Shohin Ficus benjamina 'Kiki'

Hello all,


I received this tree for my birthday from a great buddy of mine. It arrived today and I am pretty excited to share it with you all. It is a Ficus benjamina 'Kiki' and has about a 2 inch base. I am fine with the size of the trunk, but I will repot it into a bigger pot to work with branches, aerial roots, etc. I plan on keeping it small and was shooting for a sumo shohin. The nebari is decent, but can be improved. I will cover the nebari with soil when I repot so that it may or may not sprout new roots. I do see one small problem with it, which I will point out in the pictures. Anyway, here is the tree:

Front?:


Back?:


Sides:



Here is one of the problems I see, this big open gap. I plan on placing this tree in the aquarium however, as they shoot aerial roots like crazy. If I can get aerial roots to cover that spot, it will hopefully fix it and make it all one connection, thus adding taper to it. Thoughts?




Comments, advice, donations, always welcome!


Ryan


P.S. sorry for the blurry pictures, I'm stillg etting used to this camera!

Hi Ryan

Let me chime in here to help if I can. If that were my tree I would cut that root off clear back to the trunk, seal the wound with water proof tightbond glue or similar if you can and let the tree rest for a year. Then thin out all those twiggy branches until you have a leader for the top a lower side branch or two then a bottom branch or two, then maybe begin to wire them downward. This is a good tree to start with, It will be very forgiving of what you do to it IF you just go slowly a little at a time, I do notice a bit of inverse taper and that is probably caused by the heavy root in question. I read once that if you dont like something in bonsai (or on your bonsai) then cut it out! Dont be afraid! Was kinda the Idea the author was trying to connote.

man on the mountain wrote:Hi Ryan

Let me chime in here to help if I can. If that were my tree I would cut that root off clear back to the trunk, seal the wound with water proof tightbond glue or similar if you can and let the tree rest for a year. Then thin out all those twiggy branches until you have a leader for the top a lower side branch or two then a bottom branch or two, then maybe begin to wire them downward. This is a good tree to start with, It will be very forgiving of what yo bu do to it IF you just go slowly a little at a time, I do notice a bit of inverse taper and that is probably caused by the heavy root in question. I read once that if you dont like something in bonsai (or on your bonsai) then cut it out! Dont be afraid! Was kinda the Idea the author was trying to connote.

Thank you for the reply! But would the root add more taper if I could get it to fuse to the main trunk? If I maybe covered the area with cuttings from the parent tree?

This is one of those plants that looks like it would make a good bonsai because it is a Ficus with naturally small leaves, BUT in my experience it tends to have problems with:
1. twiginess
2. die back
3. reverse taper
To name a few.