Fig - Is this a growth Spurt?

[Jerry Meislik]

Always hard to ID figs but could this be obliqua?
Very nice tree by the way.
Jerry

[Grant Bowie]

Or it could be a port jackson fig that has lived most of its life in the shade.

Grant

[dayne]

leaves seem to small for a morton bay usually under the leaves of pj is a golden fury colour my guess is qsl obliqua

[bonscythe]

I've been feeding my (questionable? MB ) fig with organic fertiliser and Seasol, I defoliated and cut it back not long ago in hopes of producing a better branching system since I haven't had it all that long. Now on the trunk shows green areas sort of like umm stretch marks what's with that? Actually this appeared after I gave it a good soaking to drown the bugs in the soil. Also some of the surface roots which were once brown/grey are a vibrant lime green, is this caused by a growth spurt or does it sound like something sinister which I'm hoping not because it appears to me like it's coming to life, there's budding all over and lots of lovely little leaves which looks promising.
Any help, tips advice greatly appreciated.

Hi Anja,
It could be that your spot on about the 'stretch marks', you say you gave it a good long soaking..I know that when plant cells gain water after being on the dry side for a while, they become turgid (hydrated) and will generally occupy more physical space than they did as a flaccid (dehydrated) cell. So I'm pretty sure your on the right track with the stretching. I've seen similar on my PJ figs. If you want a good visualisation of what I'm saying search for "turgid flaccid' in google images and check out the plant cell illustrations.
Also agree with Grant here about the ID, looks alot like some of the bonsai Ficus rubiginosa I have seen around.
Loving all the figs we're seeing on here at the moment..

[Amanda]

thanks for all the wonderful advice

turgid flaccid sounds interesting, off to google!

[bonscythe]

http://leavingbio.net/OSMOSIS%20AND%20D ... age021.gif
That one's not too shabby..
=)

[Amanda]

http://leavingbio.net/OSMOSIS%20AND%20D ... age021.gif
That one's not too shabby..
=)

Ah thank you. I am not looking in the right places! Some ahh.. interesting stuff coming up

[sreeve]

Hi Anja
It could indeed be a QSL as suggested by some, but after having a squiz at the leaf, I reckon Grant is on the money.

As far as being a rusty colour under the leaf in order to identify it as a PJ, well........some / a lot of them dont develop this trait. I have about 60+ which are 100% PJ and none of them have red under the leaf.

As for identification of being a PJ, a learned and well respected bonsai expert (also a member of this site) gave me a couple of PJ cuttings from a tree he collected down near Sydney harbour ( well lets say) "a few years ago" when he was a youngster walking down to the foreshore. These leaves dont have any red markings on the underside and when in an immature / middle age stage are quite curled - very similr to a Hillia fig (never can spell that....)

So in other words, non existence of red markings onthe underside doesnt rule it out from being a PJ.

Will have a closer look later at Leong's book which lists down quite a few Aussie fig leaves.

Really look forward to your development of this tree - it has the makings of a champion tree.

Regards
Steve

ps - By "internodes" I meant the distance between leaves / branches. Your internodes look closer than the foreign fig I was referring to.

Also the leaf size is smaller even when compared to the reduced leaf of mine.