Port Jackson Fig

[Albo]

I picked up this PJF 6 months ago. Wanted to thicken it up so been feeding it heaps and let the branches grow unchecked until it got to about a meter in height.
I also wanted to encourage Ariel roots so I created a frame with skewers around the lower trunk and wrapped with glade wrap to increase humidity over late summer/early autumn.
Ariel roots stared growing within a couple weeks. Unfortunately I didn’t take photos because I didn’t really think it would work.
Mid autumn as it has thickened a lot I started pruning to get a bit of a trunk line and some wire to put a bit of movement in the branches. And repotted in mid autumn.

I Think now I’ll start working on the branches over spring, reduce leaf size/ramify.Ill let the top grow to continue to thicken. I think I will try that glad wrap trick again to encourage aerial roots. I’ll take photos of it this time.

I’m pretty happy with the progress so far in six months.

[Kevin]

That's an impressive leaf size Albo,

Your "feeding it heaps" fertiliser regime has certainly paid dividends. I'm interested in hearing what that regime involved and what your future fertiliser will involve now you're looking at ramifying and leaf reduction?

Looking forward to your reply and future updates.

Kevin

[Albo]

Hi Kevin,
I was using standard Ozmocote and power feed.
Power feed ratio was I would say strong. Was about 20ml per litre of water every week as I was chasing growth. I think that’s about double the recommended for established plants. Did that for about 4 months and that growth was the result.

Going forward I’ll probably stick with the Ozmocote and power feed but at recommended dosage say 10ml per litre over growing season. Defoliation will come into play. I’ll be interested to see how that plays out.

I’m still what I would regard as maybe slightly better than a novice in bonsai.I learn from a combination of seeking advice and trial and error. I’m not afraid to have a go or make a mistake but I try to do it intelligently on cheaper material.
This fig is an example of that strategy.

I’ll definitely post progress as it happens and as always Id appreciate any advice from anyone especially the experienced fig people.

Just a question if anyone can advise, am I best to defoliate before spring growth kicks in? And I’m expecting to need to defoliate again perhaps early autumn?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[TimIAm]

In Sydney growth has definitely slowed down, including figs. I have one a bit smaller than yours that I cut back hard end of April, it now has lots of new leaves ready to pop, but won't really kick into action until Spring. Point being, it's probably better to wait.

This past growing season I had some great results with defoliating, but the ones I did in Autumn took quite longer to bounce back than the ones which I did in Spring and Summer.

Something else that I paid attention to this season was trying to get good structured forking on branches. Although you can get good outcomes with a full defoliation, it also helps to keep structure in mind. Sometimes a full defoliation can give you many good options to choose from, sometimes it's better to take a considered approach (* more-so if you are thinking of doing more than one in a season).

[Albo]

Update on this port Jackson fig.
I repotted at the end of winter into a more suitably sized pot. Start of oct did a hard cut back and removed every leaf. Trees responded well with lots of new buds.
I’ve today done some very light pruning and wired some branches into position I want.
I really need some back branches as they’re none at the moment. There are a couple buds that have popped out to the rear so I’ll grow those out to get some three dimensionality.

I’m pulling back on the liquid fert now as I don’t want those leaves growing to the size they were at the start of the year.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the progress.