Nothing wrong with it, but I've never seen green wire used before. Is that rubber coating?

Yeah it's all I could find at my gardening supply store, I sent away for some different Gage aluminum wire from a bonsai website.

Hrmm good question, I want to keep it roughly the same size I'd like to thicken the trunk and possibly expose some surface roots, its got a very low branch aswell, I would like to make into a canopy.

I've had it since it was a baby, I've repotted it 3 times in two years, unfortunately every time I repotted, I never touched the roots, this thing is my baby and I was scared.

It's amazingly durable though I had it growing in an terrarium for the first 1.5 years due to lack of natural light.

I'm open to suggestions aswell, I'm more than happy to post more pics.

Cheers J

well i wired it for a few reasons, as you can see the tree has quite a curve in it, so i tried to correct that, i also changed the leader by pinching the old leader and straightening the new one in line with the trunk, i wired the lower half of the trunk because I'm trying to get a smaller ficus to fuze to the trunk, also on the top branches have smaller growth tips in the middle of them i wanted to expose to more sun light, so i semi straightened the highest branches to allow more light into the middle of the tree. I put a slight bend into the lowest branch to fill in an empty space in the front.

is that what you were asking moochinka?
i appreciate the discussion, its had to talk bonsai with most people.

Cheers j

Some shaping of the trunk is important now, before it hardens off. Other than that the main concern is horticultural- maintain health and promote uninhibited growth. This, along with potting up periodically to increase root space, will lead to that thickened trunk. After several years, when the trunk is as thick as you want it, it is time to grow the tree down, meaning significant pruning to decrease overall size, branch selection, and promotion of branch ramification.

I noticed your location is Vancouver. Lee valley tools carries aluminum bonsai wire and a few other things.

Also, just a thought, google "informal upright ficus." Your tree looks like it may match that style, leaning or windswept. Just if you are interested in some of the possible classic styles.

Nice ficus, btw.

Here's an update if anyone's intrested

No no one is interested. Haha of course we are interested! It looks very healthy and survived a repot just fine. Maybe it will be twice this size in a year.

ez

Hahahah, unfortunately i think our growing season in Vancouver is coming to an end. I'm gonna need to bring it back inside in the next few weeks i think (not really sure what I'm gonna do with it though, I'm debating putting it into dormancy, but have never put anything into dormancy before).

i couldn't believe how fast it needed a re-pot (3 months), it became very vigorous immediately after.

anywhooo, appreciate your interest happy growing.

zone 9a and you are worrying about bringing it in? I am in 6b and I am thinking how far back I push in October before I bring it indoors. - LOL. I also wait for a good cold, close to 40F, rain for the plants hoping it will get rid of some of the pests. Some of the plants hate it but recover quickly.

A bright south facing window will serve it good. You can also get some CFL 100W equivalent daylight bulbs to supplement the light. Over the winter they slowly start shedding leaves. I hold back the water as this happens. By Feb it is pretty empty and by April new buds show up. They are pretty strong plants.

Try to keep the low branches and let them grow to help thicken it up. Once cut-off they are very reluctant to bud so far back on the main stem.

Thanks for the advice its dropping to just over 50F over night here, its started to rain pretty heavily(as it does for 8 months of the year).

So you let yours get down to just above freezing before bringing inside? Good to know, I read alot of conflicting info on these trees.

Yes I do to some of my tropicals. You have to be careful though. I move them to a warmer location close to a wall. If the day time temps are above 55 or so and the minimum (around 40F) is reached for relatively short periods - say up to 4 hrs in the night. Ficus are quite robust plants. For 2+ yrs old plants I have event let them "feel" down to 37-38. In their native habitat (of F. religiousa) some places can even drop below freezing overnight. But then they are in the ground also. I would not do this to a hibiscus which would end up with droopy leaves after few hrs below 45F.

Not much info available on the for this tree. Can you tell which fertilizer are you using and how often.

I am feeding it 10-10-10 every month and it is growing vigorously but leaves does not seems healthy.

If it is growing vigorously then it should be OK. New leaves are softer and light green in colour. As they mature they become stiffer and darker green.

Where are you located? Foliage Pro 9-3-6 is a very good all round fertilizer and contains micro-nutrients. I use it anywhere between 1/4 tsp/gallon to a 1 tsp/gallon depending on the season and watering frequency. In winter season when it is dropping leaves I stop fertilizing. If you read this post you will get a very idea regarding ficus in general. You are unlikely to get instructions for just ficus religiosa.

I don't think I am going to find it here in India, neither I am finding it online.

Should I continue to feed it with 10-10-10? How much per gallon?

I don't grow religiosa, but all my ficus come in when nighttime temps drop below 50F, under lights, and with room temperature, some added humidity and light fertilizing, they continue to grow deep into winter. They don't need any dormancy, but will do the ficus version of it if they are regularly exposed to temps below 50F.

All that to say this: you don't need dormancy for any ficus I know of, but you do lose several months of potential growing season by letting it stay out in cold temps.

ez

10-10-10 should be fine. The label on the box should say how much and how frequently. Use that as a guide. I usually try use fertilizer at 1/4 of max suggested every time I water. Or if I skip fertilizing for any reason I try to do 1/2 strength every week. Do this when it is growing vigorously. In winter I would fertilize lot less or not at all. Read the post I linked to in my previous post carefully. You will get a much better idea.

ez, but I sort of like my tropicals to slow down a bit during winter. I just have too many plants in a small space. I need to reduce the number of plants I have - lol.

You are right, most ficus of the smaller variety will continue to grow through the winter and all of them prefer to be warm and humid. The larger varieties I have are: religiosa, benghalensis and mysorensis. Religiosa will tend to lose leaves but the other two just slow down a bit but still grow. This happens, to a lesser extent, even in my home town in India where if the temp ever goes below 50F it is considered a cold-wave. I think that only happens for all of one week in the entire year. Religiosa happily grows further north where it will partially defoliate in winter and tolerates (not so happily) down to 32F. But it is heat/drought tolerant too and responds by partially defoliating again. But they do respond very well as soon as the conditions improve.

This is my religiosa that I always wanted to make it to a bonsai but never got around to it. About 15 years old.

Thanks for the info on religiosa. I like this other tree of yours too. It should be able to take a trunk chop then, and grow some new branches for styling.

ez

tropicofcancer, thanks for the help.

Sanchit, you are welcome. It is better to fertilize at low strengths frequently and let the water run out of the bottom to reduce any salt build ups in the soil. Letting it dry out in between watering is also a good idea. And keep us updated as to the progress.

@ez, Yes I need to do a severe trunk chop. Next spring for sure.