Rejuvinating a Ficus

A colleague of mine had a ficus which i believe is a microcarpa, in need of some help.  It had a great deal of foliage loss, some death of surface roots and after watering, the drainage looked very dark in color.  The tree was in a very small pot, which was cracked to boot.

After lifting the plant from it's pot, my worst fear was confirmed.  Many of the roots were blackened and dead, especially two larger roots which girdled the whole tree.  These were cut away and I removed some of the crusty, upper soil with chopsticks.  The top of the soil was hard and gritty, almost as if there was some salt buildup there.  I did not remove much soil in order to preserve the few feeder roots that were still on he plant.

I picked an oval green glazed pot which had a larger diameter but actually a slightly more shallow depth, being closer to that of the trunk diameter and wired the tree in.  Since foliage was so sparse and the tree was stressed, I decided to do no wiring or branch pruning at this time in order to maximize the leaf surface area as we go into the low light of winter and the recovery period from the tree repotting.  I did; however, tilt the tree pretty dramatically to clearly establish a new apex for future work.

In this new orientation, the dead second trunk now becomes a dead side branch which can be cut off later if need be.  Actually, it is an interesting feature and is so large, I worried about excessive bleeding in removing the branch now, in the trees weakened state.

After adding a rock for decoration and giving it a drink, the ficus was ready for return to its owner.  It really is a beautiful little tree and I hope to see it much happier a year from now.