Day 12 of #lockdown2020: Ficus Mircocarpa, thread grafts and slip potting.
A unexpected turn of events is how I would describe today. When I started off my day I did not think that I would be re-potting a tree and doing a thread graft on the same day. Just shows you that life can be full of surprises. I worked on a small portion of my Ficus collection through out the day and these are the highlights.
The first tree I worked on was a Ficus Microcarpa raft style bonsai tree that I have been training for the last couple of years. You do not see a lot of Ficus trees being used for raft style bonsai trees or at least not where I come from. A raft style bonsai is: a style that represents a tree that has fallen over and continued to grow forming a small cluster of trees along what once was the trunk of a tree. If you think about it a Ficus should actually be the perfect tree specie for this style. As they tend to grow if a part of them just smells the ground...
Here is my raft style tree.
Before
After
This is the second year since the tree has been removed form the parent plant. I have trimmed the tree back on a regular basis and will need to re-pot it soon. I will also be wiring the trunks and placing them a bit more up right.
The next two trees I work on were both new cuttings about two years old. The one I did a thread graft on today the other one is a thread graft that I removed from the parent branch.
New thread graft
Removing the parent branch from the graft
I then re-potted a root over rock styled bonsai tree. The tree had to be re-potted in January 2020 but I missed that window so I slip potted the tree into a bigger container without working on the roots.
After I re-potted the tree I looked at the trunk and it was too straight. I then used two guide wires to add in a bit of movement to the trunk. Please note that this tree is made up of a few smaller cuttings that I placed over a rock. So it is easy to bend as the trunks have only started to fuse together at the base so the rest of the trunk is still single trees.
This was the last tree I worked on today. My wife bought this tree for me last year during our annual bonsai show. I have come to love this tree almost as much as I love my wife. ;-) I trimmed back the long shoots on this tree and bend one branch close to the apex down to cover a empty spot.
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