PJ fig needs some styling

[anthonyW]

Well done Greg, the structure/bones look real good..depth right around the trunk and room to breath, if mine now I would leave it to grow nice and hard and healthy to mid summer, then put it back up to look at growth, then we can see how far we can cut back to inside good shoots to spur off to just to take some edge of staightist branches, if its up to stage..all in good time

Don t worry about big leaves at this point, thats the easy part reducing them later, now don t fiddle with it...lol

cheers Anthony

[greg27]

Thanks mate, I'll try my best to leave it alone

[greg27]

This tree has been powering on as usual, I think it even enjoyed the disgusting hot weather we've had over the past week. There's new growth everywhere, and pretty much every day I've been scraping off leaves down at the base.

What's the best thing to do at this stage - cut back some branches, trim back to two leaves or just let it go for a bit more?

[anthonyW]

Remember as above Don t touch...mid summer at best

You have tiny good buds lower on all trunks which you could use in the scheme of things later so letting outers grow we promote them faster (solar pads) more energy, health, photosynthesis.

My god you are in a hurry lol, you chop now you could put it back another season..relax Greg.

There is keeness and then there is silliness sorry to be blunt ...but hey it's your tree.

[greg27]

Gotcha, I'll relax - I'll find some other poor tree to mess around with for now!

[greg27]

Over a month - that's remarkable restraint for me. Maybe I'll get the hang of this patience thing, one day. I won't mention all of the native tubestock I've been tormenting during that time to keep me busy

Here's Mr. Fig as of this afternoon. A couple of slightly burned leaves from recent heatwaves but overall Mr. Fig has powered on nicely.

DSC_0365.jpg

It's pretty cool comparing it to how it was when I first posted - definitely a healthier-looking tree now if nothing else:

side-by-side.jpg

[Raging Bull]

Hi Greg, the tree's powering along quite nicely. As a styling suggestion, have a look at some figs in the parklands around North Adelaide near the old Childrens hospital. You'll notice how low and spreading the branches are. That's where I'm going with my Ficus trees, a low wide triangle shape. They grow like crazy up here in Qld, so I let them. Then I cut them right back, leaving only fairly short stumps for branches. Then repeat. I also pull the lower branches down with wires to get them almost horizontal. Good luck with yours.

[boom64]

Moving along nicely Greg .Good thing you have the natives to keep you occupied ,in a couple of years you will be thankful for the early work.
Cheers John.

[greg27]

As a styling suggestion, have a look at some figs in the parklands around North Adelaide near the old Childrens hospital. You'll notice how low and spreading the branches are. That's where I'm going with my Ficus trees, a low wide triangle shape. They grow like crazy up here in Qld, so I let them. Then I cut them right back, leaving only fairly short stumps for branches. Then repeat. I also pull the lower branches down with wires to get them almost horizontal. Good luck with yours.

Mate you're spot on - I have some smaller figs and I've been wiring the branches down on those, and for some reason it never occurred to me that that's what needs to happen with this big guy too. I'll see how I go at lowering some of those thick branches!

[greg27]

This morning I added some guy-wires to try to bring some of those thick branches down a bit. It's a bit hard to tell from my photos (this thing is getting heavy and I didn't have time to lug it into a better position for photos!) but I think overall it's a better shape.

I used some bits of garden hose around the branches to hopefully prevent the wire from doing any damage, then pulled it down to some screws that I added to the grow box. The bit of wood at the front is to push that front branch back up a bit after the bend downwards.

It'll be interesting to see how long these take to set.

[Alex_B]

Hi Greg,

Just found this post and loving the updates you have been giving. You have a really beautiful tree there and I don't think I've ever seen this much growth in such a short time haha.

I got a fig for my first tree and it is amazing how quickly they start growing if you keep the fertilizer coming and its in the right position.

Keep the updates coming I'm keen to see how the tree progresses.

[greg27]

Thanks Alex, the growth is pretty awesome - when I first posted this tree I had it in afternoon shade and it's amazing what some extra sun (and some fertiliser!) can do.

I had another look at my photos and decided a couple of branches could come down a bit further, so I added some extra wires this morning, and snapped a couple of photos that hopefully show the structure a bit better.

[anthonyW]

Hey Greg any chance at a look at your fig.

cheers Anthony

[greg27]

Hey Greg any chance at a look at your fig.

Anything for the master!

front.jpg

Front

left.jpg

Left side

right.jpg

Right side

back.jpg

Back

top.jpg

Top (front against the wall)

[anthonyW]

haha...very nice and healthy well done.

okay, could you take the growth that is growing on the under side of the lower left branch and remove it and try and bring the branch down more with guy wires or wire it down...we don t generally want growth underneath basically on near horizontal branching.

now for the right side, remove the growth underneath the lower right branch, it too looks like a lot of growth there and it is pulling alot of energy from the top of tree, no guy wires for this dominant branch as you might remove later.

don t touch the other branches for now,...post and again to see where we are at, your basic just cleaning out for now.

Anthony