Ficus troubles

BonifaceVIII

I recently did an air layering of a Ficus Benjimana. And it's starting to wilt after I transplanted it and wried it. Did I do something wrong? If so can I help or just watch?

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Jay

Hi, question, did you mean that as soon as you removed the layer from the parent and right after planting you wired it? Newly layered trees are delicate, they need some time to recover! I do not know if this applies to this layer on this tree but I would do nothing to it from this point on for a few months!!

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A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

BonifaceVIII

Well, hm thats a shame. I guess I shoulda thought about that before I did though. It seems that it's on it's way out. I heard they can take a beating before they died.

weirdowl

Hi,
I've not been doing bonsai long but I have some Ficus Benjamina and have really hacked away at some of them without many problems. Have you made any other changes in the layered trees enviroment since you chopped it off? How's the parent tree doing? Like I said I'm pretty new to bonsai, so I might not be a great deal of help, but if you can post some more details about where and how your growing your ficus you'll probably get the answer you need from someone with plenty of experience.

Good Luck,

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weirdowl

Jay

My suggestion (in the future) to wait a bit before working on a recently layered tree is mainly to do with the roots. The new roots on a layered tree are extremely sensitive and prone to break. If you would have wired the layer just prior to its removal it would not damage the roots. But, by wiring the tree after it was in its new pot, you could have tweaked the roots and possible damaged them.... This species is capable of bouncing back.... and remember you can't kill it if it is already dead. So, keep it for a while and perhaps it will bounce back!

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

BonifaceVIII

Thanks
I planed on watching to see what it plans on doing. Your right, can't hurt to watch. Well, the mother tree was in a shop exsposed to good grow lights. I moved the kid to my house next to a window. This happend last Thursday. Sunday night it was looking kinda wilty.

ROBOKU

I go with jay on that one..maby wait until u see darker roots on the layer this is the mature roots and help establish the tree once cut off from the layer...

Roboku

BonifaceVIII

I see, I cut the plant off when white roots where still hanging around. It had a nice root system. But just young roots.

DavidN

Since you are in zone 9 it might be still quite warm there. Any ficus species loves the warmth. Give this tree enough water and keep it in a humid place. Treat it like a cutting you have just taken. Ficus are very hard to kill. A hot house would do wonders for it but a nice warm humid spot it would love. Spray folage with water whenever you can as well.

Hope this helps.

David