Heat Wave Figs

[Timritchie]

Hi all,
Big weekend starting with a drive from Nowra to Emu Plains to purchase 6 Figs (thanks Brett) loaded up quickly and hit the road for Caringbah to stay with family overnight. Finally made it home this arvo and had time to bare root, root prune and pot up one of the Figs.
Originally styled by the late Max Candy, Root over rock.

In its pot

Out of the pot

Bare rooted, ready for root prune

Into its new pot.
I haven’t as yet done anything with the trunk/ top at this stage, basically honouring what I think was Max’s original front? Two options:
1 Tall using the available trunk and shoots/ branches
2 Trunk chop low down above the shoots / branch on the right and the branch coming straight out as the new leader and grow a new canopy, which to me is more like the Figs 10 mins walk from home, in the Bomaderry creek reserve, there not tall trees and they are always growing over sandstone escarpments.
The root base needed at least 450mm wide container coming out of a 350mm pot, the nursery tray is 560mm.
Let me know what you think, I’ll be pretty busy with the other 6 Figs in the coming days and I’ll try and post each tree as time allows.
Thanks
Tim


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[EdwardH]

Very hard to tell from the pics. Are you able to downsize and repost so that we can get a good look of the tree?
Thanks

[Qitianlong]

Awesome Tim! I'm definitely with option 2 and trunk chop! It'll have to be done eventually...

[shibui]

I agree that the trunk has ben allowed to grow far too tall. These trees have been neglected for some time so some reduction is in order
You should be able to reduce the roots substantially if you want to get it into a smaller container. F. rubiginosa grow quite well in very small containers so pick a size that suits the trunk and rock and reduce the roots to fit rather than finding a pot that the current roots will fit into.
Some of the roots ar not growing close to the rock. That's not really natural or believable. I would tie them so they lie direct on the stone (should stay put after a few months) or remove them if they won't.

[Timritchie]

Thanks Ed, Q and Shibui, yes to all above advice thank you.
Ed here are the pics again in small format



I’ve been a bit busy repotting another 2 trees today after work.
A multi trunk

A smaller twin trunk, didn’t get a post root prune pic due to a southerly front coming through after the muggiest hot day here.

Boys and girls this is what happens if you don’t regularly root prune your Figs
3 down and 3 to go!, I’ll keep you posted, thanks once again.
Regards Tim


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[Timritchie]

Hi, I did finish repotting these old and neglected Figs last Thursday, but I’ve been a bit busy and nursing a broken rib for the last 2days.
I’ll try to do them in order of the last post.

The Max Candy RoR Fig
I’ve only hard pruned, Q I hope you like it? Sorry Shibui still haven’t gotten around to repotting to a smaller pot, need a 400mm pot to cut down



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[Timritchie]

And I’ll keep going, forgot the order of pics

Multi trunk PJ looking like its good material for a banyan style! Or so I thought..... upon inspection over a beer, as you do, I noticed some rot at the back of the main central trunk, after scratching around for an hour the rot almost totally separates that trunk from the rest of the tree? It’s beings kept alive by 2 aerial roots and a very thin sliver of cambium from below. I can do some more close up shots if anyone’s interested. Testament to the hardiness of PJs

The twin trunk, well you guessed it it ended up a twin trunk, virtually a cutting with not much to write home about downstairs. Reminds me of a couple of boab trees.
That’s the end of the trees in the previous post...... but wait there’s more, 2 more in fact, I saved the worst for last.
The best of the last! 5 trunk multi, please vote on reducing any trunk 1- 5, it’s looking like a bit of a staircase at the moment!
Drumroll ... ... ... .....................

What do you do with that!
It’s only redeeming feature is that it had a lot of smaller roots off the starboard side, so I mined a ship load of timber under the Portside to get it to float and get the bow above the new found water level.
When I finally beach it.... exposed root slanting, semi, banyan, cascade,penjingy thingy?
It’s hard to make a curd shine
Ciao


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[Timritchie]

Hi just had a look at the post in web view and there’s obviously some format problem around the pics so I’ll post the pics again. I think that’s all of them? Thanks Tim




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[Timritchie]

Awesome Tim! I'm definitely with option 2 and trunk chop! It'll have to be done eventually...

Hi Q,
Yes I bit the bullet and did it! Just starting to shoot
Tim


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[Timritchie]

4 years later……..
Just thought I’d share the progress of these figs as seen in the earlier part of this post

Ganesha
The Max Candy ROR Port Jackson
This is definitely my favourite, it’s a classic PJ fig right down to the hairy brown underside of the leaves. I haven’t done any work on the roots over rock but I’m pretty happy with the canopy and I’ve got to get my finger out and rewire

Still in the same nursery tray, recently unwired

The 5/4 trunk group unwired today, time for a prune rewire and a pot!
I also need to tidy up the timber work,
Otherwise pretty happy with it so far

The twin trunk recently unwired and defoliated, the left trunks the better of the 2. Maybe I should just put it in the ground?

Any ideas? Recently defoliated

The Disco Dancers
The middle trunk died, it was only living off one aerial root, recently defoliated and hasn’t been wired for awhile. Haven’t really connected with it but it’s growing on me

$200 “investment “
So let me/everyone know what you think? Positive or negative it’s all good
Cheers Tim


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