[David Willoughby] F. rubiginosa #3

[DavidWilloughby]

Species Name: Ficus rubiginosa or Port Jackson Fig
Height: 340mm
Source: Grown from a cutting that was struck in October 2009, in late 2011 it was repotted with some of the roots placed around a rock.
Cost: Free

abPJF320march2013A.jpg

Side A

abPJF320march2013B.jpg

Side B

abPJF320march2013C.jpg

Side C

abPJF320march2013D.jpg

Side D

abPJF320march2013trunkcloseup.jpg

A close up where the cutting meets the rock.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi All,

An update for this one with work done today.

Here it is with this mornings paper before any work was carried out;

abPJF31April2013before.jpg

This is one that I'm also going to do work to it outside of the prescibed optimal times, that starting today. The only work that was done to it was removal of a sacrifice branch and lower the soil level to see what was under there. Thankfully the lighting improved for these pics.

abPJF31April2013beforecut.jpg

abPJF31April2013aftercut.jpg

A close up of whats left

abPJF31April2013closeup.jpg

Once again I placed spagnum on the soil surface and used the bottom of a coke bottle to hopefully increase humidity which should aid in the trees recovery at this time of year.

abPJF31April2013howitsitsnow.jpg

This will be placed in direct sunlight and be left alone for a while.

Cheers

David

[Neli]

Why did you remove the sacrifice branch? Dont you want the trunk to grow some more...This tree will be interesting to watch.

[Ray M]

Hi David,
Thought I would share what I do with bottles over my trees. Instead of using the bottom of the bottle I use the top. The reason for this, is that I can water and fertilize by simply undoing the bottle cap, water or fertilize the tree and replace the cap. The tree and roots don't get disturbed.

Regards Ray

[DavidWilloughby]

Why did you remove the sacrifice branch? Dont you want the trunk to grow some more...This tree will be interesting to watch.

Hi Neli,

I removed the sacrifice branch as it has served its purpose and what remaining energy the tree has left over from our growing season, will be put into whats left. Ideally all of this would have taken place in January, which I would normally do to all my other Figs, but for a laugh and some fun I have chosen to do this work now and see how it will react.

Hi David,
Thought I would share what I do with bottles over my trees. Instead of using the bottom of the bottle I use the top. The reason for this, is that I can water and fertilize by simply undoing the bottle cap, water or fertilize the tree and replace the cap. The tree and roots don't get disturbed.

Regards Ray

Hi Ray,

Thank you very much for that tip, that makes perfect sense too. Something that I will be definately putting to use in the future.

The problem I have with this one is that the half bottle doesn't fit over the tub(similar to the other) and because of that, at the moment is only resting ontop. For watering, its only a matter of lifting it off with little to no disturbance of the roots and tree (unless I decide to water after half a dozen coopers lol).

Cheers

David

[MattA]

Hey David,
Another method I have used with bottles is to use a 2ltr cut in half, sit the pot in the bottom piece, cut a few short slits in the cut edge of the top & slot it over. The pot is held above any water that might pool in the bottom & the lid can be used to slowly decrease humidity over time once its growing strong.

Good luck with the comp I look forward to seeing the results of your experiment
Matt

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi All,

Cheers for that Matt, sorry for the delay in responding too. Thats another handy way to do it and definately is something that I will use down the track, thanks mate.

A quick update on the tree, it's shooting everywhere and has responded quite well to the chop for this time of year.

ab3PJF16May2013A.jpg

Some shots of the growth from a few sides:

ab3PJF16May2013B.jpg

ab3PJF16May2013C.jpg

ab3PJF16May2013D.jpg

I will update this in another 6 weeks time.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi All,

A quick update on this one. Its still growing, albeit slowly since the last update, in a few weeks time I will start to feed it.

ab3PJ#16June13A.jpg

ab3PJF16June13B.jpg

Cheers

David

[Andrew F]

This is gonna make a great little tree! KUTGW

[DavidWilloughby]

This is gonna make a great little tree! KUTGW

Andrew, TYVM kind Sir,

Hi All,

Seeing that I was in the mood today to work on one of my entries, it would have been rude not to have followed suit and worked on this as well. I was curious to see what had happened under the soil surface since I put it on the rock.

ab3PJF13July2013A.jpg

The mandatory before shot.

ab3PJF13July2013B.jpg

out of the pot and the spagnum on the surface removed.

ab3PJF13July2013C.jpg

barerooted, "It's a Boy!".....this was my intended front, up until today.

ab3PJF13July2013D.jpg

thankfully I couldn't stand the sight of that root from the otherside as it allowed me to consider other options, on the otherside, we have a winner.

ab3PJF13July2013E.jpg

roots trimmed and ready to go into further temporary housing.

ab3PJF13July2013F.jpg

it's new digs.....The lower pot has 100% maidenwell diatomite, the upper pot is with 50% diatomite/50% bonsai potting mix. The base has been removed to allow the growth of the roots into it. This will serve its purpose until I repot it into a Bonsai pot around this time next year.

ab3PJF13July2013G.jpg

Resting in its new temporary home. I covered the upper pots surface with spagnum. I also decided to remove any unwanted shoots coming from the trunk to hopefully drive the chosen few that remain.

ab3PJF13July2013H.jpg

A close up of my new front, there is far better cohesion between the tree and rock in comparison to the "LOOK AT ME...!!!" on the other side.

This has been given a good soaking with superthrive and will be given a feed a week prior do defoliation, which the first of the season is due late August. I will update this after I have done that.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi all,

A quick update on this little fella. The first two photos are from August 10.

ab3PJF10August2013A.jpg

^before

ab3PJF10August2013B.jpg

*after, only defoliated.

These next two shots are from this afternoon.

ab3PJF4Sept2013A.jpg

ab3PJF4Sept2013B.jpg

I'm looking forward to watching it put on a heap of growth for the next month before I defoliate it again and put some wire on it. I will update it again then.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi all,

Update for this. It grew, nothing substantial but it did grow. I thought it was a good time to defoliate it and put some wire on it this morning, here is a before and after shot.

ab3PJF21Oct2013A.jpg

ab3PJF21Oct2013B.jpg

Now to let it sit and grow for the next couple of months before another defoliation. I was considering potting it up in Feb but I think I might keep it where it is until August next year, but thats famous last words for me lol.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi All,

Update time on this one.

For the first time out of any of my entries, I actually said I would leave this for a couple of months before defoliating again and I actually did that (I was surprised myself lol) but this got defoliated and rewired on Dec 23 which is a couple of months after the last bit of work. Here are the before and after photos,

abPJF3 23 Dec 2013 A.jpg

abPJF3 23 Dec 2013 B.jpg

abPJF3 23 Dec 2013 C.jpg

and here is a photo as from yesterday,

abPJF3 13 Jan 2014.jpg

I can now see that it would be beneficial to pot this up in Feb into a pot, my logic behind that is because its a ROR, I want to ensure that it fits into the size criteria and would rather work to it in a pot than in its tub. Things could change knowing me, but feel it would be the right thing to do. I will update it then.

Cheers

David

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi all,

Quick update, again this didn't get potted up but will in the next few months.

ab3 PJF 21 March 2014.jpg

Cheers

David

[Neli]

Nice one. I would wire the first right branch a bit more downwards...sort of facing down and right