Ficus thonningii [greg27]

[greg27]

Around a year ago (edit: a year and two days ago!) Matt S very kindly gave me a ficus thonningii cutting. You can see Matt's thread on it here: https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... hp?t=26317

I gave it a hair cut and a repot and then left it mostly alone. It nearly died when I went away for a few 40 degree days in February and forgot to leave instructions for it to be watered - it lost most of its leaves and a few branches died off, but luckily it saved me from embarrassment and came back to life.

Today I took it out of its nursery pot and planted it on top of a rock I've had in mind for it for a little while. I draped the roots over the rock, wired it in place, then wrapped it in aluminium foil and planted it into a bonsai pot - a larger pot would've been more ideal but I don't have any lying around, so this'll have to do for now. I've also wrapped it in a rag that I'll try to keep damp to keep the roots on the rock from drying out. Just needs a bit of wire to style it up and hopefully it'll do well over the summer.

I was hoping to do this at the last club workshop for the year but the 'rona ruined that idea. Hopefully it grows well (and looks nice) under my clumsy care!

I have a few tiny rooted cuttings; send me a PM if you're keen on one, I'm happy to post them out for the cost of postage.

[terryb]

Greg,

That foil package needs to go back under the soil into a black plastic pot. The soil pressing against the foil will help keep the roots tight around the rock until they thicken and grip the rock. You can also use raffia or budding tape to bind the foil tighter. There is nothing holding them on the rock there at the moment. F. thonningii roots are fairly aggressive and will happily escape the pot to go and find water sculpting themselves to any surface (similar to those pictures you see from tropical areas where figs are growing over walls and buildings) but I'm not sure you will get the desired result from your current setup.

Once the roots have thickened and gripped the rock, the idea is to slowly uncover the rock a bit each year. Already made that rookie mistake myself this spring.

[greg27]

Cheers Terry, it shall be done!

[terryb]

Forgot to mention to make sure there is a gap between the foil and the trunk of the tree so water can get in around the roots and rock when you water. Your last image shows the foil high and tight and if you plant it at that angle, I can't see water getting to the top surface of the rock (under the foil) on the left easily.

[Matt S]

Good job Greg. Thonningii's are great fun and perfect for an old guy like me who doesn't have as much time as you do.

Thonningii roots behave differently to PJ and similar figs, I'm guessing because it's a strangler fig and the idea is to wrap around the host as quickly as possible. Some roots will tightly follow the contour of the rock without any intervention and will thicken quickly once they hit the soil. Aerial roots will appear on branches once there's a bit of shade to keep them cool. Other roots will grow horizontally and fuse with the downward roots, quickly creating a mesh. It's all a bit messy compared to other figs, and I've just let them do their thing and only wrapped a bit of foil around initially to provide shade. I didn't even put the roots in soil, just tied the cutting to the top of the host stump and kept it moist. The technique Terry suggests is spot on for just about any species, but I haven't done it with thonningii. Worth a try though if you want a neater more refined image, which in this case is probably warranted because that's a nice rock and you don't want it fully enveloped.

Matt