AusBonsai

Hey all,



Took a trip to a nursery up north of me with a friend today and ended up bringing home a couple more Ficus

This is one of the two I brought home. I bought it for its interesting base. It's full of thick aerial roots that make it appear pretty bulky. After bringing it home and studying it for a bit, I'm not so sure my original plan works. What I planned on doing was tilting the tree to the left and making the first branch on the right the leader, however after making a quick virt, I don't think it fits all that well. Comments on what you all think?

I think your virt will work if you remove the highest aerial root on the right hand side of the virt.

Isitangus wrote:I think your virt will work if you remove the highest aerial root on the right hand side of the virt.

Ah, I didn't think about that, thanks...better?

You must a sucker for punishment

I agree the virt is good plan

Ken

kcpoole wrote:You must a sucker for punishment

I agree the virt is good plan

Ken

Thanks Ken, I really am

So you don't think the virt is off balance in any way? For some reason, if the leader isn't in the middle of the trunk, it just looks odd to me...

Much better, I don't think it looks off but others may give different suggestions/virts.

Do you like figs or something???

I would straighten it up a bit and then when the leader gets gets some buds cut back to move the other way. I do think the base looks a bit lopsided

Me like Figs?? Blasphemy


What exactly do you mean when you say straighten it up a bit Tony? After playing with it a bit I do believe I was maybe tilting it a little too much, but this time I ended up with this:

May not be how you like to style figs Ryan?...but in your virt (2nd one with trunk on the angle and the right side root gone),if you also leave the thicker branch on the left (highest one), you could go for a semi cascade.
Cheers, Dario.

Dario wrote:May not be how you like to style figs Ryan?...but in your virt (2nd one with trunk on the angle and the right side root gone),if you also leave the thicker branch on the left (highest one), you could go for a semi cascade.
Cheers, Dario.

You know, I've never been too big of a fan of semi cascade, and I don't have any currently, so maybe a semi-cascade would be a nice change for once. I'll look and see what I can virt up, thanks!

Hey Dario not a bad idea, maybe tilt to left and use the branches on this side and recreate an apex at cut?

Yes Ryan that's what I meant. That way the base looks "right" to me. Good luck with whatever you decide

Thank you for that Matlea, that makes sense

Bougy Fan wrote:Yes Ryan that's what I meant. That way the base looks "right" to me. Good luck with whatever you decide

Thanks Tony, I think I'm leaning toward that direction. That would create a powerful tree with some ridiculously good taper

The Ficus Guy wrote: You know, I've never been too big of a fan of semi cascade, and I don't have any currently, so maybe a semi-cascade would be a nice change for once. I'll look and see what I can virt up, thanks!

Hi Ryan, did a rough virt based on your leader selection in the virt you provided.
A little out of proportion and I still don't know how to convincingly draw front or back branches so I didn't try...but I like the idea of a low back branch well under the apex and close to the trunk chop for main leader selection, with foliage spreading on both sides of the trunk (if you get my drift??).

matlea wrote:Hey Dario not a bad idea, maybe tilt to left and use the branches on this side and recreate an apex at cut?

Hi matlea, you could do that for sure...I was just expanding on the virt Ryan put up with the leader already selected.

Ryan good luck with it however you choose to train it.
Cheers, Dario.