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Ficus Benjamina Bonsai. This is part 2 of my fusion ficus, where i am trying to grow 3 trees into one. In this video i repot the tree and it slowly starts to fuse.
?You can see the full progression of this tree on my website:
⭕️ https://www.backgardenbonsai.com/ficus-benjamina-progression-2018-now/
?My Care Guide:
⭕️ https://www.backgardenbonsai.com/ficus-benjamina-bonsai-care/
? Youtube Playlist For This Tree
⭕️ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL35C7OqeOezLRELqWT0MCsuIegw4lBZpm
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Please Subscribe For More Videos - Every Sunday
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?For More Guides and Bonsai Information: :
⭕️www.backgardenbonsai.com/
Thanks, Ian
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0:00
Today we're back my Ficus Benjaminna
0:06
The last video was nearly 18 months ago. Here it is way back in July 2019
0:13
If you remember, it was a shot-bought Ficus and I just clumped all three of the trees that came in one pot together to try and fuse them as one
0:21
It's sort of working. You can see where it's cut in from where I tied it up
0:29
I cut it back quite hard here. Basically leaving all the lower foliage to try and force that to grow
0:35
Just so it will thicken up the trunk and help with the fusion. I'm confident it will get there at some point
0:45
This is what I took off, some decent chunks. Maybe you'll see one of these again someday, who knows
0:58
Here you are in February 20th. I wasn't so good at making sure I filmed every tree back then throughout the year
1:05
So a few gaps here and there, but I'm a lot better at that now. Anyway, it's looking okay
1:10
If I show you up top, you can see it's put on some decent growth. It's actually quite dense and more importantly the growth is coming out of every direction
1:18
So although the tree is kind of crappy at the minute, it has a lot of potential in the future
1:23
It also seems to have thickened up since last summer. So the fusion looks a lot more solid
1:29
Definitely fuse at the bottom and it's trying near the top. The middle section still has quite a few gaps, but I'm sure that will close with time
1:44
Oh, that's some weird camera inception going on there. Did you see the moss? It's kind of cool. Here's a close-up
1:52
I never mossed this. This all grew by itself, while indoors. I don't know if that's good or what, but... happened
2:04
Anyway, let's get this trim back and get it ready for the growing season. I just cut everything back to two or three nodes and remove some of the older, larger leaves
2:16
You'll see again, I pretty much leave the lower growth alone. I want that to get strong to help thicken up the trunk and finish off that fusion
2:25
You can see the big gaps in the center of the trunk from this angle as I spin the tree
2:29
The tree really isn special at the minute if anything it ugly but I really think in five years maybe it really going to be on its way to be in something impressive hopefully
2:49
In April it looks like nothing much is going on
3:03
In April it looks like nothing much is going on. But if you look closer, you can see there's new shoots everywhere on this
3:10
These are all the lower branches, so that's exactly what I want. So to promote this lower growth and also to make sure they get plenty of light
3:18
I thin the top back really hard. Pretty much defoliated the top
3:23
Just leaving the new buds up there. So it kind of looks drastic, but basically I've got to get this trunk fused
3:31
and the lower growth is going to help with that the most. Doing this is also going to let me see the structure up top of it better
3:40
so as it will make cutbacks on each branch. If you see here, you can see there is four buds on the right
3:47
which is fine. They're all spaced out nicely, but that makes the top too vigorous and dominant
3:52
So to balance it out, I just cut it back the two. The same thing is happening here with this one on the left
4:01
So I do the same, cut it back the two. You still get ramification and whatnot
4:06
It just helps stop the tree you being so strong up top
4:15
If you look from this angle, you can see the top of the tree is way too dominant and too heavy
4:22
There are so many branches here. They're all crossing over and it's messy
4:26
It needs cut back hard but I'm going to leave that for now
4:30
What I've done should take enough energy out the top of the balance it. I do still want the top of the grow as that will also help thicken the trunk
4:39
I'll come back to this later in the year. This is what we have now
4:45
It looks even worse than when we started. It may, it looks like not much has changed, but these new buds will be swelling
5:00
In June you can see there's a lot more leaves now. It's also a good time of year to repot a tropical tree like this
5:06
Although it can be argued, I can be done it any time
5:10
I'm sort of agree, sort of, but I'm doing it in June, so still there
5:14
Basically I prefer to do it towards the back end of spring into early summer When you feel the pot it just feels really hard You can tell it going to be proper jammed in there but it came out in the end The soil is still
5:39
crumbly but there is a lot of roots in here. This type of ficus is notorious for growing like
5:44
parsnip roots so we'll see what we find in here. So we'll see what we find in here. It took a while, but I got everything raked out and is what we're left with
5:57
I don't even know where to begin. Some good routes, some parsnips. It almost looks like two root
6:04
planes, so not great. As I watch this back, I'm trying to work out what I'd do if I was
6:10
handed this tree right now. And I'm sort of not sure where it even begin. But don't worry, past
6:17
me hit he damn well knew what to do. Yes, absolutely savage. Apparently I didn't hold back
6:24
absolutely no mercy. And also another one I have no memory of. Looks like I did a good job though
6:30
Still plenty of fine feeder roots on there. So here it is all potted up after some extreme root work
6:47
In July there isn't much going on, it's probably just having its mind blown about what I did to those routes
7:10
But I've gotten over the shock by August and was happily growing again
7:17
You can see the new light green leaves all over the tree. It's doing really well and pushing plenty of new growth
7:35
In October it's really grown. It's so thick and bushy, it's just a mass of green
7:41
So this needs thinned out and cut back. But where do you even begin? It's just a wild mess of foliage
7:47
What I do when I'm confronted with such a mess is just go one branch at a time
8:00
Hopefully you can see this but you have like the main branch and then the side branches shooting off each side At the base of each of those branches is usually a big old leaf
8:12
Basically the new side branch has popped out where that leaf is. So if you remove those big leaves, it helps a lot
8:22
Do this across the tree and very quickly you'll thin it out and it'll really help you see the structure so you can actually make some cuts
8:33
When you can see what's going on a bit better, you can cut all the branches back to two or three
8:36
leaves or two or three side branches in this case. Then you should be down to something more manageable
8:48
If you remember earlier on in the video, I said everything was crossing and messy
8:53
Well, I'm going to sort that out now. You can see here the branches are starting to get a bit thick
8:58
So it's time to cut some of them out and thin the overall main structure. So plenty came off and this is what I was left with
9:07
It's a whole lot more open and airy. It looks kind of drastic but things like this are necessary sometimes
9:13
The tree was way too top heavy. Pretty much the primary structure is now set
9:19
Not thinning it earlier in the year, along with leaving the lower branches alone, seems to have really helped the trunk
9:25
It's not there yet, but it's come a long way from the start of this video. You can see here those gaps in the trunk are slowly closing up
9:37
In November you can see plenty of little light green leaves popping out
9:58
been living under the Mars Hydro grow lights since the end of July, in what I'm calling my tropical area
10:05
So it's going to get tropical light all year round, like it would in its natural environment
10:12
I think it's really helped it grow. As you can see, it's still pushing growth in December
10:22
Here it is now. It's been pushing all sorts of weird aerial routes, and I've been watering the trunk to help encourage this overla
10:28
last few months. The pot also feels rock hard, so it'll be needing repotted soon. Thanks for
10:35
watching, see you next time
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