Repotting My Monstrous Ginseng Grafted Ficus

Repotting My Monstrous Ginseng Grafted Ficus

Today is the day I tackle the repotting of my extraordinarily large Ginseng Grafted Ficus. This bonsai has been left alone to grow ever since I first got it around four years ago. It has grown extremely tall and some may say out of control. I’m still thinking of how I want to shape this tree so until I get some inspiration it will continue to grow unchecked.

Special note: This repotting is the first one to feature a mostly inorganic soil mix. Opposed to the all organic soil mix I’ve been using in the repotting series so far.

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Current Condition

This Ginseng Grafted Ficus is ridiculous. It grows at an extremely fast rate and can bounce back from anything. A few years ago, one of the large roots going down into the soil was completely rotten with root rot! It was all squishy and smelled pretty bad. I got really scared and decided to pinch off all the soggy bark and pull up any of the dead roots. I then sealed the spot with wound paste and waited. After a few months, the growth returned to normal and small roots started to poke out through the wound paste growing into the soil. I got extremely lucky but this tree is even tolerant to root rot!

Aside from all that, the root structure on this tree is massive and the canopy hardly ever looses any leaves. This Ginseng Grafted Ficus is one of my strongest bonsai trees and this repotting is just to replenish the nutrients in the soil and to try out this new inorganic soil mix I created!

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Ginseng Grafted Ficus Repotting

Even though this tree is gigantic, the repotting is still pretty straightforward. The most difficult thing to deal with during this repotting was the extensive root structure. It took up the entire pot and then some. Removing all the dirt and untangling the roots isn’t the easiest thing in the world but it is definitely more challenging on the larger trees than the smaller cuttings. Another thing that makes this repotting go smoothly is the inorganic soil mix I’m using. This mix pours right into the pot and fills in all the gaps without me having to do much of anything. If you missed the post where I go over how to create the mix for tropical bonsai trees you can find it here! Since I’m not using any wire and the tree is big enough to hold itself in place, all that’s left to do is fill in the pot with the mix.

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Final Results and Considerations

The only thing that stresses me out about this tree is that I don’t know how I want to shape it. I feel like the longer I let it go crazy the harder it’ll be to tame it later on. However, I don’t want to make any major cuts and ruin the branches before I, at the least, have a slight idea of what I want to do. Hopefully that day will come soon. Until then, this bonsai will thrive in this new pot with the new soil mix. I am really excited to see how this new soil effects the growth of my trees! Will it hurt it? Will it help it? Only time will tell!

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Learn more about Universal Bonsai Soil Mixtures here!

Learn more about Tropical Bonsai Soil Mixtures here!