cishepard’s ‘23-‘26 ROR Contest: Pyracantha or Tigerbark Ficus

[cishepard]

I already have these items:


The tiny pyracantha is uninspiring to me and I was going to give it away, but now I think I will try it either on the lava rock or the square-ish concrete thing. I also wanted to find a skinny little grocery store ficus sapling which I’m picturing on that tall geometric thing (both of those concrete statues were made by my late mother-in-law back in the 70’s). Maybe I can train the roots to make right angle turns back and forth.

I just noticed that the pyracantha pot is loaded with little ants - I think I will bare root it tomorrow and see what happens …

 

[cishepard]

So, starting with the Pyracantha - bare rooted. Lot’s of nice looking, long feeder roots, despite all the ants:



I decided to try the @Shibui method of root over rock using aluminum foil to hold the roots secure:

https://shibuibonsai.com.au/?p=188

I chose a position on the chunk of lava, wired the tree and arranged the roots:



For better or worse, I added wet sphagnum moss around the roots under the foil:

Here’s hoping. It will be fun to open the package up next spring to see what happened! I didn’t have a pot big enough to sink the rock into, but a friend is bringing one over tomorrow.



Next up will be the ficus on a statue modern art installation : )

 

[Shibui]

Good luck with the ROR package. Opening is like Christmas or a birthday. You never know what you are going to get.

Everyone insists on putting something under the foil for fear the roots will not like having no soil. My experience is nothing is needed. The foil and the rock will maintain good moisture levels and allow roots to grow. In actual fact, I get masses of new roots developing in there, even with no soil, moss, etc. The only proviso is that the top must be open for water to run down the surface of the rock under the foil.
My experience also shows that extra moisture holding material can actually be counterproductive. In the early days when I played around with different media I found more often that roots rotted if there was too much moisture under the foil. Obviously different climates and care regimes will require different approaches. Hoping your sphagnum works out.
Also anything under the foil will possibly keep the roots away from the surface of the rock. Roots hugging the rock surface as close as possible is the aim. No packing is the ultimate way to make sure that roots are close.

Look forward to seeing how this one turns out next year.

 

[cishepard]

Hmmm, I see. Thanks for the insight @Shibui, maybe I will pull out the moss before I bury the rock. I thought about asking first but then impatience reared it’s ugly head!

 

[Kievnstavick]

I think the biggest factor with the foil method is the blocking of sun light. So long as the water and oxygen balance is adequate, the roots just think they are underground rather then on a soon to be exposed rock.

 

[cishepard]

I decided to leave the sphagnum moss over the roots on the pyracantha. The roots are all against the rock with the moss dressing on top, so we’ll see, I guess.
This is the only ficus I could find around here - it’s not a tiger bark, maybe a benjamina?


There were two trees in the pot, with nice roots and trunk movement:



I thought I would put both trees onto the concrete statue, but the little one broke when I put too much pressure on the trunk. I’ll try to root it and maybe add it next year. No moss this time : )



These pots are really heavy! Since there is no soil around the roots, would it be suggested to water with something like miracle grow? Is there anything else to do to het the roots to thicken quickly? Thanks for any advice!

 

[cishepard]

Spring update.
I unpotted and unwrapped the pyracantha and found masses of roots down below the rock. The upper roots did thicken a bit and are clinging nicely to the rock. One thing I discovered is that the sphagnum moss is obscuring the upper roots and kind of getting integrated amongst them. I picked off a bunch of it, before re-wrapping.

It is very hard to see the good progress in photos, but I am pleased with how it is progressing!. I wrapped new aluminum foil on, leaving a little bit more of the top exposed, and reburied the rock until next year…