Thanks to better light. the variegation is even better now, though the tree is a slimmer and a tad sparse, having lost a number of trunks and branches. But it still looks quite nice and healthy.












Back in the summer of 2017, I started another cutting from this tree. I was a little ambitious, and tried to root not a simple cutting, but a substantial portion of a trunk, almost two feet long, with several branches. You can get away with this with a healthy ficus, but this one wasn't very healthy when I started it.

It took its sweet time and put out a couple of roots.

August 30, 2017

Oct 4, 2017

Oct 11, 2017

Oct 18, 2017

Oct 24, 2017

Dec 31st, 2017

I probably rushed potting it. But it looked okay at that time, and I had high hopes for it.

April 2019

An year and a half later, it's state is sad. Perhaps it didn't like staying outside all the time. Perhaps it didn't have a chance to develop good roots. When I made the cutting, the parent tree was not in good shape, and so the cutting probably never attained enough vigor.

I am going to make another attempt to revive this one... can't let go yet. I took a look at the roots, and they looked ok. Not a lot of them, but no rot, no tubers, etc. May be it's a combination of being outdoors and some pests. We shall see.

Spider Mites, eek!

April 2019: For the past several months, the ficus pre-bonsais have been declining. The leaves looking lack-luster (literally), developing spots, some even curling up unevenly and the plant looking somewhat sad over all. This coincided with the re-potting I did probably last summer/early-fall, during which I used lava rock for the first time.

It also followed not too long after I started using LED plant lighting for 12+ hours daily.

I had also started watering plants with fertilizer laced water regularly. So I suspected it was one of these changes that was affecting the plants.

Around the same time, I had also re-potted the peace lily into beautiful new pot, and used lava rock for that too (since peace lily doesn't like soil going dry at all, and lava rock is good for water retention). Instead of improving, the peace lily started showing strong leaf burns and wilting.

The peace lily was never under LED lighting though. So lava rock became the primary suspect. Perhaps, there is too much iron in it, I thought. Or may be this Home Depot lava rock was meant as a mulch, and they had added some pesticide to it.

So a few weeks ago, I re-potted all these plants again, getting rid of lava rock completely, and flushed the soil with a lot of water to remove any doubts of lingering "iron" or excess fertilizer. But to no avail. The ficuses are deteriorating, and the peace lily is doing no better.

Then yesterday, I stumbled upon spider mites in some forum. The phrases "dusty looking leaves" and "fine webbing" immediately rang a bell. Bingo! That's it. It's gotta be spider mites that are making my plants miserable. I took a magnifying glass to the leaves, and could see some irregular white flakes. Perhaps these are the mites. Don't matter - I decided to treat the plants with insecticidal soap, and gave each leaf a good hearty spray. For cuttings in development, I gave a spray of diluted rubbing alcohol.

Now it's wait and watch. I'll probably give these plants another spay in a couple of days. And really hope these plants improve.

June 2019 Update:  Happy to report that most plants are showing marked recovery after repeated spraying with mostly rubbing alcohol + water. The ficuses are almost back to normal, and starting to look really nice. But the peace lily us still sad. So it may be going through some other issue - not really the spider mites...

A Hobby that makes one deal with one's Mortality

I have often wondered what enables, even inspires, some people to think and dream beyond their own lifetimes, and work on grand projects with the sole hope that the projects would attain fruition after they themselves are long gone. In many cases, like the Egyptian Pharaohs, it was a firm belief in life after death. In may other cases, it's a hope for a sort of historical or cultural immortality; a legacy. Many people seem to be motivated by the urge to leave the world a better place for their progeny (those clever genes!).

But in all these cases, this thought of legacy or after-life comes when one is well into ripe old age (or in the sick bed). Perhaps, parents of young children occasionally wonder if they would be around to see their children grow up. I for one, sure hope to be around to see these rascals suffer at the hands of their young children! Other than that, my mortality has never come to fore in my mind, even as I venture into that confusing phase of one's life called "middle age".

That is, until I started dabbling in Bonsai. Tress grow excruciatingly slowly, and I knew that. When you plant a fruit tree in your yard, you need to wait a few years for it to get to, hmm, fruition. Sure. But Bonsai is different. The very essence of this craft is to grow miniature, mature trees in a pot, and make them mimic an ancient wild tree. While there are some techniques to fake the ancient look, the only authentic way is to simply give the tree the time it needs to grow old. And that time is measured in decades, and sometimes in centuries!

Utah Juniper Bonsai photographed in
the East Bay Bonsai Society Exhibit,
Oakland CA, March 2019

The Utah Juniper Bonsai pictured here is estimated to be a 250 year old tree, and the Bonsai training was started 17 years ago. It's not uncommon for bonsai to be many centuries old.













So, when you start a bonsai, say from a seedling or a cutting, this predicament hits you: you'll be dead of old age well before this tree is anywhere close to being "done". You may see your children have their own children, you may see your start-up company grow into a trillion dollar behemoth, you may even see your pet public works project get completed, but you will not see your seedling become an authentic, great bonsai tree. Deal with it.