ficus benji-progression

[anttal63]

just a little update although i dont have a pic, which i will get tomorrow when the pot arrives hopefully and it gets repotted, i have gotten that exact pot that the virt shows, and on another note to bust a myth about benjis not being able to be fully defoliated and needs a leaf left on the end of each branch, this has come back and is growing very strongly


jamie

I could of told you that! In fact i think Sreeve does so as well. For melb its a small window of oppertunity though. Mine all took until Jan to move this year.

[Jamie]

thats what i like about QLD with figs, i can defoliate anytime of the year, obviously there is better times to do it but generally i dont stress to much about it all

im looking forward to getting the pot, i think it is going to look much better

[sreeve]

Hi Jamie - can you expand on your comment below.........

just a little update although i dont have a pic, which i will get tomorrow when the pot arrives hopefully and it gets repotted, i have gotten that exact pot that the virt shows, and on another note to bust a myth about benjis not being able to be fully defoliated and needs a leaf left on the end of each branch, this has come back and is growing very strongly
jamie

I never have trouble if I defoliate an entire Benjamina.

However, if I leave all leaves on a tree and cut back a single branch to the extent that no leaves remain ....the branch is pretty much doomed. I find that by leaving at least one leaf on the bracnh it will back bud well.

Equally, if I leave all leaves on a tree except defoliate one branch entirely, I have often found that particular branch will die.

Maybe this is just my experience - interested on whether you defoliate the entire tree or one branch only.

Regards
Steve

[anttal63]

What you say makes alot of sense cus! Great info shared! thanks pal.

[Jamie]

steve,

i must have got my info mixed up a bit with that, what you have stated sounds like what i read previous, i thought it was a case of full defoliation and the branches will die back.

i did how ever lose one branch that i tested that i nipped the growing tips off, so this might have something to contribute to it.


as for the pot it did arrive today, unfortunately it is no where near the size i need, it would look dicky in it as it is way, way to small, it looks like this pot will be used for something else or a small forest planting

jamie

[Jamie]

hi guys,

well this tree has been through a huge transformation over the weekend, i was looking at it all week and not happy with it, stupidly forgot the before shot, but have made a mudmap for it. red line is where the trunk was removed then a nibbled back into the old scar to get it healing properly and smooth, and also sort the taper out, the green lines are where 3 branches regroow to a good size, one at the rear, two at the front, I managed to wire out the tree without defoliation which is a good thing as it will help it with the recovery as i root pruned very, very hard, it needed it, it was a little over due as i didnt want to touch it while trying to figure out what i was to do with it, I did get some interesting cuttings that may make some good little shohin/mini when they strike, i got pics of them
the roots have been worked pretty hard, not only the root prune as previously mentioned but i have cut the nebari back in closer to the trunk to develop some new "fingers" on the surface roots/nebari

mudmap.jpg

ok so here is the mudmap of the branches that i used, these branches started growing when i last defoliated it a few months back and did the restyle.

benji after.jpg

and this is the new tree! much smaller, more compact, I feel like it is getting somewhere now, and the bonus is it is only 24cm tall, the trunk is around 3.5-4cm
all three branches that were in the area were used in the new design.

and here are the cuttings with character, I reckon they are off to a good start, these cuttings are this shape from the previous wiring, some have some wire scars but I am not to phased as they will eventually be fine.

cuttings with character.jpg

cuttings with character 2.jpg

cuttings with character 3.jpg

cuttings with character 4.jpg

what ya reckon?

Jamie

[Jerry Meislik]

Nice work.
Jerry

[Jamie]

Nice work.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry, it seems that everyone else must not have liked what i have done

[Matthew]

Jamie defiantly a big improvement on it. It now has good trunk ratio and is a lot more compact once the new leader thickens abit and with regular defoliation and pruning it will come up a treat, not sure how the wounds heals on benji whether they tend to rot or cover well? again much better.

[Jamie]

thanks mate

it took me a while to decide on doing this, around 3 years should of done it sooner for sure, this ones scar was a third of the way healed already before i went down to the height it is, it now has branching/trunk at 3 points around the wound, not ideal but one will be removed once the healing is sorted, i cut into the wound to hollow it out so it heals smooth. so yea they heal ok. i havent had issue with rot on the trunk but had a little on one of the roots i cut back that died back.

I feel the tree is getting soewhere now and the ratio is much better, the trunk above nebari/root spread is close to 50mm so with a height of around 240mm the ratio is good at 5:1. when the root spread becomes a nebari i will be hoping it pulls out the trunk some what, if not i am workin on a technique yo develop the deeply fluted nebari we see on big old park trees, once i have some success with the technique i am developing i will post up, i have two fig that i am trying it on now , this one and a QLD small leaf

Jamie

[Jamie]

hi guys,

got to do a little work today on this one it needed a rewire so the leaves come off too. the pot is absolutly horrid but it was the only one I had the right size and similar shape to what I wanted, it is an old pot I had form years ago. will eventually get a nice pot for this one.

ficus before.jpg

ficus defoliated.jpg

ficus defoliatedA.jpg

Im starting to think this one may be F. hilli but I cant be 100% sure, it just doesnt react like some of the other benji I have, this one seems to have no problems at all.

jamie

[Regan]

Nah it's deffinately a common old benji mate, what's it doing differently to the others?

[Graeme]

Jamie, sorry, but I reckon you used to have a good tree last year. Just needed a bit of on-growing.
Good luck with this new one. It will be a good tree, just going to take a while is all.

All comments just my opinion and not designed to p*## you off mate.

[Taffy]

No, not Hillii - not with those pointed leaves. I'd lean towards it being a Benjamina as well.

[craigw60]

Hi Jamie you fig is looking fantastic what an improvement, the only comment I would make is don't be in too much of a hurry to bring the branches out better to cut and re-grow and cut and re-grow and repeat,repeat and repeat.
Craigw