ficus in a gutter

[its_kano]

Well an unusual find today. I was driving home and noticed a very old house that was fenced up with signs covering it ready for demolition as its under a development application for townhouses.
First thought was Ooh maybe there's some potential bonsai in there ....As i was peering in i looked up at the roof and completely filled with leaves and dirt, I notice a ficus growing from the gutter!
I spoke with the neighbor briefly and after a quick discussion regarding entering the property without official permission we both agreed it was best for the little tree that i save its life
on first inspection
[image]https://ibb.co/th6bgDW[/image]
After clearing some few extra inches of leaves, Nebari looking good !
[image]https://ibb.co/YyZHzMT[/image]
I cut the roots well left and right of the base just because it was so easy to do and handle.She came out so easy!
[image]https://ibb.co/rG1CYth[/image]
turn your heads [image]https://ibb.co/G9yDtZc[/image]
[image]https://ibb.co/SdHXHnQ[/image]
Pretty happy with this little find, be sure to look out for all the overfilled gutters from lazy people for now on Ill re pot tomorrow and upload some images.

[its_kano]

Sorry I cant work out how to upload an image correctly. May someone direct me please. The links work but there is no thumbnail.

[Rajned]

What a wonderful find and although I can’t help you with the image problem I’d like to say well done on saving the tree ! Hope you post updates with what you do with it.

[shibui]

File size is restricted so pics need to be under 1mb. Otherwise just click on 'attachments' below and follow the prompts.

Ficus in roof gutters are common in areas they grow well. They also sprout from brick walls and other odd places. As you've found the gutter grown ones are so easy to collect.
yours is typical of seedlings with the thicker trunk base which is just what we like for bonsai. This one looks good so I'm pleased that you were able to get it. I wonder if there might be others around the back or sides of the house? Any likely candidates in the garden? If there's potential it may be worth contacting the developers for permission to go in or if you are lucky and can be there when work starts you can usually get the machine operator to dig plants and put them aside which saves a lot of hard work.
Ficus are tough and summer is the best time to collect and prune. You an prune the roots really hard if required and I would recommend that in cases like this. There's no point having a bonsai with really long roots in 2 directions so cut those ones short and that should stimulate the tree to grow more laterals back and front.
Also shorten long, thin branches at collection so they will sprout new shoots and ramify. Does not seem to worry figs to do all that in one go.

[its_kano]

Thanks heaps shibui!
I managed to prune back the roots and get her into a pot today. Im STUCK with the hard pruning branch stage. I'M only relatively new to this world of bonsai so not sure entirely how all the ramifaction goes from here. Am I guessing right to just chop back these leggy branches to a shorter length and as it re shoots I pinch the end buds off to introduce 2 new branches AKA topping?
Thanks in advance. Really appreciate all the sound advice on this forum. Bunch of lovely people.
Will upload today's steps ie pictures. If anyone has any constructive criticism, please feel free to inform. Cheers!

[its_kano]

Here are the pictures. Thank you.

[shibui]

Am I guessing right to just chop back these leggy branches to a shorter length and as it re shoots I pinch the end buds off to introduce 2 new branches AKA topping?

I normally chop back as hard as necessary. Ficus rubiginosa will sprout from any part of the tree so they rarely fail to sprout after chopping.
Remember you need to cut further back than the final size to allow room for the new shoots to grow - new shoots always seem to grow outward so the tree will get bigger, not smaller or stay the same. In fact, you really need to allow for several rounds of new shoots as you build ramification outward.

I usually allow the resulting new shoots to grow until they have 4-8 leaves before cutting again back to just 1 or 2, occasionally 3 leaves. Cutting back will again force new shoots - hopefully 2 or more on each shoot you cut. Repeat the process as often as possible over a number of years and you gradually build up many shoots where there were only a few.

Tat's probably a bit hard to absorb until you have done it and seen the results. Rest assured that figs are resilient. If it doesn't respond as expected the first time you can just start over at some later stage.

[its_kano]

Nah that makes perfect sense. So when i cut a branch back you're saying new buds will appear in unknown locations/numbers along that branch.
Also from that initial cut to first bud that little section dies off? Now i have more branches to work into a desired ramification that ideally i want to taper from thick to little thin ends. Canopy will be full of more leaves and smaller yea?

[its_kano]

Just thought I'd post a quick picture of the ficus. After hard pruning and potting and daily monitoring it's re shooting everywhere which is awsome for new ramification options. Very happy with this tree so far.

[Watto]

Looking good

[Thorne]

Real good must be that coopers green you fed it with?

[its_kano]

Hahaha you may be right!

[its_kano]

Just an update on the ficus. It's going troppo now that spring has arrived in fact all my trees are going very well. I tend to preen over all my trees daily so sometimes it's hard to see progress haha. Anyway here is a few pics, I was hoping to ask whether now is a good time to defoliate? The leaves are still rather large and I am happy with trunk thickness and shape just want to work on ramifying smaller branches now. I read mid summer is a good time to defoliate? I am In Sydney BTW. I also see a fair few branch selection requirements needed as some are shooting vertical & more then one from some sections.
Thanks for any tips, cheers.

[shibui]

It should be fine for you to start defoliating in Sydney now. I'd leave mine a few more weeks but much colder down here and they have only just started to grow here.
What are you expecting from defoliation?
Just removing the large leaves will do little if you don't also take the growing tip. If you look at the shoots you should see that the first leaf is small and they gradually get larger as the shoot extends. leaving the terminal shoot will mean that the next leaf will just unfurl as large as any others. I get much better results by pruning shoots back to the first or second leaf on every shoot. The new shoot that grows from the base of any leaves left will start out the same way - with small leaf then successive leaves will open larger. Regular pruning ensures a crop of all small leaves and also good ramification.

[its_kano]

Yes hoping to reduce leaf size Shibui. I see what youre saying which I wasn't aware of now. Lack of knowledge on my behalf I was under the impression a full defoliation was necessary for reducing leaf size and at same time branch selection and wiring.