AusBonsai

What is everyone's opinions on Arial roots on ficus

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natural but messy and ugly

I think it really depends on what type of tree you're going for - there are some cases where they look messy and unnecessary, but then there are others where you can make them work for you:

greg27 wrote: ↑January 10th, 2021, 7:49 am you can make them work for you:

I have been using them to build trunk girth- if they are trained by pulling tight against the trunk (or each other) they will fuse much quicker.

Everything depends on the tree and the roots. I have seen really natural looking aerials on ficus and some dead set ugly attempts. Any visible roots must fit in with the tree and the design whether they be aerial, exposed roots or just exposed nebari.

Big fan of aerial roots. I think they make the trees look more aged/older/mature.

for me they are nice but not if they are overly crossing and going differnet directions

Ken

I have several ficus.... surprise!! I live in Qld . Some of them are always growing aerial roots and I remove them regularly, though sometimes not as regularly as I should. On one of the ficus I've left ones near ground level to see if they can make a good contribution to the nebari of the tree. Also thinking of developing one into a banyan style if the aerial roots grow from some of the lower branches.

Aerial roots belong on a fig if they grow naturally. Photos of mature figs if you can find them will indicate whether to remove or not. It depends how natural a style you want. Yeh, that old chestnut.

It rained here for nearly 3 weeks straight and as a result this figs put out as lot of Arial roots. I removed most of them except the ones nice and tight on the trunk. I taped them to get a nice shape tight on trunk, I also added half cm.of topsoil to give the roots room.yo grow in the ground inste add of ontop. I couldn't find any grafting tape so it used some masking tape ( first layer with sticky side away from trunk)

I have found in the past the arial roots can over thicken trunk and get some reverse taper, so I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

At the same time gave it a heavy cutback to get more ramification.
I am going for a wide spreading style on this fig.



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This one had 20 arial roots all coming off at right angles to trunk so i decided to remove all Arial roots on this one.

This one has a single trunk, which I don't this it true to form, but I am happy with tt h the number of branches and the trunk movement

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Some people love em some hate them keeping them close to the trunk they will fuse over time and can give a bigger butress

They are also good for keeping your boat in place and concealing the figures


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Hmmmm... I’m more nup than yep. Too often they look messy - like a bad hangover - just a vomit of roots everywhere ...
That said - some work amazingly well - if you can get that curtain effect that happens with trees up north or melded over rocks or even some of the exposed root style that Boom does so well ... at least I think it’s John/Boom64 that has some of those trees.


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MJL wrote: ↑February 14th, 2021, 9:21 am Hmmmm... I’m more nup than yep. Too often they look messy - like a bad hangover - just a vomit of roots everywhere ...