A Special Fall 2019 Revisit

I purchased a Ficus from Brussels Nursery in the early Summer with the intent of using it for several demonstrations this year.  It was an old tree that was greenhouse grown and put to the side. It will take some years and some special grafting to make this tree a spectacular one, but it is on its way.

I did a potting demo for Midori Bonsai this summer at their meeting. Then a grafting demo at Sei Boku Kai (SBBK) in August. The graft was an approach graft type sealed with cut paste to keep warm and moist. I had cut the major branch during the Midori demo and told them it would be used to graft too later.  I had wrapped in the branch graft area in a zip lock bag and left to grow. When I went outside to check it today the bag was full of foliage and thus I removed the bag and checked the growth. I am happy to report that the graft is good and the branch is now being restored with health new growth. The section I cut off was quite long and I had cut it back to just before the aerial root because I wanted to retain it.

Now that the Fall is here, temperatures are dropping and light is greatly decreasing, I need to prepare the tree for a lower light environment. I have cut it back so that it can get light and air inside the canopy, to create better ramification, and when it is time to come indoors, it will have an open structure to aid its health.

Lastly, I trimmed my Peruvian Pepper one more time and wanted to review the canopy development. It has come a long way to create a more dense lower branch structure. Now my effort will be to keep it healthy through the winter.