Golden Gate Ficus

Hey everyone, brand new to the site, I dove right into the art of bonsai and am in LOOOVE with it. My question for now is this, i have two 9 year old Golden Gate Ficuses. From what I have read, this type of ficus will grow its trunk out, and back into itself. That is the best i can explain it. One has done this, and the other has grown roots from the branches back down into the soil, but not into the tree itself. is there any way to train my bonsais to do so?

From your description it is kind of difficult to tell what you are describing but it sounds like you are either talking about aerial roots and/or fusing. What happens is that if the humidity is high enough the tree will drop aerial roots down from the trunk or branches. Once this grow down into the soil they will thicken in diameter pretty quickly. If one these roots happens to be close to the trunk or another root, as it thickens it will eventually grow up agains the other part of the tree and over time the cambium layers become forced together and are fused at this spot.

If this is what you mean it is pretty easy to do with ficus as this is very similar to an approach graft which you could do with either the aerial roots or cuttings.

If this isn't what you mean then I have no idea.

both of your responses are correct actually. ONE of my ficuses (named bonnie) has the aerial roots going straight down from the branch into the soil. The other (named clyde) has what appears to have once been an aerial root going directly back down into the trunk. To explain, higher up on the trunk the root begins, and down near the base of the trunk it joins the tree again, but the tree has an S curve. My guess is that it was an attempted aerial root on the trees part, but it met itself rather than the soil.


On a training note, is it possible to push the aerial root towards the trunk of the tree, so as it thickens it will eventually fuse with the tree??

THANKS A MIL!

It would technically be possible to move the root next to the tree and force them to fuse though depending on how far away from the trunk the aerial roots are it may not end up looking the best, and if they have already grown too thick you might just snap them off. Some pictures would help to be able to see if it would be possible but your best bet would be to find a local bonsai club and try to get some hands on help from someone in the area.

The aerial roots actually look pretty young, definately not very thick. I am pretty new to bonsai so I would like to see someone more experienced move the root if it were possible, and if not thats fine because the root is very high up on the tree and is beautiful as is. If anything more of future reference material . From what I know there is a professor on my campus who does bonsai, and is very experienced. I also plan on taking a course offered at my college that is stricly bonsai.