[Ryan1979b] - Port Jackson Fig - Entry1

[Ryan1979b]

HI, This is my first entry. The trees statistics are as follows:

Species: Ficus rubiginosa - Port Jackson Fig
Collection: I took this as a Branch cutting two years ago and it has been in a the same pot for two years. No previous styling has been done. (which is obvious )
Cost: $0
Original Height : Currently as in Photo's it is 380mm

PJ Shohin1.jpg

PJ Shohin2.jpg

I think this might be a challenge but lets give it a go.

Cheers all, have fun and good luck

[Ryan1979b]

Hi All,

As some of you may know I am flying out to Europe for 6 weeks in 3 days. I Greatfuly recieved a consession to style my tree in advance due to the fact that I will not be around for the main period of spring. Not withou consiquences tho as I have to submit my entry in advance to compensate for the earlymark. I appreciate the consession

Anyway here is a photo of the before and after today. As the rules stated I did trunk chop the fig first tho.

PJ Shohin2 Paper.jpg

PJ Shohin Sept2011.jpg

Cheers all, no I hope they are well looked after whilst I'm away

[Jamie]

hi mate,

this will be interesting, the only thing I am concerned about is going away for six weeks coming up on this time of year with a fig, you will get wire digging in somewhat, although that shouldnt matter as it will heal well and reasonably quick.

I hope you have shown the person who is looking after your trees how to do the watering and feeding you do. im sure you will have better luck than I did when I left the mother in law to do it..

good luck and I look forward to your progress

[Ryan1979b]

Here is a quick update of my Fig. It survived my Holiday and is going a little slow but starting to show new growth. I will post some better photos soon

photo.JPG

[nick-laing]

Can see a bit of wire bite on some of the those branches mate.

[Ryan1979b]

Hi All,

Here is my current styling of my Fig entry. A bit of a repot and style has been done but I think this is going to be a dificult one within the time frame. The leaf reduction will the hardest to do, although I don't want to push the tree to much

7-01-12 Fig.jpg

7-01-12 Fig Vert.jpg

Cheers Ryan

[Ryan1979b]

A quick update on my fig, I added a bit of wire today & I think it has a bit more direction now. Still leaf reduction before the submission date will be an issue

PJ Shohin 23-02-12.jpg

I think it is currently about 240mm high so I don't have to much room to move with the crown.

Cheers

Ryan

[Ryan1979b]

Just a quick update on my tree before the winter starts. Lets hope I can defoliate it in time this spring

PJ Shohin 17-5-12s.jpg

Cheers

Ryan

[Ryan1979b]

PJ fig update, some slow growth over the three months but nothing special

PJ Shohin 15-8-12.jpg

Cheers

Ryan

[Andrew F]

Thats a decent sized cutting mate, what month did you take it in?

[Ryan1979b]

I have had the cutting for a bout 2 years and never done anything with it as I was lost what to do. Once the shohin comp came up I decided to use that for inspiration I have a few larger ones from the same tree up to about 150mm dia. I too my larger cuttings near brach junction where they flare out a bit to try and get a bit more natural tapper. Wasn't the case with this cutting tho. Took all the cutting in late november, put them in a green house and left them for a few months

The tree from where I got my stock and the little nurseries I made. Ignore the root over rock images that was a total fail

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2231

A few months later out of the green houses

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3527

Cheers

Ryan

[Andrew F]

I have had the cutting for a bout 2 years and never done anything with it as I was lost what to do. Once the shohin comp came up I decided to use that for inspiration I have a few larger ones from the same tree up to about 150mm dia. I too my larger cuttings near brach junction where they flare out a bit to try and get a bit more natural tapper. Wasn't the case with this cutting tho. Took all the cutting in late november, put them in a green house and left them for a few months

The tree from where I got my stock and the little nurseries I made. Ignore the root over rock images that was a total fail

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2231

A few months later out of the green houses

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3527

Cheers

Ryan

Wow thats cool, iv had 2 hard wood cuttings strike for me ,viewtopic.php?f=3&t=953&p=109332&hilit= ... od#p109332

These were by pure accident.

And i took a few before winter viewtopic.php?f=134&t=11524 , just because the opportunity was there in the form of a very patient and understanding council worker lopping low lying branches from a largish macrophylla

Whats your propagation mix made up of and in what ratio?
What % shade cloth do you have over your green house?
Do you use gel, powder, honey or nothing to strike?



This year i have quite a few tree's picked out around newcastle to take cuttings from, im even going to attempt to take something thats about 300mm wide and about 250 tall. Let me know if you want any thing and ill be happy to hack it for you.
Or even organize a group raid with other members from the area?

[Ryan1979b]

Hey,

I wasn't to sientific about it either, I also knew the tree was going to be removed so I had to move in fast

Propagation mix was straight out 100% propogation sand, nothing else. for the nursery i just used styrofoam boxed made some corner supports and wrapped it a few layers of cling wrap. I kept them in a partially shaded place as it was middle of summer, especially trying to avoid direct arfternoon sun and made sure they didn't dry out but still were not to wet. I did use some root hormone powder, not sure how much it helped though.

I found that once I took them out they ony produced one or two main roots but over time they had shot a lot more out. I think I had about a 80% success rate on the large cuttings which surprised me

Here are some images of my two main cuttings today, I havn't done to much styling yet, just a bit of truck cutting and minor branch selcting/trimming. This year I will get right into the styling of them. Especially the first tree with pleanty of foliage to work with. They also need a mojor root prune, I almost needed a crowbar to pry them of the bench

Tree 1

DSC_8161s.jpg

DSC_8164s.jpg

Tree 2

DSC_8165s.jpg

DSC_8166s.jpg

I reckon just go for it if you have the change

Cheers

Ryan

[Andrew F]

Hey Ryan,

They look great, i especially like the first one its going to make a bonza banyan tree. So do you think the aerial's helped them strike better or quicker?

[Ryan1979b]

Ohhh...Noooo.

I was away over the weekend and my tree was in a small green house which which I normally control depending how hot the days is. Anyway long story short a lot of the leaves were cooked. I defoliated all the burnt leavse and any other leaves that fello off easy. It ended up being about 90% of them. Tree still looks in relatively good health with new tip shooting and a few leaves left on the extremeties of the branches.

Hopefully this will act as a partial defoliation which I was going to do in about two weeks anyway. Fingers crossed it bounces back ok, I have been feeding it fairly well the last 4 weeks to promote strong growth