AusBonsai

Hey folks, new to the forum.

I have recently been re-inspired and have decided to get actively involved in of the some trees I have had in bonsai pots for a while now. After looking through the forum and seeing the great job everyone is doing with figs I thought I would have a go at making something of mine, so today I got out the clippers, the branch cutter and the wire and went to work defoliating and wiring my PJ! (sorry, I know some of the wire is a little big, but I hope I did ok)

Here's a before pic


and front after defol and wire


and top


My aim is to refine the structure and tighten up the foliage, as beforehand I thought the tree was developing the kind of shape I was looking for, but with too great a space in between branches and foliage. I would also like to reduce the leaf size as well.

Comments, advice and critique are most welcome, looking to learn as much as I can

Kez

kez wrote:Hey folks, new to the forum.

I have recently been re-inspired and have decided to get actively involved in of the some trees I have had in bonsai pots for a while now. After looking through the forum and seeing the great job everyone is doing with figs I thought I would have a go at making something of mine, so today I got out the clippers, the branch cutter and the wire and went to work defoliating and wiring my PJ! (sorry, I know some of the wire is a little big, but I hope I did ok)

Here's a before pic


and front after defol and wire


and top


My aim is to refine the structure and tighten up the foliage, as beforehand I thought the tree was developing the kind of shape I was looking for, but with too great a space in between branches and foliage. I would also like to reduce the leaf size as well.

Comments, advice and critique are most welcome, looking to learn as much as I can

Kez

Hi Kez, this looks like a really nice example of a PJF. If it were my tree I would cut all those branches back nearer to the trunk to encourage foliage close to the trunk.

good luck

Adrian

Hi Kez,
Great to see you having a go. May I ask a couple of questions. How often do you water? Are you using any fertilizer?

Regards Ray

Thanks folks,

Ray,

I had been watering via soaking the pot ever 3-4 days as the weather warms up, but have now started to water less vigorously but more frequently, watering as much as it takes for the pot to start to drain. It has some fertiliser (slow release) in the mix as it was repotted recently, but my regime consists of watering with water out of my fish tanks and using the fish waste as food for the plants. I have 6 tanks so with weekly water changes there is more than enough.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated though

kez wrote:Thanks folks,

Ray,

I had been watering via soaking the pot ever 3-4 days as the weather warms up, but have now started to water less vigorously but more frequently, watering as much as it takes for the pot to start to drain. It has some fertiliser (slow release) in the mix as it was repotted recently, but my regime consists of watering with water out of my fish tanks and using the fish waste as food for the plants. I have 6 tanks so with weekly water changes there is more than enough.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated though

Hi Kez,
When you say you have changed your watering, do you mean each day? I doubt if you are getting enough fertilizer from the fish pond. I would give it a good dose of Seamungus. Figs are hungry little beasts.

Regards Ray

I am now watering when the soil is bordering on dry (pretty well daily at this point). With the fish tank water, I use the mulm/muck from my internal filters, this contains all the solids and things taken out of the water (ie. fish waste) but I will look at adding some more into my regime.

Thanks again for the help!

Do you think you might have kept your top branches a bit too long? just a thought

kez wrote:I am now watering when the soil is bordering on dry (pretty well daily at this point). With the fish tank water, I use the mulm/muck from my internal filters, this contains all the solids and things taken out of the water (ie. fish waste) but I will look at adding some more into my regime.

Thanks again for the help!

Hi mate,

your PJF will love you if you gave it a good covering of Dynamic Lifter every few weeks. you'll see some amazing growth that you wouldn't otherwise get using fish wastes etc. have a go and see what you think

Adrian

bonsaiLov wrote:Do you think you might have kept your top branches a bit too long? just a thought

Maybe, I'm not really sure to be honest, kind of a suck it and see. I sill want to keep a fullness/roundness to the canopy but they are still quite long so maybe they could be chopped, thoughts?

Will try some dynamic lifter, what sort of covering are we talking, a few cm's?

Thanks again folks

kez wrote:

bonsaiLov wrote:Do you think you might have kept your top branches a bit too long? just a thought

Maybe, I'm not really sure to be honest, kind of a suck it and see. I sill want to keep a fullness/roundness to the canopy but they are still quite long so maybe they could be chopped, thoughts?

Will try some dynamic lifter, what sort of covering are we talking, a few cm's?

Thanks again folks

Hi Kez,

mate, since you have it in a bonsai pot, on second thoughts, I wouldn't put a later of DL on the top because it might impede drainage in suh a restricted area. Have you thought about sticking it into a large grow box or the ground to really thicken up that base? then it would be safe to crank the DL.