AusBonsai

Picked up this big old ficus today for $50 just near my work. Unsure what type exactly but im thinking tiger bark.

was no way i was getting it out of the pot so i had to sledgehammer it off.
would have liked to let it get a bit more healthy before i chopped the trunk and halved the roots but there was no way i would have been able to get it home without doing it today.


I have left it a bit taller than i would have liked to, but i wanted to leave at least a few leaves and figured i can always chop lower to try address the reverse taper at a later date.

going into a styro box this afternoon, and fingers crossed she survives,

thanks for lookin


EDIT:
Photos look great on my computer until i upload and they go dark and look like they have been filtered.
Only happens on my work PC so will re upload photos later from home.

The leaves look like a benjamina to me. Definitely don't chop below green.

Redsonic wrote:The leaves look like a benjamina to me. Definitely don't chop below green.

thanks, luckily i left some green.

Yes I concur it's a benji. You can cut it back to nothing, it is suggested that removing all the foliage from a branch but not the whole tree can result in the branch dying.

This the little guy you speak of?

benbonsai wrote:This the little guy you speak of?

the one and only heh.
i probably took more roots off than you did... probably removed 3 quarters to get it in that box.
probably a bit much, but its nearly been a month and it hasnt lost any colour in the leaves, so fingers crossed i see some new growth in the next week or 2.

I had to use a saw to cut through the root ball haha felt like a tree massacre
But, like you said, there isn't any yellowing
Fingers crossed & keep posting

had a propper look over this one last night and it seems to have survived its poor treatment.
new buds starting to pop in all the right places. Theres pretty much one just below each of the cuts i made, and a bunch about 5cm up the trunk just above the nebari.
Looks like im going to have plenty of options so hopefully my watering system can keep this one alive while im away for the next 6 weeks.
most of the fresh buds are still too small to capture in a photo so will post some pics when i return.

Good to hear

Its been 3 months since the initial chop and repot. After serving its purpose as a dumping ground for excess fertiliser this ones been been going nuts...
I ignored the little voice telling me to wait, so off went his head....

if i can get some aerial roots it may make a nice banyan style tree one day

after a small haircut yesterday i think im happy with branch selection,
going to get some wire on some of them over the weekend.

Will be sweet when your finished

This is a nicely developed trunk. I can't wait to see it in a display pot sometime soon


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this one made it into a training pot February 2018.. has had a couple of trims since then... really regretting cutting so low as i dont think im ever going to be able to hide that big flat cut...
will get round to putting some wire on the branches one day... maybe this year..