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New to bonsai 7 years 6 months ago #25745

  • PLUTONIAN
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Hi folks, I am from India, I have been gardening for a while and lately I have been mind blown by the art of bonsai. I couldn't resist digging into various articles and youtube videos to find out more of this stuff. I have collected a plant from my backyard which I want make a bonsai. I am attaching pics and hope you folks guide me in this process as i want to learn and not harm the plant at the same time. I tried a couple of times earlier watching youtube etc on different plants which failed miserably and i am not able to point where i messed up.
Thanks in aadvance.

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New to bonsai 7 years 6 months ago #25754

  • doddsy
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I would probably start with something that has smaller leaves.

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New to bonsai 7 years 6 months ago #25761

  • leatherback
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Hi,

Welcome to the empire and hobby.
Do note the trunk is on the small size, so you would be looking at a smaller bonsai. Tink.. Twelve time the diamater of the trunk just above the roots is the max height of the tree.

While it is not firmly rooted and ihealthy, i would reduce the plant. I think it has a fork. I would remove one side cometely, and the other leave a few cm. I am suspecting you will have nice warm wheather for the next months. Ficus grow back very esily, so this ficus benjamina, i suspect, should start popping leaves again after a few weeks.

Once you have biranches with a few leves, decide whether you want to continue in the ground for a wile longer. You could build the main branches in the ground, it would be ver fast. So in maybe half a year, you copuld have the main branches, and remove the plant from the ground. Or you could do this once you have a lush new head of leaves after the initial cut back. Your decision.

Then.. Ficus likes the heat. So do this when you have at least 25 celcius daytime temps. With a sharp spade, cut the roots around the trunnk, in a circle of about 30-40cm diameter. Just push the spade down in the ground. Then remove the soild aroind this cut, so you can put a spade underneath the plamt, and cut there too. If you think the roots might be very deep, first scratch arount to verify that the plant has roots near the soil surface. It should.
You should be able to lift the tree right out of the ground. Plant in a container, and leve for a few months. Once the tree is growing strongly, you can consider washing the roots and transplanting in a better soil. Note, you could do all in one day, and het the plant in a container this ekend with nice bonsai substrate. The method i describe here is the safe route, good for beginners. Personally, i would not worry about doing all in one go, but it requires you to know how far you can take a plant before it dies..
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