I realize now that I never made a post about this tree, so here’s a two-parter. I bought this Ficus from Scott Lee (Blue River Bonsai) on Facebook back in August. I call it the “Royalty Ficus” because it was once in Suthin’s Royal Bonsai Garden.

Here’s the tree as it was back when I bought it:

Majestic, right? Well, it was doing well for a little bit, but then began to go downhill. As you can see, it was full of leaves. Those began to fall off until the leaves were toward the ends of the branches only. It got too cold outside, so I brought it in and set it under a T5. It still fussed and dropped leaves. I noticed the soil was staying consistently wet, so I gave it a small repot.

After noticing that that didn’t really help either, I changed things up. The tree hadn’t pushed any new growth in a couple months, really since I had received it. I did the only logical thing, I built an ICU. 

The tree, as well as some natalensis cuttings, went into the ICU last week.

I covered the top with a piece of plexiglass and set the light on top. A week later, I’ve noticed the first sign of growth on the Royal Ficus.

It’s small, but it’s a start. I like to use these PVC ICU’s because they allow both heat and humidity to build up in an otherwise dry house:

So that’s where we are now. Fingers crossed that this keeps up!

Ryan

No, this isn’t Frankenstein, this is Ficus. The Royal Ficus, to be specific. 
Today I checked on the greenhouse trees and saw good results. The Royal Ficus is pushing out lots of new growth, and one of the natalensis cuttings is pushing roots out of its styrofoam cup. 

Here’s that picture:

If there is constant moisture on the floor of the setup, the roots will continue to grow. I could place it onto a pot of soil to let the roots run into that instead, but for now I’ll let them go.

As for the Royal Ficus, it pushed an aerial root long enough for me to work with. Here’s the root:

So I took a straw and cut it in half:

Cutting the straw in half is crucial because it helps you remove the straw after the root roots in the soil. Otherwise you’d have to carefully cut the straw off the root. Straws help you guide aerial roots into the soil, so I placed the root into the straw and moved it into position:

You have to be careful not to break the root. The bend I created is cutting it close, but we should be fine. Make sure you keep the inside of the straw moist so that the root can keep growing.

We’ll let that keep growing and I’ll update when it finally does hit the soil.
Ryan