Ficus Root Fusion Bonsai Update

Tree species : Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree
Root cutting taken on : May end, 2018

This is Part 4. Read Part 1 , Part 2 & Part 3

My first root fusion project is onto a good start & has grown vigorously in the last 1.5 months. This video shows defoliation and spreading of the branches for better light penetration, to help the new & tender branches to grow stronger. Everyday, i rotated the pot so that all sides get good growth.

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MEGA Updates On My Bonsai Collection

A quick update on several of my bonsai trees.

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Hydroponic Ficus Bonsai Collection

Here I show my hydroponic ficus bonsai collection, kept on my kitchen balcony of my apartment, which has been converted to a mini glasshouse. Also, there is an update on a unique ficus specimen of mine.

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Root Fusion Bonsai

Tree species : Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree
Seed sprouted around : mid Sept, 2015

This is Part 3. Read Part 1 & Part 2. 

Here I show an update on my 2.5 yrs old ficus mini bonsai. The water roots have grown thick and have partly fused together. They were cut off and planted as a root cutting. The fused roots will now become a fused trunk. This is a unique specimen in my collection and, I have not seen anything like this on the internet. I have seen trunk fusion projects but this is different.

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Root Over Rock Bonsai Progression - Part 3

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
 
This is a 4 month progression of my root over rock mini bonsai project using 1 year old cuttings of ficus religiosa / peepal tree.

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See Part 1 & Part 2

Bottle Cap Bonsai - Fantastic Growth In 1.5 Months !

Tree species : Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree
Cutting taken on : June 21, 2016

I got fantastic growth in 1.5 months after brutally pruning my 1 yr old ficus religiosa mini bonsai, which is being grown as a bottle cap bonsai. To prevent the leafless pruned trunks from drying up, they were misted 3-4 times a day and I was rewarded for the extra care with many new branches. They were kept in shade for 2 weeks & then exposed to filtered morning sunlight.

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I am using a hybrid-ponic setup (roots in soil & water) to get fast growth in a compact space. The roots in the water bottle are sacrificial. Water is changed weekly once and liquid NPK is added to it. The soil too is fertilized with it. Pests, their eggs & spidermites were regularly cleaned off the leaves. 

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Emergency Root Rescue On My Mini Slab Bonsai

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
 
My mini slab bonsai had 2 setbacks sometime ago and now a 3rd one ! So, this time I dived right in, for a heroic rescue :-) Enough is enough !

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Root Over Rock Bonsai Progression - Part 2

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
 
This is a 3 month progression of my root over rock mini bonsai project using 1 year old cuttings of ficus religiosa / peepal tree. Fantastic trunk thickening happened due to regular feeding of liquid NPK and the wires brutally cut into the trunk. So I removed the wiring, did some pruning of roots & leaves, got rid of insects & their eggs. They should be fine in another 3 months.

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See Part 1 and Part 3

Penjing Bonsai - Root Over Rock Style

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)

Part 1 video features a hybrid-ponic setup (roots in soil & water) , while part 2 features hydroponic setup.

Part 1 - Dec 2016

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Part 2 - Nov 2017

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Root Over Rock Bonsai - Hybridponic Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Cutting Taken In : May 2016

This is a 1 year progression of my Root Over Rock Mini Bonsai, started from water rooted cuttings. It also covers the making of the rock formation, my hybrid-ponic setup (roots in sand & water), trunk thickening, pruning, moss revival & self watering benefits. My hybrid-ponic setup is an adaptation of Kratky Hydroponics technique.

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Bottle Cap Bonsai - Amazing Ficus Roots !!!

Tree species : Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree
Cutting taken on : June 21, 2016

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This is a 1 yr progression of a ficus mini bonsai from cutting, growing hydroponically in a bottle cap. The roots in water are sacrificial and will be eventually cut off but they give me a much faster growth than possible in my soil-mix of the same volume.

Self Watering Bottle Cap Bonsai

Tree species : Ficus Religiosa / Peepal Tree
Seed sprouted around : mid Sept, 2015

This is Part 2. Read Part 1 & Part 3. 

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This is a 2 yr progression of a ficus mini bonsai from seed, growing hydroponically in a bottle cap. The roots in water are sacrificial and will be eventually cut off but they give me a much faster growth than possible in my soil-mix of the same volume. 

Root Escape Technique For Mini Bonsai Of Ficus Religiosa Cuttings

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
 
One easy way to grow mini bonsai in tiny containers is to allow the roots to escape from the main pot to another bigger pot or ground or water. The roots outside the main pot are sacrificial and need periodic pruning.

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This video shows how I developed 3 ficus specimens, pruned their roots & trunk, created a root-over-rock setup, wired the trunks and planted into a bigger container.

See Part 2 and Part 3

Fish & Bonsai

I added 2 fishes temporarily, as decoration, to my hybrid-ponic penjing bonsai, for the purpose of shooting a video of it. It looks like a cute demo model of a mini eco-system, even though it is a temporary one :-) The fishes were returned back to their tank, after the video was shot. 

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This is NOT an aquaponic system. The ficus religiosa shown here is fed liquid NPK both in the soil mix on the rock and in the water. The setup was cleaned before adding fishes so that any traces of my chemical fertilizers do not harm the fish.

Rooting In Water For Mini Bonsai - Ficus Religiosa

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Cutting Taken On : Aug 4, 2016

The tiniest rooted cutting of a 
ficus religiosa you will ever see ! 

Rooted in just 10 days, in plain tap water. In this case, I didn't have to change the water, unlike my other cuttings in water. Here, the water would dry up to a thin layer and I simply refilled it everyday.

Aug 14, 2016

Rooting cuttings in water - Ficus Religiosa / Peepal tree - Part 3

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Collected On : April 23, 2016

Part 3 

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Root on rock - After getting a bunch of dense & shallow water roots, I planted the ficus cutting no. 6 on a rock cavity, covered it with moss & put it back in water, allowing the roots to grow down from the rock in to the water. 

Part 1 & 2

Ficus Religiosa Growing In A Bottle Of Water

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Collected On : May 17, 2016

Rooting cuttings in water - Ficus Religiosa / Peepal tree - Part 1 & 2

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Collected On : April 2, 2016

Softwood cuttings of Ficus Religiosa roots easily in water, specially green branch tips with leaf buds. You will never need their seed again !

If sand, cocopeat or soil was my rooting medium, then I would have had to cut away most of the leaves, which is a setback that you can avoid totally, by rooting in water. Besides, I would expect only 2-3 specimens to survive. I did not remove any leaves, after collecting this rootless sapling.

Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree) No. 2

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Collected On : Aug 13, 2015

Aug 13

Ficus Religiosa (Peepal Tree) No. 1

Tree Species : Ficus Religiosa (Peepal tree)
Collected On : Aug 11, 2015

This tree was growing at the base of a compound wall touching the road and I cut it with a hacksaw blade. Managed to get few roots.