AusBonsai

The air layers might be a waste of time in my opinion. i would just cut them off and stick them into a small pot with soil and leave it in a semi shaded place, they will root and grow within a few months (especially now). Though its probably good practice if you are planning to airlayer other trees.

Cutting back hard will give you some new shoots and options for that little one with the reverse taper.

yeh the air layer was practice more than anything... gotta keep learnen'

update on larger fig
apologies for quality of pics
i chopped the top off
put it in an old worm farm tray with lots of dynamic lifter -trying to thicken up the base

wondering about the top -do i need to chop it lower down ?

If you want some fattening leave it be. If you prune you will just slow that down.

Maybe mid summer prune some branches so you encourage a trunk line with taper. You don't want to end up with a large taperless trunk.

thanks for advice dansai


update on the smaller fig
first photo is from january this year - i shortened and trimmed it and potted in a bonsai pot unfortunately it got a bad case of root rot and i removed most of large roots. i potted it up and it seems to have survived Ok. the last photos were taken last week