Winter care for Port Jackson Fig

[Steveall]

Hi all, long time lurker first time poster. I have recently acquired my first ficus (pj). In somewhat an oddity I started my journey many years ago with a JWP and have many bonsais in my collection and thought I’d try my luck with a ficus to mix it up a bit.

I understand the premise, substrate, positioning, pruning habits etc. what I’m not sure on is what to do with it over winter. I live in Victoria and where I reside it gets down to single digits over night. What I’m hoping is someone here might be able to give some advice on winter care for it until the weather warms back up. Is it best to try and manage it indoors? Or just put it north facing under an eve or similar? My bonsais all currently sit outdoors on a stand in full sun and as for everything else in my collection they will survive the winter where they are.

Like anything plenty of information out there but I’m looking for your guys experience! Especially if someone lives in Victoria and has experience with a PJ.

[Paulneill]

I used to live in Sydney and grew port Jackson’s
Just leave them out in full sun all year. They probably not even need much sun in winter.
Even a light frost wouldn’t negatively affect them. No point Bringing them inside. My advice would be to get a few more and put them in the ground for 4/5 years and develop big cracking trunks. Love the species and have about 5 on the go here in Perth. All in the ground getting big and giving friends in work a couple each to do the same. You can feed them heavy and they grow fast in summer . All work you do with them happens when it’s hot. I repot mine at the start of summer. You probably wouldn’t kill one repotting when it’s cold but you will just stunt its growth. If u keep one in a small pot it will get root bound within a year and just not grow much. When I grow them in pots I let the roots escape. And if your developing branches defoliate them at least once thru summer to get back budding.
Flat bottom cut 80/90% of the roots off them, leaving strategic roots to develop around the base and plant on top of a ceramic tile, paint can lid. Something flat that spread to roots.

[shibui]

Ficus care in Victoria will depend where you live and what temperatures you can expect through winter.
Ficus rubiginosa will do OK with temps down to around 5C and can cope with occasional 0C - but they do not really like those low temps. Anything less than 0C is likely to cause damage.
One of our club members kept his PJ well under a solid roofed alfresco, close to the house wall and around 4m from exposed edges. One particularly cold night that fig was badly frost burnt and the trunk died right to the ground. It eventually grew back from the base of the trunk and is now a thriving clump style fig bonsai.
Need to remember that forecast temps for the general area are not always accurate for every backyard in the area. Microclimate conditions can mean your yard might be either warmer or colder than the surrounding area, sometimes by a few vital degrees.

Ficus are among the few trees that can cope well with conditions inside our houses. American and European bonsai growers routinely move their Ficus indoors for the cooler parts of the year. Friends in Canberra grow very good PJs which spend much of the winter inside.
Up here in the cooler hills of North East Vic winter temps regularly go below freezing and occasionally down to -4C which are lethal temps for PJ. My figs all live permanently in an unheated poly greenhouse which keeps the night temps just above freezing. I get occasional problems through winter but the figs all survive.
I would certainly advise caution until you really get to know your local temperatures really well. Moving to a very light position indoors, well away from dry air created by heating would be advisable. Additional humidity may or may not be useful.
In warmer areas many growers get away with keeping trees close to the house, under an eave. In coastal areas you may even get away with winter outside. It all depends on your location and local temperature anomalies.

[Trimmy]

I have had no problems keeping PJ next to the house where it never frosts over. They even get a bit of heating from open windows overnight. As Shibui says, microclimates can vary a lot. One side of my house never frosts over, however the other side does occasionally so I would never keep them there in winter.

[Steveall]

Yeah thanks guys, ( I probably should have included this initially) where I live the lowest in the past few years I’ve seen is 3 degrees, I live In the outer east. It’s on average during a winter roughly 7 to 8 degrees over night. All my other bonsais tolerate the cold winters, but first time ficus so thought I’d seek some opinions. I have a back deck that is under cover so I considered putting it on there, it gets north facing sun during the winter under there, then I thought maybe a timed heat mat to sit at around 15 degrees c just for overnight to keep the roots warm, with regular watering by me during the day, which would get it through the winter. This is just an option though. personally I’d rather keep it outside with my other bonsais, but as with the rule of not watering on a routine, not all bonsais are the same haha my other ones range from a series of pines, maples, and junipers. Over the years of doing this, I’d never thought I’d be a ficus guy but here I am

I really do appreciate the advice and the board.

[shibui]

Min 3C overnight should be OK for a Ficus. Others have already mentioned theirs cope well with temps like that.
They seem to do better with less water while it's cold so I would keep it on the dry side while it is not growing.
The heat mat probably not necessary. 15C would probably keep it active which would mean more watering, fertilising and trimming.

The other species definitely no problem in your winter temps. They are adapted to winters much colder.

[Steveall]

Thanks shibui! I’m actually up at bright atm and it’s been warm and your bonsai must be growing still really nicely.

[shibui]

Welcome to Sunny North East Vic. Deciduous trees are just starting to change colour so you are a few weeks early for peak colour this year.
Enjoy the trip.