Tiger Bark fig progression

[NathanM]

Hey guys.
I had a fairly sizeable Tiger Bark fig that was overdue for some attention! Had a monthly workshop on the weekend so I figured it would be an ideal candidate.
I haven’t measured it to be honest, but will tonight. It’s approx 55cm high though.
A few pics of how it was to begin with:



Out of the pot to have a dig around and see what we’ve got. Found quite a large base with decent flare further down. Cut off the unnecessary bigger roots near the surface as I went.



It had a large, straight branch/trunk too high up that had to go…..
And I culled a lot of other unnecessary branches as well.


Final product after first “styling”. Gave it a good soak in superthrive after and now it can get plenty sun between now and spring. Will sort out roots properly then and start reducing pot depth in preparation for going into a bonsai pot when it’s a little more ready


Decent pic of the base

[kvan64]

Hi Nathan,
Very well done regarding the removing of thick upper branches and cleaning the roots at the base. Looks like a good potential for informal upright. My uncle has a couple of these and they are great as bonsai. I suggest trimming hard on upper branches and grow to thicken the lower branches. Also they look great with pad style.
PS. The price tage is a bit scary!

[NathanM]

Hey DK, Thanks for the comments man Yeah, they do make lovely bonsai!! My teacher has a few very nice tiger barks. Ficus in general are probably my favourite species
Yeah, my next step is to cut back all branches to the desired shoots and do the finer wiring. I did snap a branch about halfway up, but I have securely rejoined it, so I’m hoping, given that it is a ficus, that it will heal. If it doesn’t I’m sure it will give me something else close by to work with

[NathanM]

Did some more work to this thing today
Didn't take a pic before defoliating (or removing the apex for that matter) but here are some pics.



and after the work today

[kvan64]

This one has come along real well Nathan. Now it need some rootwork and repotting.

[fiveoffive]

wow nice.
My figs are years away from even looking like a tree.

P.s
looks like you have some nice tree's ( as seen in the background of your fig photos)
Good work.

[NathanM]

DK - Thanks man. It does need a repot for sure. I will put it into a foam box soon. Somthing shallower and wide so I can start sorting the roots out
Five - thanks for the comment re this tree, it is on its way to being something really nice
However I can not accept the other comment, as the trees in te back ground do not belong to me

[AndrewC]

Hi Nathan,
I like what you're doing with this fig. I've got a couple of small tiger bark figs in training pots and I'm just growing them at the moment. I've only picked up a broader range of figs in the past 6-months to see what will grow well down here (south coast WA). The Benjamin, Port Jackson and its "little ruby" cultivar do well and the tiger bark has looked fine so far over summer... but I'll with-hold judgement until winter time! Do you know if they strike well from cuttings?

The other figs i'm trying out are green island and willow-leaf.

Cheers, Andrew.

[Matthew]

Andrew
Easy from cuttings ive had 100% with my melonseed which is in the retusa family, Protect from frost if you get it in your area.

[bodhidharma]

Its going to be a nice tree. A very impressive trunk to build a good informal on Nathan. Look forward to updates.

[emi93m]

Large Ficus .....I lovem this tree is defianetly going to be a good one!

[Rintar]

does this look like the leaves and bark of yours wet.. IN your opinion is this a tiger bark




download/file.php?id=54465&t=1

[Rintar]

sorry Nathan, meant to hit preview not submit here is the thread with the 3 photos

viewtopic.php?f=134&t=11958

as you can see VS says benji due to the leaf tip but I can in some shots see a similarity in yours

any help for or against would be great

will try get some shots of it dry on Monday

Cheers Rin

[FatMingsBonsai]

REAL nice start stock wise. Enjoy its progression Nathan.

Cheers.

[karraway2]

What is the cut paste that you are using. I have seen many people using the similar brown coloured paint like paste....