Ficus Benjamina "root over rock"

I have not thought much of the "root over rock" style ("gimmick"), to be frank. But pandemic boredom, I suppose, that finally let me get over that, and say "why the heck not?".

May 31, 2020: This small ficus b. cutting has been sitting in a cup of water for many months. I had no real plans for it, but didn't feel like throwing it away. But then it occurred to me, that with its very long and dense roots, it may be quite a good candidate to start a root-over-rock.

For soil, I used mostly coarse material with just a little potting mix (all reused).The rock was from a collection I had picked up in April 2019 at the Pescadero State Beach.

Once the roots take hold, and the tree puts out some growth, more of the rock and the roots holding it should be exposed, for a dramatic look. That's probably at least an year away.

For now, it stays indoors under LED lights.

"Twister" update

When we left "Twister" one year ago in this post, it had just been re-potted and readied for summer. It had a great summer outdoors, greening up quite a bit and putting on a bit of wood all over.

October 19, 2019: Early fall update...

Clipped off apex. Probably still too tall - but I can't get myself to lose the movement at the top I achieved by wiring. I see several buds pushing out in various branches closer to the trunk - some of them should help fill the big voids, and help compactify. Did a little more wiring - needs more done.

May 29, 2020: Twister has been thriving under lights all winter and spring. I am not quite inclined to set it outdoor yet. The re-adjustment will surely set it back a bit, and I am worried about pests, especially spider mites!

And while indoors, in early spring, this guy even tried to make fruit! I noticed a couple of small green balls, though I never saw any flowers. But they soon fell off ☹️

It would have been so cool to have ripe fruit on a ficus indoors!

But staring at it some, I am starting to wonder if the lower left branch (purple oval) is a bit too low, and will eventually have to be removed. Then the next left side branch (blue arrow) will need to thicken to fill the void. That's probably a big leap of faith. 

Given the lower branch might go eventually, it's probably a good idea to remove the aerial root on it (orange arrow) so that the branch contributes to the thickening of the main trunk. 

Imagining the tree (thanks Gimp!) without the lower branch… "imbalanced" is the word that pops up :(

One thought was, if I could induce some aerial roots on the 2nd branch on the left, it could thicken faster. So, I have wrapped a wet cloth around it. But a previous attempts on the right side branch (albeit with wet moss), didn't do anything - so hopes aren't high.

No drastic measure are going to be taken yet. Wise people have said repeatedly that don't cut branches unless you are absolutely sure. I am definitely not.

That doesn't mean, a good haircut and some wiring will not happen!

Ficus Benjamina #3 Progression

The exact origins of this one are unfortunately lost in the murky depths of prehistory... It's likely it started as a branch on the mother of all ficuses that this greenhorn has had for 12 years or so. Having been clipped off the mother tree, it likely was rooted in water and then potted up. And perhaps during the rooting process or a little later, it was deemed interesting to grow some aerial roots on it, and the tree obliged with three.

Around the 2019 vernal equinox, it got repotted into a special, custom made pre-bonsai training pot (Kirkland detergent can cut in half, holes drilled, and spray painted UN peace keeper blue).















In search of a decent nebari, one of the rear roots was bent around and brought to the front from under the trunk. If this works, it'll be quite a coup.

The potential of this tree to be a twin trunk classic (a la Peter Chan's famous Japanese Maple) wasn't lost on the novice. So some wiring was done to get the criss-crossing branches out of the way, and still make it all look pleasing to the eye.

And then the tree was generally ignored, as it basically did nothing interesting for an year.

In the winter of 2019, it was brought indoors and kept under artificial lights. And there, after a while, the tree finally seemed to decide it might just want to grow a few new leaves after all.

















Forced to spend all waking hours with this tree, thanks to the great pandemic of 2019, the tyro stopped ignoring it, and started to rather appreciate it. Accordingly, it was determined that the tree deserved a promotion to a new pot - another custom made beauty! (A $1 plastic box spray painted black. That lucky tree!)


 Cinco de Mayo de 2020 had just passed, but this time the invader was still winning. By now, one of the aerial roots in the front of the tree had taken a rather undesirable turn, lapping over the other one and heading in the wrong direction, spoiling the radial symmetry that's desirable in the nebari. So that one had to go. Adios. Upon more inspection of the root mass, two other rather thick ones were noticed and with only a slight hesitation, were cut off as well.

So, this tree didn't have a good day. It lost a good chunk of its roots. All for what, a silly new plastic pot? Wait tree, you will in time realize it was not only not so bad, it was in fact a great day. So believes the neophyte, anyway.

Back under the familiar CFL and LED lights, having lost many roots but gained a $1 pot and some fancy new soil mix (lava rock, Napa oil dry product, sand, MiracleGro potting mix, perlite, Osmocote slow release fertilizer), sits majestically this Ficus Benjamina. Only time will tell if the root loss results in any foliage loss.

The rookie hopes not.

And oh by the way, that hopeful nebari experiment turned out to be a failed coup - no sign of that root was to be found. Oh well.




End of August, Post Covid era, year #1 update. Absolutely no foliage loss after the brutal root pruning back in May! The tree has been almost entirely sitting in artificial light, since the estudianté didn't want to risk the root deprived tree in the summer sun and occasional winds. So it did some slow growing. But it has been apparent it's getting a bit too leggy, and the top need to be trimmed. After agonizing about it

for weeks, the pupil became decisive on a late August Sunday afternoon. And the result is not so bad...
 

The vision the padawan has in mind for this tree is like so: