Ficus Aerial Roots

moloko

i always wanted to get roots on my ficus trees. Seeing the giant ficus in Hong Kong and the beauty of them increased my desire for this. A few weeks ago (beginning of July) I covered two of my ficus with spanish moss and seran wrap. I kept the most moist at all times throughout the days (it helped that we went through a rainy spell) and yesterday took the moss away. I know have very thin roots reaching near the soil. Now I cut straws to fit and put (very carefully) the roots within the straws and moss at the bottom. My plan is to have the roots reach for that moist moss and thicken. I use semi-clear straws so I can see the progress. I will upload photos tomorrow to show what I mean.

Has others had success growing ariel roots or no desire for that kind of thing?

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3069James

i'm gonna try this year before i have to take them inside for the year so it only took a few weeks how long are they

BonsaiMon

Good work on producing ariel roots..
I love them and I'm fortunate to have a greenhouse which helps keep the humidity up.. looking forward to seeing your pics.

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peace,
tom stoute

http://bonsaiinsights.spaces.live.com/

comrvf

ive also heard that by pricking the branches brings on ariel roots but im not too sure

Jerry Meislik

Your technique should work quite well.
Good luck.
Jerry

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Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.us/

wolverine

there is a video on bonsai farm on how to do aerial roots,Ill try to load it

moloko

Here is a bad pic of what I am doing now. I actually wrapped it with more spanish moss to cover the straws sinces its around 35-40c outside. The tree is not much to look at but I hope with the roots it will add some interest away from the bad broom style Im going for. :-)

EDIT: pic deleted as too large for this forum.

NOTE: can someone tell me how to get the thumbs like I see in all the rest of the posts. thanks.

Sterling

Are the aerial roots that ficus produce from that roots that it produces under the soil? I only ask because I'm wondering if these would die if they weren't moist since there were produced using tricks to mimic areas being under the soil.