Ficus 1 – Ficus Rutusa

This Ficus Rutusa was purchased in 1995 and it was 15 years old at time of purchase. Today it is 40 years old. Many of my other trees originated from this tree.

Update: March 4th, 2020
Woke up this morning to a pot that cracked and 1/3 broke off. Not good at all. Clearly I had to replant this tree today. Here are few of my discovery images.

The first task is to prune down the roots by about a 1/3, clean up any root rot and prepare to replant in a new pot.

Here are few images before pruning.

Pruning took about an hour as I had to take care not to cut the roots too deep and too clean out the dead root thoroughly.

Here are the post pruning images.

Now it’s time replant this 40 year old tree in a new pot. First, add a half inch layer of bonsai soil to the new pot and let that soil soak up water from the drain holes. The soil always take longer to soak the first time.

This tree is tricky as it is one-side heavy so placed good sized rock under truck in the soil to support the weight and a few counter-balance rocks on the other side.

Here is the full gallery of images taken during this emergency task.