ficus clump to a banyan

[kvan64]

It's coming up real nice jamie. I will have to do one myself sometime. Do the trunks start to fuse? I guess you may need to do some root work before stransfering them to a tray.
Cheers,
DK

[Jamie]

hi DK

yea the trunks had actually fused before i did the air layer, the fusing process was one of the quickest i have ever seen, i will get a close up of the trunk tomorrow. some root work will need to be done, for now it can stay in that nursery can to help thicken the roots and develop a fine feeder root system

as you can see how this one started, it is quite common to find figs like this throughout landscape nurseries

Jamie

[hugh grant]

Looks great Jamie, it's Gunna turn out to be an awsome tree
your lucky were you live that your trees grow so fast, esspecially the figs! I've been trying to get my figs up to the stage your ones are at for a bout 3 years now and there still not there yet and you've managed to it in less then a year! But I reckon by summer one of my figs wil be starting to take shape. It's just in the winter you don't get a lot of growth, except from the privits they never seem to stop here

Hugh

[Jerry Meislik]

Jamie,
Incredible work and in only a very short period. My fusion experiments with Ficus are so slow due to much less growth, as my trees all grow indoors.
Keep us posted on your work.
Jerry

[Jamie]

cheers hugh

thats exactly right, if you can provide a little warmth and humidty via a hot house, even a mini one would help your figs will continue to push growth, Noah gets down to minus 7 degrees and in his hot house he is still get growth, it is heated though. one of the mini greenhouses you can buy for no more than 50-100 bucks do help a lot though!

thanks Jerry

i must be doing something right for a comment like that being in the tropics does help a lot. i dont have any special protection or the likes, my trees stay outside all year, we do get the occasional cooler night for a while over the "winter" period, i havev been lucky with this one in regards to the health and speed it has come up, i let it fuse first, while this was happeneing it was still throwing out strong shoots with very tight internodes, some around 5-8mm apart, which gave me plenty to work with after the air layer.

will definately keep you all posted, i beleive it will be a few more weeks and it will have filled out much more.

jamie

[Jamie]

another little update

this tree is coming along nicely i am quite happy with it, it is leafing out and starting to look good and will only get better I finally got a pot for it and it has matched up perfectly i reckon, it will also help with the development of the nebari which it is still growing and thickening out, so it is a bit lower in the pot then it should be.

fmb banyan in pot.jpg

what ya reckon? like the pot choice ??

Jamie

[kvan64]

Very nice jamie. What are the ingredients of your potting mix?

[Jamie]

gday mate,

the mix this one is in is- diatomite 70%, spongalite (richgro aquatic) 15% and organic 15%.

i wanted this one to stay that little bit dryer than moist to mae the tree "search" for water and create a nice fiberous root system with a good nebari, the thing with this tree is that each of the "trunks" that form the main trunk is fed by its own root system, in time it will eventually fuse all the way and have quite a powerful, interesting trunk aswell to go with a great root spread

Jamie

[hugh grant]

its looking excelent jamie! its coming up to be a really good tree. i esspecially like the way the branches are formed like the ones on the right used as the apex from the tree being tilted to the left, it makes it look very natural like a a real ficus growing in nature.

Hugh

[Jake]

that turned out great jamie, cant wait to see what u do with it over a few season mate

[Jamie]

thanks guys muchly appreciated

I reckon this one will be pretty good in shape/foliage/branching by mid summer, then it will be the nebari which wont be to hard being a fig

Jamie

[Jamie]

Isnt it funny how you think the tree is looking good then you take a pic of it, load it up to your computer then crop the pic back to the back ground, and then find a branch isnt in the right place or angle until you see the pic on the computer

I have gone through this one trimming out dead twigs that didnt handle the wiring session or died back, benji can do that a bit but in most of the tree it has shot out profusely and has some buds swelling in deep which is good. it is really starting to push out growth and the best part is the leaves are very small and very even, I reckon thats because when I defoliated the tree it was in a semi dormant state where it wasnt planing on putting energy into the tree, similar to mr Bowie's pj defoliating at the "wrong" time.

the other thing that is bugging me a little about this tree is the squarish shape of the canopy. I will be letting the lower branches especially on the left hand side grow out a little more, and trimin back in a little higher up to give it a more domed sort of shape

ficus c2b.jpg

jamie

[bonsai4life]

Nice work Jamie...coming along real well

[Jamie]

thanks champ I reckon come mid summer this one is going to be really coming along will keep ya all posted!

[bodhidharma]

That is coming along in leaps and bounds Jamie. The progress since i last saw it is amazing.