Ficus - Little Ruby

[anthonyW]

Little Ruby re potted and a little trim, unfortunately a pictures says it all ,needs to be tilted to the right, bugger next season no biggie there..very clumsy hmm.

They have a very poor root system so tying to a rock is your best option, little over potted but all i had at the time get the rock in.

Sorry about the background, there you go Little Ruby enjoying the sunshine..cheers

Anthony

phpfNGDWwAM.jpg

[anthonyW]

Well re potted today and hopefully got the right angle, seem to rooted around the rock nicely.
Also tipped the top third growth out so more energy can direct to lower branches and especially to extend on the left.
Then we can refine little bit more...cheers

phpUzghMxAM.jpg

[MJL]

Jeez I like that- a lot! Well done.
The extra tilt makes a huge improvement and it looks to me like you have added a couple more rocks - or is it just lifted out of the ground more? Whatever you have done the slope on the left is near perfect - to my amateur eye - and indeed the little rock in the right work to form depth too. Top stuff.

Also - I’m a big fan of figurines but the removal on the figures also improves this newly potted version. This tree and the rocks stand alone. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

Back in the first photo you had what looked like two unpainted figurines. Is that right or just a light clay? Regardless can I ask where you sourced those little people?


Bonsai teaches me patience.

[Kevin]

Hello Anthony,

This tree is a stunner now and will only get better in your care.
I love the composition of the trunk angle, roots and rocks. It looks very natural how the tree emerges out of the ground and over the rocks to form a lovely canopy.

Kevin

[anthonyW]

Thanks MJ ,Kevin always appreciate yours comments thank you, yes I think the tilt and and root over the rock gives that little more integrity to, and if you see something amiss don t be hesitant to say either, just ask Mel the good lady just jumps in says how it is lol

MJ the two wise men/Bonsai inspectors come from an antique shop a in the highlands NSW as a gift from my lovely sister in law, I don t know what there made of, but well made to me with good detail, my image does them no justice.

I finally found them hanging under this tree, they love figs for some reason.

phpA0Bw4DAM.jpg

I think there robes could do with a clean at the hem line, they just love being in fallout zone

phpNtYCKnAM.jpg

Could be smoking the funny stuff, not quite sure!

[DangerousDave]

Nice one Anthony
New angle looks really good. Works just right for me with the tension in those roots on the left side. A little right-heavy on the branches, but that speaks to that tension too. Nice job on the leaf size reduction - mine need a lot of work there - is that all your doing or is it smaller leaved variety?
Thanks for posting
Dave

[anthonyW]

Thanks Dave for your nice comments.

Firstly I believe their is only one species/sport as Little Ruby popped up in a batch of PJF seed bed by Noel Summerville I think in the seventies, and their has not been any body who has got it to seed I believe so far, so no variance there, so all our cuttings are from the good man.
So different climate and position (how much sun and shade) come to mind for leaf size and growth rates and some energy distibution?

So what I do to get it to be a little consistent, first thing i never defoliate it, it is one of the slowest growing figs around, notorious for it, so to defoliate it would take a whole season practically to get the leaves back, so nothing accomplished.I find by growing it out it gives me secondaries/ branchletts opposite to most figs habits, by not touching it the energy is at it maximum for growth not recovery in my temperate zone.

For leaf size just my thinking and observing when the tree is more established I find the competition for the energy seems to bring the leaf size down on heavy lower well ramified branches and sometimes vigour as figs are very apical growers, as the top can show much bigger leaves coming off their single shorter stems/branches with so many rounding my canopy off hogging all the energy that is why I will some seasons pinch a leaf or two with end the bud so I can redirect the energy lower.

So once tree has grown I simply cut to shape/silhouette, because I now have plenty of good growth behind the cut to keep energy and my figs stay in full sun which helps of course with leaf size and energy...

A lot people have told they have lost many branchetts then branches by treating like a PJF (constantly defoliating)

Hope this helps some Dave,,,I ll will look for some pics to show cheers

[anthonyW]

These cuttings originally come from the fig above, note the secondaries from the single cuttings they are tied up all together just keep out of the weeds I pulled from the bottom before the pic, these cuttings have not been defoliated or the terminal bud removed, they neglected really but watered and occasionally fed, note how big the leaf as they hog all feed to themselves even packed in still hogging, so no stress on them there Dave but big healthy leaf and ramifying on there own hope that all makes sense, grow PJF and co like that it and they will grow long as one barely ramifying till you cut.

phpLeAzUwPM.jpg

phpipIB65PM.jpg

secondaries growing at there own leisure

phpB3SXf5PM.jpg

leaf from cutting compared to old boy

Anthony

[GonzaloRol]

Those leaves are surprisingly big. Do they usually hog all the feed to themselves like that?

[anthonyW]

Can do on many occasions as young cuttings/individuals and add a bit shade to the mix because of small pots as not to cook them in full sun.
The bigger leaves are good indication that your tree is healthy, once the tree is worked on with right care and techniques the leaf will come down, too many people worry about leaf size on trees/cuttings in infancy, and if the leaf was that size with close uniformity all over than that works to,,,lets build a tree first...don t worry about leaf size

cheers Anthony

[Mbunro]

cool thread. very helpful..

whats your experience with trunk chopping with these.
ive got a trunk iv been developing for awhile, and not sure on its next step..
i tried chopping back to bare trunk on another one i had last year and it died almost immediately. i have a few good low shoots i could cut to on this one though.

[anthonyW]

Not a lot of chopping big stuff, just removal of handy size branch here and there but with plenty of good growth behind and around it .......photosynthesis crucial for this stuff for reasons explained above, but I did chop the top off the tree above to bring the height down, but once again good growth behind it.

Other guys might have experiences here and can chime in with more information.

Put your tree up here, might able to help you.

phpzBSTatPM.jpg

Was a bit taller in its day before the chop

[anthonyW]

Here is little fun experimental project with grafting/fusing Ruby to PJF handy trunk...severed it week and bit ago, on its own now
Happy with the graft, as they say nothing tried nothing gained.

Anthony

phpJXXzX1PM.jpg

php4P8M26PM.jpg

phpHI4FuFPM.jpg

[Mbunro]

thanks for the reply anthony.
will post a picture when im home later in the day.

iv been giving mine the "how to develop dynamic figs" treatment for the last couple of years.
its currently a heavily tapered trunk with a canopy made up of a few branches around the tip. as well as 2 big sacrifice branches close to the soil..
between the sacrifices and the canopy is a small shoot maybe 6cm long with 8 leaves that i have been trying to kick into action by exposing it to as much sunlight as possible...
plan is to cut back to that shoot and from what you have said i think this may be a good plan.

my cuts from the thickening method have still not healed so should probably hold off on the chop until then so i dont slow it down too much, but with the majority of the growth being on my sacrifice branches it may not be such a bad idea... but then again i obviously dont want to over develop the sacrifices too much and spend the next 5 years growing out the scars, even though they have been strategically placed.... hmmm much to think about...

[Mbunro]

Here are the photos.
Exposed some of the trunk for the pic, and im pretty disappointed with the closing of the scars so far.. I thought they would be much further along since the last repot...


Red Lines mark my intended cut. Should be able to see the possible new leader in the top down shot...


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk