Re-potting the Ficus Tree

My 30 year old ficus tree (that my sister sent me in a small pot when I got my first big promotion at IBM)  has been in the same large pot since we lived in Boca Raton.....so over 20 years. 

You've seen it over the years as our "Christmas Tree"

Well, the pot is old and brittle, as you can see in this photo -  it's heavy duty plastic, but has gotten "chalky" from it's summers out on the deck.

Plus, the poor tree just doesn't grow - it's my root-bound quasi-bonsai tree!   Looking a little barren after it's winter in the living room!

I got down to business - it was, of course, extremely root-bound and wouldn't just pull out of the pot.  So, I had to resort to breaking off pieces of the pot, very carefully because I didn't want to cut myself! (I've had plenty of trouble from broken pots lately, haha)

Finally got it completely out of the pot.  I had put down a sheet just to save whatever soil got dislodged.  That worked well.

As I started to remove some of the soil from around the roots,  I found this surprise!!  Easter eggs!  The only think I can think of is that we must have "hidden" them in the watering hole you can see in the above photo.  This would have been in Boca Raton in about 1995....that was a really good hiding spot, haha!

The liner for the pot was completely adhered to the roots - I had to go get one of Duane's pry-bars to break it free of the mass of roots.

And then with some new soil and a slightly larger pot, we are ready for another 30 years!

And while I was cleaning up the root ball, I broke off some "tubers" - I'm planting them to see if I can grow some "baby ficus trees"!