Bonsaify | From Mass Market to Masterpiece Ficus Part 2!

It's been 3 months since Eric last worked on this mass market Ficus (if you haven't watched Part 1 yet, you may want to! • Bonsaify | Ficus: From... ) and today he'll be thinning, wiring, and potting it into a larger growing container.
00:00:50 As Eric anticipated, new shoots and more buds are coming out that haven't elongated yet.
00:01:53 Eric thins locations with multiple shoots down to 1 shoot.
00:02:22 The first node sections need to be wired. Eric uses shiny aluminum wire for visibility.
00:04:01 Bending and giving little twists to add movement to the first nodes.
00:05:20 Eric removes the tree from the ceramic container it arrived it (it wasn't tied down, so it came out easily). He gives it a quick trim on the outside of the root ball using a bent nose tweezer before placing it in the growing container.
00:06:53 Raking out roots and removing drainage screens.
00:07:42 Eric has the root display in view to help ensure the nebari is set up for success.
00:08:29 Eric uses his standard soil mix (80% perlite, 20% cocoa coir) for repotting into a larger growing container.
00:09:42 Eric wants more roots to grow out of the base.
00:10:38 Check back for the Part 3 in this series, when Eric takes the next steps in another 3-4 months (early-mid Spring) after the tree winters in the greenhouse!
What do you think of Eric's work in Part 2? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching! Please like, share, and subscribe!

[@jameslangschied7900]

Great instructional video: Intelligent, informed, artistic & easy to follow. Looking forward to #3. Thank you Eric.

[@acheronexile]

Quite excited to see part 3 when the tentacle monster comes back from its great slumber in greater quantity!

[@snager80]

Eric, thanks for these videos! so few people focus on shohin and mame sized trees!

[@9daywonda]

Can't say I'm a fan of the stumpy type your vid displays but because it's you I'll educational.

[@bobcatbonsai]

Very informative as alway! Thank you for sharing!

[@sekedarmancingbali1694]

setelah di bentuk bonsai nya yang mungil jadi keren terimakasih telah berbagi cara membentuk bonsainya 🙏🙏

[@maryperrysmith5815]

Hi amazingly beautiful information order some of that mixture. Coco coir. Pith. Different. CANT WAIT FOR NEW VIDIO. ITS NOW MARCH 28. Please show us that plant ❤❤❤❤. Thank you a ton loved the way you explained what and why you doing what Mary. In Indiana

[@Dovietail]

How did those trunk cuttings do? Did they root?

[@cherylandrews3195]

Thanks for the video! When you said you want the plant to be able to readily uptake as much nutrients as possible, how do you know how to give a plant the right quantity without overdoing it and possibly damaging the plant? is there a trick to it? Also, you make the root work look easy yet I find its not as easy as you make it seem to us newbs. Would you be able to do a video on just root work? like several examples of different problems or what you find when you repot to help fix/grow a better nebari?

[@Bonsaify]

Check out some of what I just did on the crab apples - that was more aggressive root work. But yes, we will be doing a lot more repotting videos in the next couple months as it's a main part of the work right now for us. As for fertilizer - the simple answer is that you can just add some osmocote, or BioGold or any fertilizer. Only salt-based fertilizers can burn plants (although some organic fertilizers also contain salts.) The long answer is that people write textbooks about things like that - in fact the Asymmetry podcast had a recent episode about plant nutrient and analysis of foliage samples that was quite interesting. A good plant fertilizer will have the right balance of minerals, but ficus are not super finicky so I think you wouldn't have much to worry about. If you haven't read Michael's book "Bonsai Heresy" I would recommend you also read that: www.bonsaify.com/collections/books

[@cherylandrews3195]

@@Bonsaify Thx for replying! I love that you take the time to answer questions! I have osmocote and biogold haha glad to see you mentioned those. I dont just have ficus, I have ~130 little trees, most I started from seed when covid started. I have a wide variety of types. I really should have spent more time learning each one and added slowly but I am having fun learning! haha I will definately look into your suggestions! Thx again

[@caseykja]

great, as usual, esp. the part about nebari development. BTW, you place the trunk vertically in the pot....is that because you aren't ready to determine overall apex/directionality? Also, where do you get your 'shiny' aluminum wire? (another good idea, as i am still missing a couple of (over)wired branches each year)

[@Bonsaify]

I get the aluminum from BonsaiTonight. Not sure it's on the website, but he imports it from Japan. Angle - the angle isn't very important right now. when you're growing so many things change that thinking about the angle at this stage is just a waste of time.

[@dudesjir74]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@bonsaipage_]

I’m just curious could you have also scraped some of the bark on the areas you want roots to grow and added rooting hormone? Ficus grow roots very easily so I would assume this might work pretty good 🤷‍♂️

[@Bonsaify]

Probably would work, but I think I'll be re-addressing the nebari a number of times so I can assess in the next episode!

[@danielfonseca5007]

I have one with a massive cut on top and one on th side, should I remove the ring and join the scars so it called together in a concave shape?

[@Bonsaify]

Hmm, tough call. I'm not sure I can offer advise without seeing it.

[@danielfonseca5007]

Hi Eric, thank you for the reply and the amazing work you share with the community online. Would love to send you a photo, also conscious that we are in autumn here in Australia and can't really prune too hard :(. How can I get the picture to you? Cheers.

[@danielfonseca5007]

​@@Bonsaify I did it decided to carve out the flat cut on top and join it with the one on the side. Applied paste. Now can only hope it will heal well. Still unhappy about the wire marks on the two big branches. Would you chop of severely marked branches and start new ones closer to growing season?

[@eduardopaganotto4633]

What kind of soil do you use for ficus, sir?

[@Bonsaify]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJK3i3uOgLV5m7c In this case 70% perlite/30% coco coir. But I use bonsai soil also, Akadama, Pumice Lava. I'm sure many other mixes work well also.

[@iPheek]

Ok here comes my question haha why do you pot in a regular tall pot and not in a short wider pot?

[@Bonsaify]

Well, tall growing pots like that tend to encourage vigorous growth, but TBH, that's the only large container I had handy. (other than the bonsai pots in the background )

[@iPheek]

@@Bonsaify makes sense! Just wanted to ask in case there was some kind of trick that I was missing out on haha

[@Thousand.cranes.bonsai]

Hey why do you prefer perlite over pumice?

[@Bonsaify]

cheaper (locally anyway), lighter weight, and inert/no mining residue. Most pumice like what Bonsai Tonight sells is good, but some rock yards have really dirty pumice that you have to sift and waste half of. I still use pumice for my older trees in bonsai pots.

[@Dovietail]

Oh, my word! Your hand is EXACTLY in the way every single time you are doing some little bendy-twisty thing on the branches that I am trying desperately to see! Think about your camera angles. Sorry. Professional theater director here. You need to frame your scenes.

[@Bonsaify]

Easy there with the caps. Lol. I'm no professional cinematographer, and went a long while with no monitor even ... lifelong learner and continuous improvement. That applies to bonsai and making KZbin videos. There are 4 parts so far to this series. The more recent cuttings are growing nicely, I neglected to root the first ones quickly enough so they dried out. As for the yellow leaf... this series is about the long term - think like a grower - that yellow leaf is meaningless. If we were doing show prep that would be another topic. And finally - real bonsai. Yep, just like a real professional theater director can recognize when someone is an amateur cinematographer, so a professional bonsai artist can recognize the canned, soul-less look of a mass-market bonsai.