Growing ficus religiosa and benghalensis from seed in cooler climates

I have had much success with growing ficus macrophylla from seed. The weather here in Los Angeles is warm enough to germinate the seeds. The seeds grow even better during one of our many heat waves during the summer (here is the link http://bonsai-misadventures.blogspot.com/2016/03/grow-fig-tree-from-seed-moreton-bay.html).

Los Angeles is many things both good and bad, but it is not hot enough to germinate Ficus religiosa the bodhi tree and Ficus benghalensis the Indian banyan. I have had success  growing each on two different attempts. The first, I put some dirt in a thin plastic ferrero rocher box. It was very shallow and I left it on the window sill when I lived in Pomona. Pomona is 50 miles from the ocean and is much hotter than where I grew up and now currently live, Inglewood. During a very hot heatwave near 100f I noticed that all the f benghalensis seeds had sprouted. It looked like a carpet of microgreens. I was happy and if I had known then that I was not going to germinate that ficus again I would have taken better care of them. I lost them all.

Last year I tried my hand a Ficus religiosa. I used a heat lamp to grow those. It did work. It was not a carpet like the indian banyan, but I took what I can get. My mistake was removing them from the heat too quickly. I lost them all.

So here we are. It's 2018 and I have goals and aspirations. I want to raise a forest of banyans and bodhis.

First things first: SOIL. Oh yes start the controversy.

I am going to grow these seeds in a plastic shoe box. There will be zero drainage.

I started with good ole peat.

I added vermiculite for texture.

Then I added fine volcanic cinder for more texture.

I mixed it all very well. Then I got my shoe box. I chose this to keep humidity high, but I will have to monitor moisture levels. Because there is no drainage I will have to mist.

Here is the box with the soil in it.

These are the seeds.

Here are the seeds on top of the soil.

And here is the first misting.

Los Angeles is to cold for germinating tropical ficus seeds. so I got this:

I bought this heat pad to boost the temp. It was setup in a corner of the kitchen. A Styrofoam sheet was placed underneath to conserve heat.

I pushed it and forced three shoe boxes on the heating pad.

Three days after the setup was completed I was pondering on whether the seeds needed UV to germinate. I went to check the boxes and discovered a lone plant growing. I thought that it might be a weed, though the leaves did look like a ficus (looked like most dicotyleodn sprouts).

Then I noticed it wasn't alone, and that there was a very small one that was just the size of ficus seeds. I was satisfied.

I have been obsessing about Indian Banyan since I started my bonasi journey. I am satisfied with my experiment up to this point. Cheers.

a ficus for you, a ficus for me, a ficus for everybody in this room

Hi everyone, I found an amazing tree this week. Yes, it's another ficus. I love these trees. They are oh so resilient. This one in particular has a very good skeleton. It has a wide base. The base tapers into four branches of varying thickness. I cut the branches down to what I thought would give me good results as far as new branch growth.   Because this is an epiphyte it has many aerial roots growing from the trunk. I see a bright future for this little tree.

I know, I talk about ficuses all the time. To tell you the truth like many other tree species i could have cared less for any ficus. What happened? Well, instead of the usual potted ficus benjamina common to any home or office, I saw on the internet what a ficus could become. I saw twisting trunks, large buttressing aerial roots, and miniaturized leaves. I saw Jaw dropping beauty. I was amazed at the growth rate and sheer will to live.

A ficus is a tropical plant. When I see ficus bonsai i think of hot steamy jungles. I think of Angkor Wat, I think of mayan ruins.  I picture India and monsoon. I can have all of that in a small little pot holding a small little tree.

Ficus are easy finds for me. I work in the middle of the city. However I am surrounded by hundreds of species of trees and plants. From conifers to azaleas. cork oaks to moreton bay ficus. There is a specific pattern as to epiphytic ficus. There is a relationship between Italian stone pine and ficus microcarpa. Ficus microcarpa seem to thrive in the crotch and cracks of stone pine. The crevices and crotches of stone pine hold needle deposits which for the most part lay untampered (the exception is when I snoop around looking for epiphytic ficus). The needles collect dust and dirt, and though we do not receive much rain here in southern California the thick layers of needles hold moisture. The gardeners do turn on the high powered sprinklers who splash the pines from time to time. Birds, i guess eat figs from the many chinese banyan (ficus microcarpa). The birds then deposit their waste when they sit on tree branches. Although we have many trees I only see epiphytes on Italian stone pines, and palm trees. The ratio of pines to palm trees is vastly disproportionate something like 5:1.

Enough about the ficus. I still dislike ficus elastica the so called rubber tree. Although, I have seen one variety with interesting colors and patterns. I have tried to grow ficus religiosa with no success. I have purchased seeds from various sources. I would have bought a young f. religiosa, but the the specimens I have seen are just out of reach as far as price. I also am in search of ficus nerifolia. That ficus also has been out of reach.  I could keep going, but I won’t. Cheers.


Update 07/01

15 days later and little buds are growing out of the cutting. Which means that the cutting has roots. Now that it has roots I will fertilize and being a ficus it will grow exponentially. Yay!

Update August 26:

One month and ten days later the ficus has branches big enough to wire. I still will not prune until the branches are at a desirable thickness. I have noticed that if the branch lignified that it will grow new branches from different places on the branch and not just where a leaf grows.  

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

Cuttings from epiphytic ficus for bonsai or Ficus the Lazarus tree

Epiphytes are plants that start their lives on top of something that is not the ground. Most commonly they grow on top of other trees. I have seen some grow on cracks in walls and on freeway overpasses. You might be familiar with orchids, bromeliads, and tillandsia all of which are epiphytes. This post will be about Ficus microcarpa, or the Chinese banyan tree.  Fig trees are known the world over as strangler trees. A bird eats a fig, and then poops on a tree. Some seeds germinate. The plants get their nourishment and water from moisture and dirt that collects in the crevices where it grows. They are not parasitic organisms. These plants will slowly grow a root down the tree until it touches the ground. When this happens the epiphytes growth explodes surpassing the growth of the host tree. Eventually the epiphytic Ficus will shade the host tree weakening it. The host tree eventually dies leaving the Ficus.

Here in sunny southern California we do not get a lot of rain. This keeps the epiphytic Ficus from getting to a relatively large size. The exception is this massive palm tree growing in the crotch of this blood tree.

This is not photoshop

My office faces this Italian stone pine. I have worked in my office for thirteen years. The grounds keepers will cut and poison this Ficus every other year. The branches are long and slender from last year’s growth. The trunk however is thick and covered in scars. I do not harvest this Ficus because the plant has wedged itself between the trunks and has an amoeba like shape, and that is no bueno.  

See the pruning shears?

This is my favorite cutting tool for collecting these Ficus.  It’s a Gerber saw, and it works great. Later on you will see how straight this saw cuts.

Great tool

This is the prize of the day. I noticed it last year. It is a Ficus microcarpa var. green mound. The leaves grow oval and dark green. It really is a beautiful tree. I had collected some of its branches last year. They are all doing great. Now that we have hot weather again I decided to collect this tree. Now, I call the Ficus the Lazarus tree because it is very hard to kill. I have had Ficus that I have left for dead, I stopped watering them. After it rains some months later they start sprouting green buds. I collected a ficus that was growing on a sheer granite face. It boggles me as to how it survived on smooth granite. I wonder what it clung on to. I removed it and took it home. All the leaves fell, the branches dried. I put it to the side to discard later and forgot all about it. Months later after a rain storm I saw green buds growing. It was amazing. I was going to throw it away.

Anywho, back to business. This Ficus was growing from the inside of the tree out.  I placed the saw as low as I could. The wood was very soft. The saw cut through with no problem.  I placed the cutting in a container with some water.  Notice the size of the trunk? Even at this size the tree will survive and may probably not lose any of its leaves. What other species of tree can do this? Much respect for the Ficus, Rastafari-Haile Selassie. 

See the smooth straight edge? Thank you Gerber.

This is what the tree looks like outside of the tree. There have been times when with a little pressure the whole tree gives and comes off in one piece. This was not one of those trees. 

This was a second tree harvested. It had great taper and aerial roots. 

So, cutting the tree is half of the job. Now the cuttings have to root so that they can start growing again. To do this I put them in bark. I get the bark used for planting orchids. It makes sense to me as they are both epiphytes. I tried using just water. Using just water is a slow process that results in weak roots. I have used an only perlite medium, but the results are not as good as bark. I place the cutting deep enough so that when I add more bark the tree can stand on its own. Both of the cuttings I collected had aerial roots.  This might encourage roots to grown from the bark as well as from the wound. That is totally fine with me. I love the banyan bonsai look. After topping the pot with bark water thoroughly. One thing I have never been able to do is overwater a Ficus that is in bark medium. I have watered Ficus in bark medium up to three times a day for weeks. There was no negative result. 

This is a tree I collected last year. It was growing on a palm tree. It has many scars from when the grounds keepers tried to kill it. I cut it off and brought it home. I see a lot of promise in this tree. 

See the pruning shears?

Thank you for coming with me on this adventure. I enjoy making these posts. I want to send shout outs to the reader here in the States. Also, to the horticulturalists in Germany and India, thank you for reading my posts. Cheers.

Update May 24, 2016

One of my friends said he likes it when I show before and after pictures. I do too. That was a very good idea. I wanted to show a cutting of a ficus microcarpa with a two and a half inch trunk three months after I appropriated it. 

This is a cutting taken in December, in March it had some new growth

Two months after the picture above was taken there is an explosion of new growth.

Spring growth

I am tempted to cut it back. I want some of the branches to get pretty thick so I won't, for now.

Update:  June 22

This is my longest cutting. it measures above two feet. I cut it a month ago and it is doing great.