Picture when I first got it. Previous owner did some wiring work but it looked big and a bit odd to my liking.
Big cut to get it into smaller size (and I got lots of cuttings out of it).
Wiring and defoliating to give some movement to the branches. When defoliating a ficus it’s better done with scissors so the new grown points are left undamaged.
After one month and seeing the first leaves growth, I repotted to akadama and kiryu 70/30 in the same pot. I rotated a bit the plant when doing so. Ficus are very resilient so it actually started growing better with better soil.
This is 2months after picture, I’m quite happy in how it looks already 😊
I won’t work on this ficus more for the time being, just leave it grow strong and develop good radial roots and finer branching.
I’ll write another progress post in the future about the “brother” ficus of this one which looked more like a stick and will take more time to look bonsai-y 🤭
Love that chonky base!