I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out what is wrong with my Ficus

[LanceMac10]

Banyan? If so they are aerial roots, you're not going to get them by sticking the tip of the branches into the ground. You need a lot of humidity for aerial roots to develop on their own. You can create them artificially by either making a cut in the branch and inserting it in a tube with soil so the roots grow down into the ground, exposing them as they get thicker (kinda like when you make root over rock or exposed root bonsais), or by approach grafting skinny shoots from the ground into the branches, cutting off the reminder of the shoot once established.

Wrap a branch with some sphagnum and foil.....week or so some aerial roots will form. THEN you guide them with some straws towards the surface.

 

[Ken Duncan]

I do not know how to send a screen shot but if you look at the 6th picture you will see scale just above your fingers.

 

[JuniperSol]

Wrap a branch with some sphagnum and foil.....week or so some aerial roots will form. THEN you guide them with some straws towards the surface.

Thanks I’m still learning sorry

 

[Maiden69]

I’ve only been into bonsai for 2 months and this is going way over my head lol

All you have to do is read and research... I have been doing bonsai since June 2020, but I have read and research almost everyday since then.

 

[JuniperSol]

All you have to do is read and research... I have been doing bonsai since June 2020, but I have read and research almost everyday since then.

Me with the r/bonsai Reddit haha. I try my best to learn but I’m very much so a “ask and answer” kind of person. Hence why I was freaking out about my ficus. I have read so much about them and couldn’t determine the problem :^)

 

[sorce]

Yes an no?

For Sure Yes and No.

Though that Scale if it's there is going to be the biggest culprit...

These indoor Benny leaves Fry Outside, I believe Ginseng leaf is more capable.

But I also believe there are infinite levels of difference between everyone's indoors and out and variances in plants.

I never notice my Ginseng Fair poorly, but I am coming from a more humid radiated heat that's kept at about 68F. Outside to a little cooler and a little more humid.

Some folks keep forced -air in the 90'sF, then go outside to 50F and humid.

It's the ...... scale.

Sorce

 

[Maiden69]

Wrap a branch with some sphagnum and foil.....week or so some aerial roots will form. THEN you guide them with some straws towards the surface.

not always... if you look at the pdf link, he tried that with soil underneath and they still didn't produce. What he can't explain is why after he grafted the shoots and cut them off, aerial roots started sprouting everywhere... that's when he shoved it in the greenhouse and flooded the area, that made the entire tree burst in roots that he guided down with straws.

I think David is one of the few bonsai artists that specialize in ficus trees, outside from the artists located in India, Thailand and other places were the ficus tree is native from.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Mind sending me a screen shot the the scale?

I had to zoom in and really look. Possibly scale where ai circled. They are hard shelled yet squish under pressure.
I found scale on my on ficus...the other poster is good...because I looked and overlooked it the first time. Two gray areas are circled. If they indeed are, look for more.

This was a first for me for going to systematic treatment. Indoors I can't spray with my reactive airways disease. So I used the granulars...I also squished what I seen.

 

[JuniperSol]

I had to zoom in and really look. Possibly scale where ai circled. They are hard shelled yet squish under pressure.
I found scale on my on ficus...the other poster is good...because I looked and overlooked it the first time. Two gray areas are circled. If they indeed are, look for more.
View attachment 368327
This was a first for me for going to systematic treatment. Indoors I can't spray with my reactive airways disease. So I used the granulars...I also squished what I seen.

I’ll take a closer look

 

[JuniperSol]

Th

I had to zoom in and really look. Possibly scale where ai circled. They are hard shelled yet squish under pressure.
I found scale on my on ficus...the other poster is good...because I looked and overlooked it the first time. Two gray areas are circled. If they indeed are, look for more.
View attachment 368327
This was a first for me for going to systematic treatment. Indoors I can't spray with my reactive airways disease. So I used the granulars...I also squished what I seen.

Those are spots where the leaves fell off

 

[JuniperSol]

This scale?

 

[Cadillactaste]

This scale?

Looks questionable. Can you squish it? It's a pest. It will squish. Hard shelled...but not impenetrable. They squish easily.

 

[JuniperSol]

Looks questionable. Can you squish it? It's a pest. It will squish. Hard shelled...but not impenetrable. They squish easily.

I pulled one of these off before and it wasn't a bug. All it I did was make my ficus bleed

 

[Cadillactaste]

I pulled one of these off before and it wasn't a bug. All it I did was make my ficus bleed

You don't pull them off...if scale they are sap suckers. If they squish they are scale. That's all I have to give you. Not being there to personally see. I can't say 100%. My scale is cleared up with systematic. So I can't take a photo.

 

[JuniperSol]

You don't pull them off...if scale they are sap suckers. If they squish they are scale. That's all I have to give you. Not being there to personally see. I can't say 100%. My scale is cleared up with systematic. So I can't take a photo.

My bad, it was the one time and it was a while ago

 

[JuniperSol]

I checked for scales, all clear. Just looks like dried sap from where leaves fell

 

[Forsoothe!]

Banyan? If so they are aerial roots, you're not going to get them by sticking the tip of the branches into the ground. You need a lot of humidity for aerial roots to develop on their own. You can create them artificially by either making a cut in the branch and inserting it in a tube with soil so the roots grow down into the ground, exposing them as they get thicker (kinda like when you make root over rock or exposed root bonsais), or by approach grafting skinny shoots from the ground into the branches, cutting off the reminder of the shoot once established.

No need to know Spanish, just look at the pictures.

https://escueladebonsaionline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/MI-FICUS-TIGER-BARK-ebook.pdf

See? I knew if I spilled my guts someone would tell me (and us) how it's done. Thanks!

 

[JuniperSol]

See? I knew if I spilled my guts someone would tell me (and us) how it's done. Thanks!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Wrap a branch with some sphagnum and foil.....week or so some aerial roots will form. THEN you guide them with some straws towards the surface.

Two in a row! We're learning some here!

 

[LanceMac10]

Works on surface roots too......