noissee

That seems reasonable. Are you thinking of having it on a slab or something in the future?

JLDoggett

It will eventually go into a better pot, that is just a training one. I hadn't thought of a slab, but I will look at the ones I have for something suitable. It might work since the tree has to be indoors during the winter, any tree on a slab here would have a hard time making it through the winters outdoors.

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Ravenna

Hi Jim,

your plans sound interesting. I am surprised that you want to cut the roots so often. After all the tree won't grow as fast as it would indoors as it would in a tropical climate?


Hmm... YOU need to recover??? Did you cut your own roots by accident during the last repotting?

JLDoggett

Ah, Dear, Dear Dr. Ravenna, no bleeding here, the stress was from the fear of the tree dying from being touched by me... it has been known to happen. It will have a fairly tropical home for the winter, Temps in the 70F's with high lumin lights and plenty of humidity. I figure it thinks the summers here are the tropical winters... or at least that is my hope.

I figured that if I took out a wedge of roots every 6 months I could eventually reduce the mass of tangled roots, at least enough so in future years I can properly repot the tree into a better pot (I have a nice oval, unglazed one I would like better.) I keep waiting for someone to chime in and tell me I have overdone what this type of tree can take and to give it a lot of TLC.

__________________
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these"

And I further resolve to click on an ad, each time I visit, to help support the site and to be welcoming to lurking guests when you join! After all, you're already here.

Ravenna

Okay, chiming in... I wouldn't root prune a tree every 6 months. I doubt that the tree - even with lights - will be growing and recovering that quickly. Setting a rule like repotting a tree every 6 months doesn't seem all that helpful to me anyway. I don't know for any of my trees when I last repotted them but I don't think that I need to. Time to repot is when the earth starts is getting too compact.

Root pruning and repotting seems very invasive procedures to me - after all trees are rather static in nature and are not used to being ripped out and repotted every 6 months - even if you just prune just a wedge of soil. So I would take it more slowly - after all: what is the hurry?

JLDoggett

You have a point. I will just do root work on a yearly basis. Maybe in next years repot enough of the unattached roots in the mass will ahve either decomposed a bit or will be able to be removed with a root hook.

__________________
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these"

And I further resolve to click on an ad, each time I visit, to help support the site and to be welcoming to lurking guests when you join! After all, you're already here.

noissee

Maybe I'm jaded because I live in Fl, but I think that root pruning a ficus every 6 months (if it's healthy) is pretty reasonable. Especially if Jim will be putting it in the humid environment he talked about.

Ravenna

Hi noissee,

you just made me curious: does that mean that you root prune ficus that often where you live?

From the impression I got from other people who have tried to recreate the natural conditions for ficus you can't really get them in temperate climates so I would still vote for "wait and see". If you find that your soil gets compact due to rapid root growth within 6 months then it may be worthwhile root pruning the trees. But I think if you simply decide ahead how often you will root prune the tree (irrespective of what time scale you use) then you may be ignoring it's real needs. Just my point of view.

JLDoggett

Maybe I mispoke, every 6 months I had planned to check the roots to see if more could be pruned. As the tree stands now the pot is full of a very tight mass of severely entangled roots and an inch or so of soil around the outside and another inche below the mass.

I would hazzard to guess that at least half the roots are not connected to the trees, but are the tangled remains from where I chopped them. I was unable to comb out the roots due to their inpenatrable interweave. I am hoping by spring I can sort them out and be better able to address the trees needs.

__________________
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these"

And I further resolve to click on an ad, each time I visit, to help support the site and to be welcoming to lurking guests when you join! After all, you're already here.

Ravenna

Hi,

don't apologize... you have to do what you feel is best for your tree and don't let that rude Ravenna boss you about. Well, I am curious to hear whether your tree will need repotting anywhere near every 6 months or not. I have a ficus (without special lighting) and it repotted it every 2-3 years just like other trees.