AusBonsai

Hello everyone,
A year and a half ago, i managed to convince a friend of mine to part with 6 benjamina that were slowly dying in pots in a planter in front of his shop. It tooks 2 hours of sweat and being covered with sap and ants to remove them from the planter. They had been there for a long time.... The roots were all tangled of course, and the trees in bad shape. No water, no food... Apart from the occasional drunken good Samaritan once in a while, judging by the smell of them!
I had to chop them all around 80cm to fit in my boot. Then i let them recover for a couple of months, Seasol only first, then a little liquid fert.
Afterwards they all got root pruned drastically, trunks shortened and planted in large garden sieves, to start straight away on the nebary.
A year later, they are now all very healthy and somewhat ready for their first styling.
A very long way to go as many big scars will need time to heal.

Pierre,
Thanks for sharing your story & the pics. They really look quite old & well worth the effort.
I had a similar experience a few months ago, saving an abandoned group of these figs discarded with no pot, no leaves or branches - just boring straight trunks.
I could not look away & leave 'em to die?
I think they were from a sidewalk planting near a pub, so their main fertiliser mix I found upon repotting was beer caps, cigarette butts, broken glass & plastic lighter parts.
All the best with the development of yours.

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:...their main fertiliser mix I found upon repotting was beer caps, cigarette butts, broken glass & plastic lighter parts...

Didn't you know this was a well known fertiliser routine for figs?

Hi Pierre,
fig is looking great. Please keep us posted on the progress.

Thanks Pierre - I’m looking forward to following progress. Thanks for posting.


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I think you lucked out on the variety of F benjamina, Pierre. The leaves are much smaller, and darker green than many of the strangler fig benjaminas that seem to inhabit the bush around here. It's a beaut result, and these trees are going to reward you with a great result. I thank you, again, for gifting one of these to me.

You are very welcome Mel, i know it's in good hands
Yes they do have fairly small leaves indeed, sometimes i wonder if they could be "too little " variety, but as i haven't seen one with my own eyes, not sure.