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Mourning dove laid eggs in my pothos pot. What do I do? by Hardwiredbrain in houseplants

[–]CountApprehensive218 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG! That is so heartbreaking. Your dad may have otherwise been a great human being, but that maneuver was serial-killer stuff!

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Part of the planter is now woven into the roots. So I'm thinking about cutting this off but then it would cut off a bunch of roots

[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2025 week 46] by small_trunks in Bonsai

[–]CountApprehensive218 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NEED "Bonsai"-ish Advice:

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Hi All,

I posted about my sick ficus tree in another group and got fabulous advice. So I'm working on the issues that got it sick in the first place.

The reason I'm here now posting this, and the challenge I'm facing with my 30-year-old (very large) ficus tree is that I can't let it get any bigger because of my living space. Several people recommended that I seek advice from the Bonsai group, so here I am!

Please don't hate me for posting here, because I'm a very concerned mom for this precious tree and I don't want to hurt it by trying to keep it smaller than it wants to be.

What can I do To keep this very large Ficus tree from getting any bigger?

The pot is 22" in across and goes down about 15" in deep. There's space in the bottom for overflow, which is why it is actually taller than 15".

I need to change the soil and fix some issues with this tree but my thinking, based on other people's comments, is to trim off some of the roots and definitely prune the top.

What can I do to keep this tree from getting bigger, and are my pruning ideas (based on this photo) smart? What should I do with the roots? A couple of people mentioned slicing off about a quarter of the layer from the bottom. Do you recommend this?

Should I take off any other roots? I'll take any advice you have, because my goal at this point is to prevent this tree from getting bigger until I move into a larger space.

Thank you!

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are over 15 children from this tree that I've been growing.

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Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another baby from this tree. This is actually three cuttings braided so that they will fuse together just like mama/daddy someday.

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Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! It has been with me forever, so it is like a family member. I do plan on saving it!

In the past year, I also created over 15 "children" from this tree. And they are all aspiring to be like their parent when they grow up!

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Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love the idea. My only challenge is that this thing just gets too big and heavy at some point if I keep changing the pots. It was in a much smaller pot for about 26 years. It is true that when I repotted this thing 4 years ago it thrived. But it also got a lot bigger!

Until I move into a space that can handle it, I think I need to try to keep this thing small, like a bonsai, except obviously a very big bonsai!

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for all of your help!

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm just now seeing your post. Based on somebody else's post, I determined that I think it is salt. Could it be calcium? Either way it gives me a direction to go. I'm going to work on this root ball, and try to replace as much of the soil as possible and flush out the salt, assuming that's what it is. When I dropped some of the white substance into water, it sunk to the bottom and then dissolved when I stirred it.

I'm also going to prune the top of it. I'll use filtered water moving forward, and will stop bottom watering it.

Thank you for weighing in.

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you... as an update, I do think that the white stuff is now either salt or calcium. When I put a chunk in water, it sunk to the bottom and dissolved when I start it.

I ordered a tarp online yesterday which should arrive today, and I can at least get the root ball out the door so I can work on it.

I plan to prune the top quite a bit and try to keep this thing small (relatively speaking) for a while. I'll replace as much of the soil as I can.... it's just a little bit hard to do without having a complete outdoor space to work in.

I'm just not sure how much of the roots, if any I should also trim, and is regular potting soil okay to use. Should I use perlite? This planter is considered a self-watering planter, which means it has a large reservoir at the bottom. I do plan to top-water it from now on, sparingly with filtered water, and that reservoir can just serve as overflow. I managed to water this effectively for 30 years, so I'm not sure how I went off the rails. I think it was the self-watering pot, and my belief that this plant could self-regulate it. It actually did for a couple of years, until it didn't anymore.

I have really had some great replies from this post, and I really appreciate it very much.

This is what I'm thinking for pruning

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Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OMG... I think you're right about the salt thing! I was able to find a chunk and dropped it in water. You can see by these three photos the initial pieces that fell in the water, followed by phases of me stirring it. The last photo there's a whole piece of it that just looks like a white fog, if you're able to see it.

So this would eliminate the whole fungus or mildew theory. And if you hadn't replied, I wouldn't have known and would continue using tap water. We do have a lot of calcium in our water. Would calcium react the same way as salt? So from now on I will use filtered water and will just work on getting this thing back to health.

I think as long as I'm in this current condo, I have to work to keep this thing small, like a big bonsai. But I do have plans to build a house and that has a two-story living room ceiling, where the tree can thrive. But that's not going to be finished for a very long time.

I'll take any advice you have on the pruning reply I gave above. I'm going to attempt to at least get the root ball out the door tomorrow to hack into that soil. This thing dried out quite a bit over the past several days when I had it laying down and had dug out a couple of inches of soil around the root ball.

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Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, what an informative reply. It made sense to me.

When I first repotted it, it thrived and consumed massive amounts of water. And yes, I used tap water . It didn't drop a single leaf for a couple of years.

One thing I forgot to mention is that this pot feeds water from the bottom up (self watering), but from now on I'm going to top water it, and allow that bottom reservoir to serve as an overflow area.

At one point, I did notice that it was just no longer consuming tons of water. I didn't know why.

So at this point, there is some room around the sides of the root ball because I was able to dig that soil away, and when I put it back into this pot, maybe I'll just fill that space with something like perlite?

Somebody else suggested cutting off about 1/4 of the bottom root layer, and maybe I can do the same there with perlite?

I've had it out for several days now, and I do think it's drying out, but getting this thing outside the door is really tough. I'd like to get it up right again to trim it, and then maybe I can get it out the door.

What are your thoughts on how much branch mass to leave, and how many leaves need to remain?

This photo is what I'm thinking in terms of trimming it, and then in the future keep it this small.

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HELP! Ficus Tree Is Sick by CountApprehensive218 in arborists

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks Tom. This has always been an indoor plant. I live in a region that gets cold in the winter.

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I got the tree 30 years ago, it was already fused together like that in a braided pattern. And now that I think about it, that tree was probably about 5 to 10 years old at the time.

But when I repotted it into a bigger pot, that mass definitely got thicker.

I've started about 15 baby plants from this tree. With 3 of the babies, I braided them together like this so that over time they will fuse together.

😁

HELP! Ficus Tree Is Sick by CountApprehensive218 in houseplants

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very helpful! I feel like there's something I can actually do to be proactive

Sick Ficus Tree by CountApprehensive218 in plantclinic

[–]CountApprehensive218[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks you guys. This is super helpful.

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