Ficus Benjamina Bonsai from "Air Layer"

I had this lanky ficus almost 3 feet tall with no foliage below the top few inches of the uniform, straight trunk about a cm thick. So I thought, why not chop off the head and try to train it into a bonsai. I wasn't sure such a big "cutting" would root properly if I just chop it off and keep it in water, like I usually do for ficus b. cuttings. And I had always wanted to try an air layer anyway. So took a knife to the plant on April 15, 2018.

After scraping off the bark and cambium layers from about an inch of the trunk, covered it with wet moss and wrapped it up.












In two weeks, opened the wrap up and noticed a funny thing. It had rooted vigorously, but not from the scraped area, but from intact bark. Go figure!

May 3, 2018: Cut off the rooted head. In other species, one should probably wait until there are a lot more roots. But ficus is so easy to root and propagate, one can get away with this kind of impatience.
















May 12, 2018: the cutting is in water for further root development.

After a couple of weeks, it was moved to a training pot with a soil mix consisting of lava rock (filtered to be about 1/4"), coarse sand (filtered out from homedepot play sand) and Miraclegrow potting mix. I even managed to get it to develop some aerial roots from the lowest branch.




Mar 25, 2019: Six months of TLC (some branch pruning, indoor LED lighting over the winter, aerial root management) yielded a vigorous and well ramified pre-bonsai.


But then, things started to take a turn for the worse... In fact, for at least a few of months by this time, I had been noticing that several of my ficus b. plants weren't looking right. The leaves looked pale, dusty (but won't wash off), some leaves, especially in the variegated plants would curl up, etc.







I suspected it could be one of 3 things:

1. the lava rock in the soil
2. the excessive use of LED lighting
3. over fertilization

But I never suspected it could be pests until late. The current suspect is spider-mites. See my post on that.



The status as of May 9, 2019 is, in spite of frequent spraying (with rubbing alcohol, neem oil, insecticidal soap alternately), the plant doesn't show obvious recovery, though it's not deteriorating either. There is also probably some sun burn due to the plants being outdoors all the time now, including several hours of direct sun.

May 28, 2019: The spider-mite problem seems to be under control, finally!

Gave this guys a pot upgrade (Costco Kirkland Brand Laundry Detergent Can cut down and painted white - the perfect trainer pot!). Filled in with a mix of .5" lava rock, .25" gravel and MG potting mix. Did a bit of leaf pruning to get rid of sick and very large leaves (taking care to leave at least a bud at the end of the branch).

Hope this guy, christened "Twister", has a happy summer!!