Since I had made some rather heavy chops, I placed the tree in this large pot (48 inches/121 cm across ) and left it alone with only maybe one major trimming in four years.
This weekend I decided it was big enough and needed to be reigned in.
Here is a photo of the tree where it resides along the deep jungle side of my garden. It's an easy spot to just leave it alone.
Another before the work shot using the camera flash.
After whacking back the long branches.
Next I did a bit of grafting to get branches where I really want them. A view looking down from the top.
Also did some root work, chopping fat roots close to the trunk. This is a photo before cleaning the cuts with a sharp knife.
This is an approach graft I did along the back to improve the nebari there. I also cut most of the surface roots close to the trunk to improve the root spread. However no repotting this go round.
In the last two shots you can see some grey stuff in holes from old chops. These holes were not filling in as well as I would like so I placed a glob of plumbers putty inside the opening. The ficus will heal over better if it can roll over the plumbers putty - it also makes it less of a hole to fill.
Next I dusted the cut root ends with rooting hormone and covered them with sphagnum moss and then a layer of soil to make sure they stay moist.
I will probably change the front when I repot it by rotating the tree counterclockwise a few degrees as in this photo.
Now it needs to grow but it will require more regular work to develop taper in the new branches. .
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Regards,
Rob aka Bonsai Golfer
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