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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16025

  • leatherback
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Looks alright. Any pictures of the after?
How much did you remove from the roots? (I just did a ficus repot last week, and removed 80-90% :woohoo: )

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16026

  • geekfreedom
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I also used a plastic ruler that reached to the bottom of the old pot to slide between the pot and the roots to aid with freeing the tree easily. I then used my fingers and tried to dig out as much soil as I could from the edges.

Then I just pulled and twisted until it cam loose.

Pic 1 below is the tree after I slid the old pot away.
Pics 2, 3 and 4 are the pot bound roots which I have not untangled or trimmed.
Pic 5 is the tree potted and moved to a new sunny spot.

Soil that I used in 100% inorganic river soil. It was collected from the banks of the main river that feeds the city of Durban.
It is naturally a good mix of rough sand, medium sized smooth and rough pebbles (about 2-3cm) and lots of pumice.
I sifted out the pumice and only used bits that were approximately the same size as the pebbles.
The potting soil that was in the old pot is still inside the new pot. I will only change that soil to 100% inorganic soil when I repot and prune in September.

For now, the tree looks great. Lots of lush new growth and no pests.

Although I did find one problem on the lower part of the trunk that scared me a bit. I looks like some type of borer has been nibbling away and created a hole, about 1.5cm wide and about 8mm deep.

Please look at pic 7. Any advice here will be appreciated.

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16027

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Looks good. So you just whacked the whol rootbal in the new pot, surrounded with corase material? THat should do wonders for the growth on the tree.

Do keep in mind when watering that the water may run off on the sides, as the coars does not absorb water as easily. I would consider hammering (!) a chopstick int he old rootbal, making deep holes allowing easier infiltration. Also, I water plant with big solid rootbals (Such as your ficus, I have a house plant with an even bigger rootball) with lukewarm water. I find it infiltrates more easily when the rootbal is really dry. Or just keep a tray underneath that fills up with watering and the water will be pulled into the rootbal over time. :D

Clean the hole with a fine brush, and cover with cellotape, sticky side in. After a week or 2 check wether there is powder in there. If so you still have a friend in the trunk and you may need to cut it out.
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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16028

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Hi LeatherBack. I hope you are well.

I did not want to interfere with roots until after I spoke to you guys.
I am seeing a lot of new growth now, even though we are at the beginning of winter and there is no new fertilizer or compost in the pot.

Also the roots are bound solid.

About the borer hole of the trunk, I carefully trimmed away loose bark and dead wood from the scar and covered the bare wood and bark with some pruning sealer about 3 days ago. It seems ok. But should I have done that?

I have also attached a couple more pics of my finished labour. ;)

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16029

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I am very careful to water very slowly and make sure that the water gets into the old soil instead of just flowing to the sides and out through the river soil.

I will start with lukewarm water and chopsticks and see what happens.

You hit the nail on the head. The growth has surprised me and now I know why. :woohoo:

Should I start fertilizing now that I am seeing growth?

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16030

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I am great thx.

Now treat this as a regular plant. Fertilize with normal fertiliser for potted green plants, as per instructions on the package and in a few months you should be looking at a completely different plant.

Thought you might like to see this too, this is now in our living room:

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16031

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My oh my! :woohoo:
That is amazing and so beautiful!

And in such a small pot.
I take it that when it is time to prune the roots on my ficus, I am going to chopping back a lot.

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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16032

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Nothing special, just a heathy ficus (And a little oversized for most living rooms).
Cutting back roots can be extreme IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Just thought I'd make that explicit.

Keep an eye out on your plant. If it has been in the shad untill now, it canoot handle full sun. You need to move it to a spot where it will get morning and/or afternoon sun for two weeks or so, before exposing it to full afternoon sun. Else it will be damaged with sunburn
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Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16033

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Ok. That just got me thinking now.

The tree is on the side of the buildings centre court. And it only gets afternoon sun for about 3-4 hours.
It has been in this position for the last week, since I repotted it, and I have been examining it very closely every evening just after the sun sets behind the building and there are no signs of any sun burn.

So I think I am safe there.

I will look around the forum for more tips on root pruning and I will take it easy on my first try. Thanks for the heads up!

I have pruned the roots on 2 of my bonsai already and they are fine.
I, obviously pruned them very cautiously and it was just maintenance pruning.

With this ficus I will really need a lot of research before I try it. And it will be major.
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Last edit: Post by geekfreedom. Reason: Redundant words

Repotting a 25yr old Ficus, Advice Please? 8 years 9 months ago #16034

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With this ficus I will really need a lot of research before I try it. And it will be major.


Key to rootbal reduction are 3 things:

- Timing (The plant should be at the start-to middle of the optimal growing season to allow for speady recovery
- Selective trimming: Ideally you have only very few cuts, that take out the biggest roots. Smaller roots you leave. Try to cut bigger roots at a point of branching, leaving a side-root with actively growing (white-tipped) roots
- Aftercare: The plant should not directly be exposed to drying winds, hot sun etcetc.

Optional item 4: If you expect to reduce the rootbal a lot, you could a few days beforehand already reduce the foliage mass. Doing this a few days beforehand will give the plant some time to start seasling the worst damage (seasling the wound from losses of water). Reducing the foliage will put less of a strain on the roots after repotting.

I normally do this only by out-of season repotting, and/or layers.

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