Shaping Ficus Bonsai - Part 1 

A man of great wisdom, "I have to respect other peoples taste." Agreed on saving wire.

I laughed so hard when he told off the critics about saving the wire. My mother has saved and recycled aluminum soda/beer cans and turned them in for scrap since I was a child (easily over 20 years time). She has likely recycled thousands of pounds of aluminum over the years and has met countless neighbors who bring her bags of cans every day of the week. I will say to her "mom, a white car just dropped off some cans in the driveway. Who is that?" "Oh that's so-and-so, I forget their name but they bring me cans." It's hysterical. There are so many people that bring her cans she can't remember all of their names. She wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks again for the wonderful bonsai videos!

I love this, not only you get good Bonsai advice, you also get some good philosophy :D

I love ficuses and its aerial roots.Also I think ficuses are underrated in west.They make magnificent trees and bonsai.

I agree. By saving the wire, you keep the wire out of the landfills.

Yayy he say malaysia. And true.. This is our bread and butter bonsai. Eveeytime im envious of temperate trees like pines and juniper... I remind myself we have ficuses here. I literally have a ficus that i collect from wall of my office building. I let these bonsai grow then chop it to get another bonsai, now i have 50 60 of these.

living in the north east US. i really wanted a ficus for my indoor collection. but all i could find was those uglky "ginseng" ones. so knowing what i learned from mr chan and other yt bonsai channels. i just bought a ginseng with about a thumb thick branch coming from the graft.. i cut the grafted part away and planted the thumb thick branch as a cutting. it rooted in a few weeks and has been growing nicely indoors over winter and out on the table in summer. i alao did the same with a big willow an a hardy hibiscus branch cuttings. wish every thing could be rooted so easily

I got a gorgeous ficus tree yesterday, that I just got done working on. I had to give it a VERY hard prune to get the look I was going for. In the words of Master Chan, I had to make some radical decisions, but I'm happy with the result.

You would love the trees in Hawaii. I just visited. Absolutely incredible trees there and so interesting. Massive aerial roots.

Mr Peter i really admire what u shared about your experience , how u have to compromise with those arial roots and other things in respect of customer even though it ‘s not good bonsai design but someone may love it and you need to respect others as well .

I have just become the owner of a Ficus Bonsai. I have got a lot of sticks in pots outside in training but wanted something which is more tree like to satisfy the itch of tree maintenance. I have broken rules but thanks to RU-vid I know how, why, when and which rules I cam break. It was root bound so I have slip potted it to a larger pot and brushed them to help them breathe. But I have not pruned anything until it settles in. I am now in the process of study. I almost hastily removed the aerial roots but there are only 4 at the moment which I can change my mind with another day. I am keeping an eye on it to see how it settles in and anticipating some leaf drop. I am now watching your Ficus series and learning a ton of options down the road but for now I want to see it bounce back and become vigorous before making any big decisions.

That is true. Ficuses really grow easily. I had a large cutting that I grew for my bonsai and to the excess branches, I decided to just stick them into the soil. Now, I have noticed tiny buds growing. They really grow fast!

These videos are excellent. The small details you give are priceless. Thank you Sir.

Wow - Ficus Retusa really have stunning bark 👍 what a superb set of trees

I love all the ficus tress that you have, small, medium and large!They all have great trunks!..Keep it up, love your videos!

You have taught me So much. I am now starting to collect All your books on bonsai. I just want to say Thank You for your gift of Knowledge. I hope to visit your nursery someday .

Great lesson today Peter. I never did bonsai in a ficus tree but I had a couple of ficus indoors and found them to be sensitive trees even when moving them. I think the tree is very nice but really do well outdoors in tropical weather. Watching this lesson makes me want to tackle doing bonsai on a ficus tree.

Master Peter Chan has again showered us with bonsai magic.... He is truly the Gift that keeps on giving.... Thank you..

Thank you mr Chan for your love for bonsai craftsmen, you been a roll model and example of hard work and perseverance ❤️

Love these trees... feels like the guardian had some out of the box artistry

Such a Great Demostration and Beautiful tree I just Love Love love love your videos and watching you create because I Love listening to you 💟💟💟

tie the aerial roots to the main trunk, they will fuse together and create thicker trunk... that's one of the incredible tricks you can do with ficuses... they just like magical trees, you can make thicker trunk bonsai in short time with this trick

Turned out beautiful, they are looking healthy too.. bravo Peter. Thx for sharing n can't wait for the next one..cheers

Ficus brings me back to Chameleon days. All the root rotted trees, yikes!! haha. Small Heron's logo on left chest, great tee. Understated, solid material and once in a while you cross paths with a new friend whose eye catches the logo. Win/win.

Oh. Mr. Peter!! That catwalk/advert for T-shirt was hilarious!! You are man of many talents!! Defo I'll buy that tshirt now. Lovely ficuses btw!!!

As a Florida resident, I absolutely love the Ficus species. I've actually chosen to focus mainly on Ficuses. They grow so vigorously here and shoot aerial roots like crazy.

Ive akready got 5 ficuses, for my small garden..so happy with this kind of bonsai..😁..3 ficus retusa, the one like in this video & 2 ficus ginseng/microcarpa..its true, easy to grow & maintain here..tropical..👍🏻

Ficus is probably my favorite. Those large Taiwanese grafted ficus are actually of the same species-F. Microcarpa. Just different cultivar. F. Benjamina has a very distinct look and grow with weeping foliage.

Yeah, even in the Mediterranean they grow so fast, you can barely wire them if you don't like marks. Gorgeous ficus for the UK ❤

Thank you for sharing! Your videos are educational and relaxing to watch.

Im in South Africa 6,276 ft above sea level, We grow ficus here easy as very hot and dry, yes need to bring in during winter, We also grow maples of all species can grow any tree with right idea and planning

I’m only learning, but I am loving Bonsai... these videos are great!

Very nice T- shirt, love to order one thank you for sharing, since I love your bonsai lessons and your shows on RU-vid…as always …wish you best of luck thank you again and happy new year 🎆

Aerial can easily be encouraged by subjecting them to increased humidity such as putting the whole bonsiaí into an aquarium or into a plastic bag/container.

Thank you for another visit via your talented and entertaining presentation. I'm with you. I would have removed all those aerial roots. Cheers, Dick from Vancouver.

Great video. Thank you. I just received a S shaped Ficus bonsai as a birthday gift. Please also post a video specifically about the S shape. Different styles we can do. It seems more plain compared to the ones in this video. Thank you.

Mr Chan is a man with a passion. Very good result.

I have planted my little ficus bonsai in such a way that I hope to control a limited number of aerial roots. I found the unwiring in this video very helpful. It is something that we do not usually see, and Peter Chan always gives details and reasons for his actions: - fine teaching! (Taste: Am I the only one who does not care for wiring branches into a 'C' shape?)

Love your videos. Have five of your books as well.

"Heres Teebos tree that he made himself!" *cut* *cut cut cut* snap* crank* "there we go."

Lol, I am just past mid video and I have lost count of the number of times Peter has said he doesn’t like aerial roots. 😄

Very subtle advertising. Luv your work. Trees r nice 2

I spent several days researching the different leaves of ficus to straighten out the names of the trees. Bottom line is people will call their trees whatever they want no matter the facts. It's a ficus. And if you use a straw on an aerial root make sure you slit or cut the straw first. I'm in Florida and the older leaves shed in the heat of the summer. Just hitting them with the hose blows them away. I love my ficus.

Excellent work and video sir, Your Evey video has new to learn

I wanna live there so peaceful

I just wanted to say that i love your videos

Thank you very much ❤️👍

Vwry intresting work Peter :-)

In Texas you get about a month before the branches set and the wire starts to scar!

Very interesting , thank you 👍.

Learned something new tonight, Peter doesn’t like aerial roots.

thank you.. master bonsai👍 Indonesia 🙏

Good tutorial I like it 👍

Humidity is supposed to encourage formation of those aerial roots.

Big fan of ficus,

excelente material, muito boa matéria parabéns.

I can't imagine if you adored Ficus how you could possibly improve upon your handling of them.

I think I have a ficus I kinda saved it from my brother, I love seeing the progress of the tree every day

Very beautiful...

Yet another great video, thank you muchly. Could you please do a video on the Lemon Cypress please. Thanks

Amazing

Good and very nice ficus

I think it's great that you reuse wire. For me, the question is rather why people would just cut it off. Taking it off and straightening it out takes less time than buying new wire, even if you order online, and you save money and resources.

I’m just curious - that tree around 08:00 is so beautiful. How much does a tree like that cost to buy?

super

This video is awesome. Thank you very much. 🙏

Brutal

Here in Newcastle NSW Australia most of our ficus can set branches in summer in 6 weeks not 6 months ;)

Muy bueno saludos

Im not sure if it would work well but have you tried putting a clear plastic bag over the tree for 2 or 3 days out of the week if is a more tropical tree? It can get pretty humid if you get the bag just right.

Does that chopping/ scarring technique work on a lot of trees? Thank you for another great video!

Mantap

Not sure about other places, but where I am wire is very expensive. If someone doesn't want theirs, they are welcome to send it to me ~

What soil i should look when replanting the tree? Top videos

Relatively new in the Bonsai Family, bought one ficus 8years old. Pretty nice stem and healthy. My question is when do I know if I need to repot the ficus? After a few months or not at all if we feed them?

I remember one bonsai book where the author mentioned you should never unwire the wire. I guess he was running a wire business.

I would love to have the broken pot ficus! If only you guys shipped to the US :(

Hey Peter. Please show a tutorial video for bonsai of ficus from scratch .

👍🏻

What do you think about shaping ginseng ficus bonsai?

so if some of the ficus shed their leafs how to know if the tree has shed its leafs or is it shedding leafs because its not getting enough sun, nutrians or its been watering too much

Hello, Mr. Chan! Have you ever worked with Hibiscuses? If so, do you have any at the nursery? I'm asking because I've started training a couple this spring and thought they seemed appropriate for bonsai. All the best!

I like to save to. Everything.

Do you have any tips of getting a ficus to produce more foliage? Also what to do about white coloring on the trunk?

If an Ariel root comes off trunk and gives root to new trees. What do I do?

... I like to save too! It saves things from ending up in landfills and harming the lovely trees on our planet... most importantly, it's money back in my pocket

I cant quite tell whether Peter is a fan of aerial roots or not, further investigation is required

Hello would you be able to tell me how much for ficus which you been pruning? I'm really interesting Thank you

Mr. Peter I wish to God that I could figure out how to get one of your trees but I live in Baltimore Maryland and were thousands of miles apart I watch every shows that I can see and I am trying to get some of my focuses to grow area how do you promote Aerial roots if you Could You let me know and I did find out like your saying some of my trees that I brought in do not like coming in the house in the Winter time nothing for us to get 10 degrees or below 0 so they can't stay out theyll die .I want one of your books how much are your books and I would love for you to sign one Please let me know what's the best book that I should be reading I've been in this for about 2 years and when I think I've figured out something I realise I don't know nothing if it wasn't for your show I would be loss . your figs that produce figs to eat just amazes me how pretty they are you have a great day keep making your shows and I will keep watching very loyal watcher If there was a way that you could send me a tree of some sort I would be more than glad to assume all responsibilities if it makes it To me .You have a great day and you stay safe thank you

Where are you based so I can come have a look around. Thanks.

¿Que sustrato tienen?

I still don’t fully understand what is the point of the wire, can someone explain it to me?

Hi, What is the name of this ficus that you cut.

Its possible get a good nebari from the cheaper kind of ficus?

In Karate ranking he would be 10 degree dan

I want make the leaves small how to do

5:15 I don't think that's a benjamina type. Not a ficus expert either but I have a lot of benjaminas and they're quite different from this

how do we get ramification on these, they don't ramify like one would expect

talk about Fukien tea bonsai i have one just small

I bought a expensive Tokoname pot and it broke in the mail and it’s to expensive to just throw away, do you have any advice on what I should do with it?