Danny

Hey everyone, first post, whoo hoo. anyway, I have a bunch of indoor bonsai, and would like to ask a few opinions of folks on here. I have a schefflera arboricola about 15" tall, I have completely defoliated it and there are now about five or 6 new branches coming out now. I had, earlyer this year, repotted it and held it with roots half unburried to encourage aerial roots, and want to have it to have about a 10-15" crown spread, with aerial roots all over. will post pics of what i have so far in a bit, if my camera cooperates. also, I will be starting a few red mangroves 9rhisophora mangle) as semi aquatic bonsai soon, and wanted some opinions on that.

Mattbonsai

Hi Danny, Welcome to the site and welcome to the fascinating art that is bonsai.

You've got a good one to start with there, the schefflera are a very resiliant species, and pretty forgiving. Something that would work much better in creating aerial roots, is to wrap the trunk and base of the branches in sphagnum moss, and keep it moist, this will encourage a lot of roots to sprout, once they make it down to the soil and start to harden up, then you can remove the moss and you have your aerial roots.

I may have to look into Red Mangroves, I am about to buy some red eye tree frogs, and will put them into a planted aqua-vivarium with some fish in the bottom, and have been researching into plants that I can use.

Cheers

-Matt-

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Danny

word of advice, red eye treefrogs probably wouldn't do too well in a viv w/ mangroves and fish. but a brackish water mudskipper and mangrove setup would be great, almost like a real ecosystem bonsai! and yup, the scheffs are doing great. backbudding all over. funny, the larger one only started backbudding once I put the other one next to it.

Mattbonsai

Excellent, cheers, I do love mudskippers, but have had my eyes on Tree frogs for many years, red eyes are ideal, but apparently whites are a lot tougher, and better for first time round.

Cheers

-Matt-

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Mike423

I dont have any experience with aerial roots (yet) but they mainly grow in conditions with high humidity. I bet if you place the tree in a lage home made humidity dome where the humidity would then be around 90% you would see some nice aerial root formation begin (assuming the tree is healthy and growing vigorously). You can made one easy by placing the tree on a large tray and drape a clear plastic trash bag (or similar clear bag) over the tree and tuck it under the tray. You can make a little fame to hold the bag over the tree by using Bonsai wire or just about anything you can be creative with. Just make sure the tree has a clear bag so it receives light and that its enclosed to keep the humidity in and be sure the bag does not sit on the leaves as it can cause the leaves to root from constantly staying wet and warm. Also make sure the soil doesn't stay too wet as in the dome since the humidity is constant it will stay wet for substantially longer periods.

To move things along I had also seen an online article written by someone on making areal roots on a ficus where the tree was simply wounded on the underside removing the bark and Cambrian layer in small spots, then having rooting hormones applied and the wound is finally covered with cut paste. The roots then began to form and pushed off the cut paste. I have never had any experience with shefflera's and dont know how well the technique would translate over but personally dont see why it wouldn't. I would also kinfd of help being able to choose where the roots will emerge . You could always give it a little test run on an inconspicuous spot.

Keep in mind that when the aerial roots first form the need a high humidity environment or they will simply shrivel up and fall off. Good luck

-Mike

Danny

I actually have roots all over the place, and have just slightly higher than average household temp. what I do to my scheffs and the couple ficus (which I just picked up a small bonsai F. Retusa @ the local grocery with tons of roots....) is I unpot them, and repot them with support with the larger roots exposed, so I have a great aerial nebari a few inches off the ground, and once it has been growing for about a month, I cut back hard, and let it backbud. after a few more months the roots have grown strong enough to support the tree, and then you know the rest.... hopefully by december the branches will be long enough to start bruning back, ramifying, and then once they've got some solid brown wood, start getting them to throw roots. funny someone else suggested the branch wounding technique for aerial roots, I thought I was the only one who did that. I take a pin or small knife and prick the stem in places, then the area scabs and swells and encourages roots there. anywho, I should be getting the mangroves I bought next week, and will try working with some as bonsai.