AusBonsai

I was given this by my Dad and is my first fig. The label says Fics Retusa Microcarpa. I need to work on leave size reduction.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Hey my first willow leaf fig before and after. About 10months into owning it. very happy with this ones progress.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I neglected my Moreton Bay Fig over the last 12 months and it has tripled in size and the leaves have gone full size. It is now 8ft tall. Can it be reduced back down? It is at least 30 years old and never jumped up in size like this before. Thank you!

Hi Jezza and Welcome to Ausbonsai and the wonderful art that is Bonsai. In future it may be best to start a new topic to discuss your tree rather than in a general topic like this one. You can keep track of the responses easier and if you keep it updated you can see the progress of your tree.

As to your fig, if its been left on the ground a root may have escaped the pot and be growing into the ground which would give it access to more nutrition and led to big growth. My advice would be to wait until the weather warms up again, usually around October depending on where you live. (It is good to have a location in your profile so people can give advice based on your area. North QLD is a lot different to Tasmania or somewhere in the northern hemisphere)

When you repot you can chop off any long straight branches and cut back the roots pretty hard and you should see a big explosion of growth. This will probably end up in big leaves pretty quickly too. Wait for the leaves to harden off and chop back leaving 2 or 3 leaves on each branch and you will start to get some ramification. After doing this a few times leaves will start to stay smaller. Don't forget to feed and water well after the repot.

Just done the annual leaf removal on this one. (Shame I couldn't hold the phone straight )

Growing this one since ~2008, finally starting to work on ramification this season

Recently added to my collection. Needed everything pulling down and placing, I'll trim the top back tighter once it starts shooting out.

Green Island Fig defoliation day..
First time starting leaf size reduction and finer ramification on these now they are beginning to arrive at a structure I’m happy with and in good health.
Advice always welcome..

They will look amazing in 6 weeks
Post a pic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd be happy to have such nice trees Dave

Coming from a beginner's perspective:

On the upper trio: the rightmost trunk traps my eye as it starts off perpendicular to the pot+forms a half-heart-thing+is a bit bare on the left side. My humble suggestion would be to tilt it slightly to the right, maybe remove the curvy top left branch (heart) and have a branch from the right side of the same trunk play a little peek-a-boo to fill in the void/bare section.

On the beautiful raft-stone-thing: the second trunk from the right (tallest) again traps my eye as it starts off perpendicular - a slight tilt of that trunk?

But what do I know!

Nothing on anyone's here, but sharing my first fig. Hopefully I'll be able to come back over the years and show its progression.

Current aim is for a root over rock.

Note, I'm new to bonsai. So this is really my 3/4th starter plant. I'm glad I got it, as it has been nice (and forgiving) to learn on and try some interesting things.

Eg, I put in the ground, but it was the wrong location (not enough sun for the species).

Also, whilst I was immediately treating it like bonsai (and cutting it back), I worked out that that the cuttings are really easy to grow from it, even if I just whacked them in the dirt for two weeks. So hopefully I'll get some good plants from this over the years to come.

So after moving it from it's first location, I planted in what I promised myself I wouldn't touch again until I moved out of the rental, and put over the rock.
But subsequently, as the bonsai bug bit, I did a bit more research, and realised it was far too muddy where I'd planted, and I also wasn't setting myself up for success planting it so vertically.

I didn't have anywehere else suitable, so straight into an orchid pot.
No photos of the rock I'm afraid, but it is quite large. Yes I'm interested where this will end up. This time I wrapped the rock in foil. Hopefully that helps secure the roots and encourage the roots around the rock. Unfortunately no photos of the rock, but it is quite interesting, with a number of cracks. I've tried to secure the longer roots in these. But I've got fat fingers. Who knows.

The tree has a nice taper at the bottom already, but hard to see in the pics as I've covered in potting mix in order to encourage more roots down.

Please feel free to comment. I can't take any credit for the tree, just happens from here.

Every time I log back into this feed under great trees and great new people entering into there bonsai Journey.
All the New posts with new people great start from what I have scene and as a few have said man figs are forgiving of our mistreatment to those with more developed trees ....

Ladies and gentlemen fantastic work.

I won this PJ fig in a raffle in 2016. Grown by Peter Scopes in a no-drain-hole pot for 6 years. When it rained too much he'd just tip it over, otherwise it survived on whatever moisture it could get from rain, apparently.
I took it home and immediately started messing with it. (As I do.)
The next repot was too severe, so I'll go with the one after that, in 2020. The trunk chop happened in around 2019.
This is taken in Feb 2022. Starting to take shape, and no snow load branches.

melbrackstone wrote: ↑September 27th, 2022, 5:19 pm This is taken in Feb 2022. Starting to take shape, and no snow load branches.

0DSC_0618.jpg

Definitely heading in the right direction - massive improvement

Very nice Mel, look forward to seeing more of this one.
Cheers
Kirky