IckyGuyBonsai
Mame
Been trying to sift through all my random, unorganized, and sporadic photos of my trees (anyone want to share if they have a specific schedule for photographing individual trees to track progress?) and decided to share a short progression of this Ficus "too little" that I've been messing around with.
The earliest picture I could find of this tree is a bad quality photo from 2021 some time after I potted it out of a nursery can into a ceramic container around spring of 2021. For the sake of mostly seeing what would happen, I left one of the big tuberous roots that these ficus are famous for partially raised out of the soil line.
fast forward past a hard chop the summer after repotting, a couple wires at some point, and a few different stressful environment changes, this guy has kept on chugging. This next photo is it showing some signs of life this past winter while dialing in overwintering inside in a new place.
What originally drew me to this tree was the unique scarring/deadwoodish texture along the trunk. I'm not sure how long it will last given how aggressively ficus can grow, but figured I'd keep this guy small and enjoy it while it lasts! As you can see the root that I left exposed has barked up well and transitions nicely with the trunk texture. I'm planning on repotting it next year and burying it a bit deeper with the rocks since they sit on top of the soil currently as well as trying to encourage roots to grow over the small rocks to the left. Earlier this spring while getting ready to put it outside for the season, I decided to add some more wire to compact down the apex a bit.
since then it has grown well and really filled in. I'm still tweaking a few primary branches into place, but it's close to being mostly clip and grow at this point. This guy doesn't quite shade himself enough for the moss to survive in the full sun yet.
Today I put on a couple more wires to pull a few branches down to get some more separation and too fill in the canopy behind the trunk a bit to highlight it. Still working on getting better at taking decent pictures of my trees, but in person, in 3d, this guy is really coming together.
Enjoy and feel free to share any thoughts/critiques on this little guy, I've definitely enjoyed working with it the past few years.
The earliest picture I could find of this tree is a bad quality photo from 2021 some time after I potted it out of a nursery can into a ceramic container around spring of 2021. For the sake of mostly seeing what would happen, I left one of the big tuberous roots that these ficus are famous for partially raised out of the soil line.
fast forward past a hard chop the summer after repotting, a couple wires at some point, and a few different stressful environment changes, this guy has kept on chugging. This next photo is it showing some signs of life this past winter while dialing in overwintering inside in a new place.
What originally drew me to this tree was the unique scarring/deadwoodish texture along the trunk. I'm not sure how long it will last given how aggressively ficus can grow, but figured I'd keep this guy small and enjoy it while it lasts! As you can see the root that I left exposed has barked up well and transitions nicely with the trunk texture. I'm planning on repotting it next year and burying it a bit deeper with the rocks since they sit on top of the soil currently as well as trying to encourage roots to grow over the small rocks to the left. Earlier this spring while getting ready to put it outside for the season, I decided to add some more wire to compact down the apex a bit.
since then it has grown well and really filled in. I'm still tweaking a few primary branches into place, but it's close to being mostly clip and grow at this point. This guy doesn't quite shade himself enough for the moss to survive in the full sun yet.
Today I put on a couple more wires to pull a few branches down to get some more separation and too fill in the canopy behind the trunk a bit to highlight it. Still working on getting better at taking decent pictures of my trees, but in person, in 3d, this guy is really coming together.
Enjoy and feel free to share any thoughts/critiques on this little guy, I've definitely enjoyed working with it the past few years.
