bonsai 101: what are bonsai seeds?

I want to talk a little bit about bonsai seeds. Sometimes you see these things on eBay these “bonsai seeds”. The fact of the matter is that they are just seeds for whatever species of plant they're selling. Sometimes you see these kits at big-box stores in Hobby Lobby. They sell a bonsai kit which comes with a pot and soil and seed. Guess you're supposed to plant the seed in the potting soil and grow a bonsai tree. but these are just seeds for Japanese Black pine or what not. 

Ponderosa pine

It will take years for the seeds to grow to resemble anything like a bonsai. This is so especially if the plant is kept in a little pot its whole life. Sometimes when I tell people that I make bonsai they tell me about their experience with these bonsai kits. Some of those seeds never sprout. The truth is that for the novice some seeds could be hard to sprout. Some of the seeds need cold stratification, scarification, or warm stratification.

I'm not saying you should not buy them, but understand what you're getting into. They are just regular seeds. The fact of the matter is that a bonsai tree is a plant that somebody cultivates by pruning, wiring, and fertilizing. The seed itself does not a bonsai make.

Brazilian rain tree

So when you buy these bonsai seeds just understand that it's going to take a lot of years for it to develop into anything that might come close to looking like a bonsai.

I grow trees from seeds. One of my favorite things to grow is Moreton Bay ficus or ficus macrophylla. These trees get pretty big and very quick. However, it takes a good number of years to get to a size worth showing. I am talking shohin size. Then you have to get the branching out right, the ramification. You can't do that on a young macrophylla until you cut the top tip part right where all the auxin is. When you cut that part it promotes more Branch growth but it slows down the growth of the whole tree over all.

Moreton Bay Ficus

So, I want you guys to know that there are no seeds that grow into a bonsai. A bonsai comes from someone dedicating time and care in developing a plant so that it becomes a bonsai. 

Aerial roots when you live in a desert.

What are some features that you like on bonsai trees? I love aerial roots on ficus trees. They start out thin, but when they bury themselves in the soil they get fat quick. They add lots of character to the tree.

To be frank, growing aerial roots was a mystery to me. Sometimes I would see them grow on some of my Ficusses. Then one day after a heat wave killed some of my trees I decided to install a “drip irrigation” system. They actually make sprinklers in 180 degrees, 90, and 45-degree heads. I installed what you might call an overkill of sprinkler heads. I did not want to lose any tree to thirst.

I turned the sprinklers daily. Instead of mostly the soil getting wet the sprinklers would wet everything. I am talking about the leaves, trunks, and all. Also the brick wall, the wood stands, and the ground soil. I was changing the microclimate. Where I keep my trees I have little to no wind. It’s like a little alcove.

After about 4 weeks I noticed that some of my ficusses had a bunch of aerial roots coming from the trunk.

That is how I stumbled upon aerial roots.

I believe that consistently wetting the whole tree helped create aerial roots more than just the higher humidity.

I had seen pictures of Scandinavian ficus bonsai. They are kept in grow bags. That is a plastic square bags with artificial humidity and light. The winters are harsh up there. Also, daylight in winter is very short. They keep these “exotic” trees in these bags to protect them. Because the humidity is high and the temperature in the bag is relatively high the ficus produce aerial roots. The roots were few though.

In fact, when I saw that I was going to make a mini greenhouse out of wood and clear plastic to try and replicate it.  

I live in Los Angeles, CA. We have had some very warm summers and wet winters (wet for LA, don't laugh at us Seattle) the last few years. The rain was not enough and when it did rain the temperature was too low to do much ariel root growing.

The summers were hot enough but because LA is at the edge of a desert it was never humid enough.

Aerial roots widened the trunk

I want to emphasize that the roots were not growing from the branches. Not every Ficus produced aerial roots and not every tree that made aerial roots produced the same amount.  Even among the same species namely ficus microcarpa, there were differences.

I never use straws to grow the aerial roots. They will not "dry out" if they get wet every day. 

What Ficusses produce aerial roots?:

• Chinese Banya-F. microcarpa
• Moreton Bay Fig-F. macrophylla
• Port Jackson Fig-F. rubiginosa
• Peepale Fig-F. religiosa
• Burtt Davyi
• Weeping fig-F.Benjamina

What can help make aerial roots?:

• Warm temperature 80f or higher
• High humidity
• Spraying the trunk daily
• Right species of Ficus
• Even within the same species, it varies

You might have noticed that most of the aerial roots like to grow on the underside of lateral parts of the tree. The underside.

Cheers

Grafting a ficus microcarpa, or whittling away at a tree

I wanted to try my hand at grafting a branch unto a tree. I thought that I could try grafting a ficus microcarpa. Ficus microcarpa are resilient plants. Even if I did something wrong the damage might be minimal. Boy, was I wrong.  

Here is the trunk that I was going to graft onto.



Her is the branch. It is actually a piece from further up the same tree.



Confession time: To graft you should have some knowledge, the right tools, and a little experience will not hurt. I had none of those. Here was the result.



I took a nice size chunk of tree off. That is going to leave a very big scar. I felt sick. Why o why do I do the things I do? Ok, this was a fail. The tree will recover. So I decided to do it again.

It looked a lot better, but because I don't know what I am doing I do not know if it will take.

I think for grafting I will need someone to teach me. Cheers.

What Ficus Microcarpa has taught me

I have been working with a lot of ficus microcarpa this year. I have learned a few things (and I realized I have many more things to learn).

I have posted many times before on how resilient ficus microcarpa is. Many times I thought I had killed a tree. All the leaves would drop. It would look so sad. I would set them aside to discard later where i would forget about them. Then I would find them some time later with little green buds pushing their way out of the bark. That's not to say that some have not died all the way (The Princess Bride, anybody?). I have bent trunks to amazing curves. I have potted trees in the smallest of pots, I have pruned all but a few short branches and these trees keep coming back. I have seen pictures of abandoned ficus bonsai which have broken free of the pot and have become full size trees.

Epiphytic Ficus Microcarpa

Something I have noticed about FM is that there is a big difference in pruning green branches versus pruning hardened or lignified branches. Knowing what happens can help in bonsai design. When you cut a green branch it will die back to the node just below the cut. You can cut a foot  from a node it will still die back to the first node under the cut. The benefit to this as I have seen is two part. First, as the branch continues to grow it will heal without a scar. Yes, that type of pruning heals fast and if you remove all the dead tissue it will heal smoothly.  Second, I notice that if you cut the bud while the leaf is still small the leaf will pretty much stay the same size. You can get amazingly small leaves like that.

Cutting bigger lignified branches is a different story. A lignified branch is a branch that has become woody. These branches can bud anywhere along the branch. That means that if you cut it short it will bud somewhere in the vicinity of where you wanted it to bud. You may also get multiple buds. That means more branches, more ramification, and more leaf reduction.

New branches started growing after I cut the original branch

There is some differing opinion on what I am going to say next. Please keep in mind that this is a post about ficus microcarpa. If you leave a branch uncut it will thicken faster than  if you prune and let the new branches grow. Here is an example: I let a new branch grow to cover a bald spot on a tree. I did not prune the branch until it got to a thickness close to the other branches. So far so good. Yet, at the same time I have branches that are six month older. These branches i clip because I am trying to develop fine ramification. If these two branches thickened at the same rate I would have incredibly thick branches with exaggerated taper, which is not the case. An uncut branch will thicken faster than branches that are pruned.

Thinner branches on top are older than the bottom branch that has been wired

A great thing about ficus microcarpa is that they are ready to grow aerial roots. All you need is moisture. Here is what I do. I add ground bark to the pot to the height I want aerial roots to grow. Then I water as usual. In as little as a week you will be able to see aerial root buds. Leave the bark (or sphagnum moss, or anything that will keep the trunk moist) on for as long as you want. I have a tree that grew aerial roots very low on the trunk. Now the tree has buttressing roots. I know in cold climates where you keep ficus indoor in special light and humidity grow containers have a high number of aerial roots because the humidity is so high. I have not grown aerial roots from branches yet. I am devising a plan as i write. I will put moss on said branch and will wrap it with mesh. The mesh will help me regulate humidity through spraying. It might be easier to wrap it with plastic, but why make things easier on me?

Aerial roots

Ficus microcarpa love fertilizer. Ficus microcarpa want to grow. I have seen growth as little as two days after fertilization. I fertilize at the fertilizers manufacturers recommended full strength. The ficus love it. I fertilize every two weeks. However, some times I have fertilized weekly. I have seen amazing growth. I do not fertilize any cutting until I see a few leaves. I figure if the cutting has leaves it has roots. The more roots the more fertilizer it absorbs the faster it grows.

Before, (March 24)

After, (May 23)

I have taken cuttings of varying sizes from epiphytic ficus microcarpa. Some have been the thickness of a pencil and some 4.5 inches in diameter. I would say that 99.1 percent have survived. I have taken cuttings from a FM tree. I have had 60 percent success with those. I always plant cuttings in bark. Bark retains little water yet keeps things moist. Bark has barely any nutrients, so after the cuttings have rooted I put them in composted soil i buy for two dollars American from the big box store. Even the huge cuttings I have taken I have put in bark.

Large cutting

That is all I can think of for now. If I remember anything else I will add an update. Cheers.

Oh yes, more info here: http://www.bonsaihunk.us/

grafting gone wrong, I did it this time

I tried making a thread graft on a Ficus microcarpa. Tried is the key word. Things went south during the process. Thread grafting is when you drill a hole in a tree and place a branch in that hole. Usually the selected branches are thin and small. However, on Ficus microcarpa I have seen some pretty big grafts. So, without further adue here is my story:

I wired this branch so I could lower it. After it set I decided to chop the branch down and try grafting it to another Chinese banyan.

Parent tree

I wanted to get everything right. I made some holes of different sizes so that the branch would fit snugly in its new home.

I shaved the bark down to the cambium layer

I removed some of the bark to expose the cambium layer. My idea is that the cambium layer of the branch and the host tree should touch so that nutrients and moisture can flow to the branch from the tree.

I chose the spot where the new branch would go. This was not my first choice. This tree was collected. Before I could get to it the gardeners for years had hacked at it. It has a lot of scarring. Where I wanted to put the graft there was not enough living tissue. So I chose this side. It also needed a branch.

I played with the branch position to see where it would look the best.

I chose a spot and started to drill. The flesh was a lot softer than I thought it would be. I made sure that I did not drill too deep.

I inserted the branch and to my horror it was somewhat loose. I needed a tight sealed fit. I had many choices at this point. However, I might make things worse. I chose what I thought would be the most successful and the most simple option...

… I wedged two pieces of a bamboo skewer.

Then I sealed it all with beeswax.

What went wrong? Maybe I forgot to change the drill bit back to the smaller size. Perhaps I did not drill straight in and out making a bigger hole. Or i did not factor in when i shaved the bark to get to the cambium layer. I strongly think it was the bit size though. This was my first thread graft. I hope that it takes, but knowing what I did I won't be surprised if the graft does not take. Im hoping that because it is a chinese banyan, and they are resilient trees that it will work out. Cheers.

Update April 18, 2016

Last weekend we had unusually strong winds. the tree was blown off the stand. A few branches were cracked including the graft. This will be marked as a Learning experience.

Banyan Style Ficus bonsai from ficus cuttings

Have you ever seen the ficus benjamina trees whose trunks have been braided? After many years the trunks fuse and it literally becomes one tree. This is called inosculation. It happens with trunks, roots, and branches. We can use Inosculation to make a banyan style bonsai.

Banyan trees are trees that start their lives as epiphytes. They grow aerial roots that grow down to the ground. These roots overlap and fuse creating a multilayered trunk. It is a very exotic look. Banyans grow to be immense trees. The branches can grow to be as big as trunks themselves. These branches grow aerial roots that end up supporting these massive branches. I personally love banyan style bonsai.  

Banyan style tree National Bonsai and Penjing Museum

Aerial roots growing from branches

First, you need rooted ficus cuttings. I used Chinese banyan branches. You should use branches of varying size for an aesthetic effect. You must bind the cuttings and leave them for a year. Yes, one year. Oh, by the way, it is going to take about three years to finish this project. It is a long time but the outcome is great. I used zip ties to bind the trunks. When the zip ties started to make marks I would cut them off and tie new ones on a different place. Before wiring, you have to look at all the branches. Try to figure out what branches will go where.

For the lowest branch, I chose the thickest one. As I wired each consecutive branch I would bend them away from the trunk. There will be time for adjusting them after all the branches are wired. One thing to remember is that the tree will look more pleasing if the thicker branches are under the smaller ones. This should be easy to remember as the thicker ones are usually longer than the thinner ones.

Once you have the lower branches it's time to choose the apex. Take a good look at the remaining branches. I tied a new zip tie to the remaining branches. This will help create a tapering trunk, and it will help place the remaining branches above the lower branches. The branch that I chose as the apex I wired and gave it very modest shape. The rest of the branches I bent away from the trunk. I wanted to give the tree some shape so i trimmed the ends. I also trimmed the branches so that the new branches will grow near the trunk.

When I cut the branch tips I cut just above one of the secondary branches. These secondary branches will become the extension of the primary branch and will create taper.

This is what the rough cut looks like. Now it is a question of refining by creating fine ramification.

It will take another year for the fusion to set. As the tree grows the fusion will blend. You will be left with an amazing trunk. Meanwhile, you can treat the banyan like your other tropical bonsai. If you have a west, south, or east facing window you will be able to keep the banyan inside. Cheers.

Update 07/19

The Chinese banyan has grown so much that i had to cut off the ties.  The branches have not fused yet. However, the branches have taken shape. Secondary branches have started to grow. 

 The main branch had the deepest grooves left by the wire. I did not prune this branch at all. That is why the growth was so great.

The growth was so good that the branch managed to pop out a fig. I have never seen that on one of my trees before. 

I put tow ties on the trunk to secure it. Hopefully, most of the branches start fusing by the end of this year. I rewired some of the branches and put the tree back in its spot.

Update 10/13/2016

A few weeks ago I noticed that the length of the branches was too long for the size of the trunk. So I chopped the tree down to size.

This is the same tree I have been working on this year. Some of the branches have fused. Some other ones not so much. What's interesting is that I started another fused ficus and that tree has completely fused together. The trunks have started growing more branches which I hope will become the secondary branches.

Update 02/04/2017

This is an update on the fusing of ficus microcarpa in general. I have several trees I am fusing. This one seems to be slightly ahead of the curve. I started the fuse in April. The red arrows point the way. click on the pic to see a bigger image.

Fusing ficus microcarpa

Update 02/28/2017

Back to the tree, we have been working on. This is what it is looking like today. I pruned the tree hard. Now it has many fine secondary branches.

The tiny little cuttings are starting to fuse. There is a lot of scarring from the zip ties. However, the trunk is small and young. By the end of summer, they will be bu a faint light discoloration. 

It's early February here in LA, that means springtime, means fertilizing will start for the ficus.

April 4, 2016 Update:
Spring is in full swing. It's time to give the tree another haircut.

Before

After