Stumbled upon this fella in a garage sale ($20 ). Looks old (anyone want to guess?), trunk and branches/deadwood are thick as you can see. Doesn't look like it's ever been wired, I assume only pruned to keep it's bonsai form. Roots are protruding out of the bottom pot holes (as they would), who know's when it was repot last.
Style? - I'll assume broom.
Is it to cold to make severe cuts/ defoliate? Can anyone suggest some design ideas where some cuts can take place (deadwood?) (location = N/W Sydney down the road from SOB)
Should I wait til' spring approaches for repot/root prune/bonsai soil? (I've tried to excavate as much as I can to get a sense of root structure and frontal viewpoint)
Aerial roots look nice but are they aesthetically unpleasing?
Thanks for the feedback!
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How about you just sell it to me for $50 and make a handsome profit?
Prune, repot etc when it's growing strong. Books say summer, but you can do much earlier in Sydney. September/october is fine depending on how warm it's been. I won't comment on style, that bad boy has infinite possibilities. It needs a hard cut back to get the ramification going. Only you can set the final goal for it. Personally, I do not like informal upright figs. Love banyan/broom, or 'informal brooms', but i've never seen a fig in the wild that has a twisting tapering single trunk to the top. But that's just my taste. Some nice Semi-Cascades around, but this one looks like it would work as a more upright style thing.
All the best, and if you want to sell i'm very very happy to buy.
Last edited by DustyRusty on May 24th, 2013, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You can just slip pot it...even in the same pot...there is lots of space on top...so You can take it out add some nice soil under without disturbing the roots
Nice fig!
I ask lots of questions that sound like suggestions. Please remember I am a inquisitive newbie trying to figure out why You made a particular decision, in order to learn.
I started a blog:http://nelibonsai.wordpress.com/2013/07 ... a-nursery/
You have picked up a great bit of stock, not only was it at a good price, but it also has a tonne of potential. Is it to cold to make severe cuts/ defoliate? Can anyone suggest some design ideas where some cuts can take place (deadwood?) (location = N/W Sydney down the road from SOB) - For me yes, it is too cold to do any severe cuts and or defoliate it. If it were mine, I would be holding back until things warm up before you undertake any work on it, ficus are a tree that responds better to work in the spring/summertime. As far as styling goes, seeing that it will be at the same time you repot it to cut it back, I would before then take some other photos of it from a few different sides and then post them up for ideas on a possible direction. Should I wait til' spring approaches for repot/root prune/bonsai soil? (I've tried to excavate as much as I can to get a sense of root structure and frontal viewpoint) - Yes, it will respond alot better to any work done on them when its warmer as mentioned above.
Aerial roots look nice but are they aesthetically unpleasing? - Not at all, but that depends on the individual. Some love them, no doubt others don't.
Also what Dusty said, he is right that in Sydney we can get away with doing work on Ficus even as early as late August early September but you do have to watch up for night temps and morning frosts, that can damage a ficus.
You can get away with pretty much anything you wanted, provided one has the knowledge and understanding of the proper aftercare involved. Good luck with it and hope that helps, please keep us posted on it.
Cheers
David
p.s Oh another thing about virtual designs, it helps the people doing the virts tremendously if you can get photos of your tree with a plain background, when there is a busy background, it makes it hard to define the tree in parts.
Thanks Dusty,Neli and David for the quick replies!
@David, I was going to set up a backdrop in the first place in case someone might be interested in shopping it (PS), so I'll go ahead and
do that when the weather clears up. I know many people say " you can prune,defoliate anytime of year with Fig, they are indestructible!" that's why I thought I'd double check and I didn't have time to finish my semesters at SOB (those guys are amazing! shout out) to ask.
So, as I figured, I'll have to wait until spring to pull it out for a closer look and see what's going on.
). Looks old (anyone want to guess?), trunk and branches/deadwood are thick as you can see. Doesn't look like it's ever been wired, I assume only pruned to keep it's bonsai form. Roots are protruding out of the bottom pot holes (as they would), who know's when it was repot last. 
