large yamadori ficus hillii advice please

[Ces]

hey guys,

A mate of mine took an off the cuff remark i made about a 'large fig' to heart and brought me a present today. When i came he was standing in my front yard with this.... (sorry about the quality, i'll re-post some daylight photos tomorrow).

big fig hillii.jpg

big fig hillii 4.jpg

big fig hillii 3.jpg

big fig hillii 2.jpg

Saved from a skip at his jobsite today

He went to the trouble of bringing it over, so we potted it up. Its nothing more than a stump at the moment and it needs to be chopped some more, but I need help with where this should go. with my limited experience, all i can imagine is a large hollow deadwood feature.... which I know does not go with figs at all.

big fig hillii 2 carving.jpg

(looking at the above picture now, the blue line's upward point should be more to the right. Where the red line starts at the right)

big fig hillii 4 carving.jpg

Basically, I don't know where to go with it at all. Is it worth pursuing? or should I find a home for it in the ground somewhere? Any suggesstions are appreciated.

thanks again

[kcpoole]

Jeez it sure is big
Right now, just leave it to recover and grow for a few months to see where it will shoot back. Seasol for thenext month, then ad fertilizer to get it happening

Probably about the right place to cut, but Ficus are quite soft wood and prone to rot, so deadwood and Shari not really used on them much/

Ken

[Ces]

Thanks again mate.

For now, I'm just going to cut it back to the red line in the photos and then like you said- see where it shoots back.

Can deadwood be maintained on figs with diligent cleaning and lime sulphur application? or will they rot anyway?

I can visualise a very natural, full canopy on a short powerful trunk for this tree but i haven't got any idea how to heal or cover a scar the size of a dinner plate with future foliage and branching.

I don't know... I guess we'll have to see.

[Damian Bee]

KC is on the money again, let it recover for a while with a seasol drip feed in the emergency ward till you can see what shoots back. Of it we're mine I would look at pic 3 and 4 and remove one of the two stumps on the blue angle. Be it the thick one or the thinner one so you can get a little taper and movement, that would solve the scar size problem but definitely wait a bit before you cut any more.

[Bougy Fan]

In the last picture I would do the cut at about 90 degrees to the blue line and use the trunk at the top right as a new leader. Then the scar will be at the back and the tree will be coming out towards you. I have some big hills fig layered from an old twisted topiary and they seem to do well with carving - the wood seems harder than say the benji if that make sense ?

[Ces]

I thought i'd post an update on this fig seeing that i've done a fair bit of work to it in the last few days. Thanks for the advice bougy fan. I tried cutting it where you suggested with a recipro saw... no go. I thought i could muscle it with a hand saw. still no go. every attempt to borrow a chainsaw failed, so I just let it bud out and see what it gave me.

A few photos here... some not so great quality. I'm using my phone as i still cant find my proper camera.

After 5 and a half months of growth this is what it had produced.

left 22 feb 2013.jpg

right 22 feb 2013.jpg

I havent had much hope for this tree from the beginning but i owed it to my mate who had gone to the trouble of collecting it for me. However thinking about it for the last few weeks, looking at where the growth had sprung from.... an idea came to my head. I'm gonna turn this fig into a hollow trunk

Not advised with figs, I know but its the best my inexperienced and small brain could come up with to make something interesting from this tree. If bougy is right and after spending 8 or 9 hours carving it so far I think he might be, then the Hill's fig wood might be harder than other ficus timber from more common bonsai species Anyway with the proper treatments and care, it might last. If it doesn't, I'll enjoy it for awhile and it will have taught a novice a lot about carving.

So before I could start I had to face an obvious problem first. The previous owners had placed a very large u-bolt on the tree to bring the two leading trunks together (I'm assuming to create a more upright tree) and it had remained there for quite a few years while the trunks fused. It had almost disappeared entirely into the tree about 20 cm below the highest tip left by the original chainsaw cut performed before I came into possession of the tree.

So I set about trying to carve the three with what I had. An angle grinder and some grinding discs and cut-off wheels of various sizes.

the top of the problem 22 feb 2013.jpg

In the photo above you can just see some of the bolt sticking out of the trunk. this is the result of about 4 hours work with the angle grinder and the WRONG fittings. There is a lot of bulk to be removed from this tree so at this point I gave up on the carving business and set about some branch selection.

branch selection frontish 22 feb 2013.jpg

branch selection left 22 feb 2013.jpg

At this point I gave up but vowed to rejoin the fray with the right weaponry and really make an attempt to set this on its path... to... somewhere

enter my new angle grinder and router bits. SWMBO has no idea yet

Went back to work today and set about some block carving. I didn't want to remove too much of the heart wood at once, so its got a long way to go. BUT I think I've managed to improve the 'taper' and have begun working on reducing the big large ugly root that sticks out at the front.

front 25 feb 2013.jpg

left 25 feb 2013.jpg

back 25 feb 2013.jpg

right 25 feb 2013.jpg

carving detail back 25 feb 2013.jpg

carving detail hollow top 25 feb 2013.jpg

carving detail top left 25 feb 2013.jpg

natral shari by ant 25 feb 2013.jpg

I plan to carve this progressively. More bulk needs to come our of the back of the lower portion of the trunk to continue to improve the taper and more material needs to be removed from the middle third of the carved portion for the same reason. the big long root needs more reduction also. How long should I wait before doing this? Could I have gone harder or have I gone too hard?

As you can see most of the branches have been placed. There's a small branch at the middle in the back left of the tree (when viewed from the front) that hasn't been wired as it needs grow strongly and thicken up considerably. The top left branch hasn't been wired yet as I heard a small crack when I tied it out of the way before carving. It should be fine but I'm going to give it a little while before wiring it.

I haven't removed any of the foliage from the branches I have kept as they all need to gain size and will be cut back and defoliated when its appropriate. Now its back in to recovery and then full sun, feed and water. feed and water.

Not sure if this will work... but I'm going to give it a go. thanks for reading guys. any comments are encouraged and appreciated.

Cheers,

Ces.

[lennard]

I don't have experience with your species but in general I have found that Ficus don't take aggressive carving well.

I can not prove it but it seems that an older Ficus relies heavily on vertical sap flow and the bark will die down into a root which feed a specific branch or branches. To the back side of the tree their is a root but no growth above it so the chance is there that you may get the bark dying if it does not sprout a bud there soon. I have experienced this with this Ficus natalensis:

verklein uitgehol.jpg

This all that is left two years later:

june 2012 a.jpg

I will be watching your thread very closely and do hope I am wrong.

Lennard

[Ces]

I don't have experience with your species but in general I have found that Ficus don't take aggressive carving well.

I can not prove it but it seems that an older Ficus relies heavily on vertical sap flow and the bark will die down into a root which feed a specific branch or branches. To the back side of the tree their is a root but no growth above it so the chance is there that you may get the bark dying if it does not sprout a bud there soon.

Hey Lennard,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Thats quite a lot of die back on your natalensis. I'm not holdong much hope out for this one. More of an exercise on something that was going in the skip otherwise.

An interesting note though is that the back side had no growth on it at all. I originally wanted that side to be the front. however the bark was live all the way to the top of the stump (apart from the 10 mm immediately below the chainsaw cut). Anyway, we'll see.
Thanks again.

[bamboos]

any update? Did it survive?
Regards Steve

[Ces]

any update? Did it survive?
Regards Steve

Hey Steve, its doing quite well, the initial carving didn't slow it down at all. The carving was taken quite a bit further in June, which did stop its growth for a few months. I know it was winter but here in Sydney my figs grow year round. Its come back into new growth in the last few weeks.

No signs of rot yet but the deadwood areas are drying out a lot. I'll post some update photos tomorrow.

Cheers,

Ces.

[Hackimoto]

Not that it really matters but I don't think that it is Ficus hillii. Looks more like a Ficus Benjamina (Weeping Fig) to me.

[bamboos]

I'm with you on ficus benjimina Hackimoto I was interested if it survived with the amount of carving done and still to be done.Benjiminas are know to suffer die back quite easily and Sydney is probably as far south as they want to go.
Good to hear it is going well Ces
Steve

[Ces]

Steve and Hackimoto,

Yeah I changed my mind that it was Hillii not long after the foliage emerged. Pretty sure its benjamina too. Maybe the mods could change the title to include 'urban yamadori' and 'ficus benjamina' rather than 'yamadori' and 'ficus hillii'?

Anyway here's some pics for you steve. I said the 2nd carving was done in June but it was actually done at the end of July. After fire treatment, the deadwood was left to dry for 4-6 weeks (cant remember) before treatment with a 100 % lime sulfur solution.

the tree in july

front 22 july 2013.jpg

carving july 2013.jpg

today

front 17 sep 2013.jpg

detail carving 17 sep 2013.jpg

detail carving back 17 sep 2013.jpg

Its got a long way to go (branch thickening, taper etc.) but depending on how the deadwood holds up, i may fast track the branch ramification to get the best photo possible before the tree disintegrates. I'll be doing my best to fight it. so far, so good . It hasn't faced a humid spring and summer yet though.

cheers guys,

ces.

[Pierre]

Hi Ces,

I was wondering if you have an update ?
Cheers, Pierre

[hawkeyes]