This is an experiment that I began on 4/15/06 where my goal is to create a ficus bonsai tree that will appear to be very old, with an impressive tapered trunk, in a few short years. My experiment is inspired by Doug Philips who has been doing this with Maple trees for over a decade. I learned about his process on his website: dugzbonsai.com.
Below is a photo-documentary of my experience with this process thus far.
(click image for larger view)
click images for detail views
After gathering my materials during the preceding week, I sat down at 1:30pm on 4/15/2006 to begin my project.
The frame was made from flexible wire and coat hangers during the preceding week.
Ficus Benjamina seedlings in 6" pots from home depot. I ended up having to get more of these when I ran out half-way through.
Separating dirt from roots with a chopstick.
Separating individual trees from root ball while trying to keep root damage to a minimum.
Seedlings separated by size.
First four attached to frame with plastic coated twist ties. I used about 70 feet from a 100 foot roll.
I decided to only remove branches and leaves that got in the way to minimize the trauma to the plants.
This part took a lot longer than I'd imagined.
I misted often with a spray bottle to keep the roots from drying out.
My fingers and back were sore the next day - I wished I'd had a workbench so I could stand up.
I found that I had to be careful not to break the roots as it grew heavier.
Finally closed the last gap at 2am.
Close-up of the trunk. The idea is that the tree will grow over the twist ties resulting in texture that will add character and age.
Close-up of the bottom - the hollow inside is mostly obscured by the roots.
Another close-up of the trunk after I planted it in the 16" diameter pot at 2:30am. I put a few handfuls of soil inside the trunk cavity like stuffing a turkey so the roots would have some cover on the inside.
The next day.
A couple days after the initial operation, it was suggested to me that I defoliate the trees in order to induce dormancy. This will make it easier for the trees to recover since they will not transpire moisture through the leaves.
Defoliation has also made the apex visible which allowed me to finalize this area by isolating a single leader and making the rest of the trees exit at random points.
You can see the curvature in this shot.
I'll post updates here from time to time.
- Source trees: nine 6" pots @ $5 = $45 + one 15" pot @ $30 + one 12" pot @ $10 = $85 (I have about 20 small seedlings left over and would have used just bigger pots w/ bigger seedlings in retrospect)
- Supplies: 16" pot $7 + twist ties $4 + frame wire $4 = $15
- Total materials cost approx = $100
- Wire frame dimensions: 12" high x 6.5" base diameter x 20" circumference
- 70 trees were used to cover the frame
- Finished dimensions: 7.25" diameter of base x 12" height above soil to joined apex, 24" total height w/ leader.
7/5/06 Update
Well it turned out that separating all of the ficus seedlings from their intertwined root systems was not without consequence. I had about a 10% survival rate of the original trees. After a month or so, most of them had died. There may have been more I could have done to keep them alive - like encasing the whole thing in plastic to keep the humidity higher, and not defoliating them. Regardless, I've removed the dead ones and employed a new technique for their replacements...
Instead of separating the trees into individuals I'm now leaving the bunch together and simply planting it next to the frame and then bending the trees over to tie them up. Thanks to my wife Tammy for suggesting this approach.
As you can see in these pics, the frame is mostly bare. To the right there is a bunch that has been planted next to the frame. Once it has had some time to stabilize, I'll bend each tree over and tie it to the frame so that it looks like the section on the left. This technique has already proved to be much more reliable in terms of survival rate.
Here are a few more clusters that have been added and tied into place.
I built a mini-greenhouse for propagating the cuttings that I will use to fill in the rest of the gaps. Cuttings make the ideal source material for this type of project for these reasons: a.) they're free, b.) they have a small root mass which makes it easier to plant them close together, and c.) they can have a large diameter if taken from a large source tree.
I used 2mm clear painters plastic and some flexible wire similar to coat hanger wire. Keeping the humidity high should increase the survival rate.
More knowledge to add to the pool:
- Keeping the seedling clusters together is definately the way to go. Just shake out the dirt from the root ball to keep them compact when you plant it next to the frame.
- The cuttings did have about a 70% rooting rate, but I found that seedlings grow and fuse much more quickly, so I ended up using them almost exclusively in the end.
- I have all of the gaps filled in now so that it looks like it did at the end of phase 1, and fusing is progressing nicely. I'll update w/ new photos soon.
Here is the current state of the project. Looks like a big bush.
Here is what the finished trunk looks like currently w/ the new approach of planting clusters instead of individual seedlings over the past couple of months.
Here is a close-up of an area that is starting to fuse. There are a few places that look like this. Once the fusing begins the growth becomes vigorous in that area. You can see that one of the twist ties is almost completely enveloped by the trunk. Sometimes the twist ties break from the pressure of the expanding trunks after the fusing begins. I've been cutting the wires and pulling them out once they've done their job. I figure it will heal faster that way rather than leaving it as an inclusion.
As you can see, the bush has grown quite a bit in the past 6 months.
This is the same area as pictured directly above after 6 months of growth.
The base of what will be the trunk.
Here are a few shots of the fusing progress.
It's starting to look more like a single trunk now.
more fusing progress.
back to top
I built a pine growing box to repot it in a shallower container to begin training the root system, and give them a little more room to grow.
The roots had filled the previous container after one year.
I loosened half of the dirt out of the roots so that it would fit into its new home.
Repotting allowed a better view of the trunk. It felt very solid and unified.
I used a washing machine overflow tray and three 4' x 12" planks cut in half.
back to top
back to top
back to top
