AusBonsai

We moved in December from Johannesburg to Cape Town, a summer rainfall area to a winter rainfall area, as stated in my previous post.

I would like to present 3 wild figs for discussion and advice on pruning:

My attempt a a strangler fig:



Initially planted 2 figs, but one died.







My attempt of a root over the rock:







Currently. Any thoughts?





This is a air root. I planted it a few years, it rooted and made quite long branches. At some stage I covered with plastic wrap and peat/soil and it looked as if some roots are fusing.





As the "stem" is so long, I was advised to air layer the stem half the length and then eventually split it. I taped the branches, as they were hanging everywhere. I haven't looked at the development of the roots, but this must have been done in the spring of 2013. What are the thoughts re pruning? I taped the "stems" to bring them closer to each other, but I suppose they will separate a bit again.



Any advice will be appreciated, especially with regards to the length of the branches, the time of hard pruning, etc

Hard pruning - December to feb.

Get in touch. We can chat.

Cheers,

Andrew

Albie,
I see a lots of taping up of branches. What is the idea?
Contact Andrew...he will help you a lot.

Hi Neli

Thanks for all your help. I will gradually post some of the other posts on the SA Facebook.

With regards to the wild figs and the taping- most of the branches were lying horizontally and I could not picture it in my head how the trees/branches will eventually look like. Perhaps out of ignorance, I thought to tape the branches vertically until they are strong enough and then prune them quite hard so that side branches can develop not to far from the split in the trunk and hopefully get the whole spectrum from vertical, oblique to horizontal. What do you think?

Then seasonal timing: Andrew suggests hard pruning in mid summer. Do you also agree? And when do you think I should remove the Glad Wrap from the ficus over the rock and the attempt to air layer from the stem of the air root and cut the stem?

Keep well

Albie

I love the way you are struggling alone! But very determined and enterprising.
I shall start with the strangler fig.
What are your objectives? Is it a tanuki or you want to develop roots that will strangle the dead wood? Clarify please because the advise will be different.
It is better to post trees one by one in separate topics.
I presume this is how it looks last???

This is the root over rock

Observations:
Your stone is above soil level. Soil needs to be at least around the base. This will go in a bonsai pot later and the stone will need to be buried at least at the base little bit, and from there the roots will spread laterally and preferably not downwards.
At this point if it was mine I would tilt it all 30-45 degree to the right on the last "
Cut the right branch 1-2cm...The idea is for it to bud at the base and later carve the extra part.
Cut the left one where I indicated and try to develop new leader. Give direction to the branches as the drawing...
That is if you like my idea. It is just a schematic drawing but I am aiming for something like this. If you should decide not to tilt it, you can go for something like this: I would still chop it like that but the leader even a bit shorter. Are you happy with the thickness of the trunk. If you should decide to fatten it some more...let it grow without chopping for now.
In spring/summer check the roots to see how they are and deide if you should bandage it again or not.

The last one if I recall well was a root, and I did a virtual some time ago for you...This are few options you might consider. You need tosort out the trunklune...branches if you dont get you can graft. It is vry easy on figs.

Strangler fig

I had the following in mind: upright with air roots. Something like this:



The most recent photo:



As I have stated before, I have planted 2 figs in the pot- one on eac side.

• I am not sure if I should plant more figs (perhaps 4 in total), or give the two another year in the pot?
  
  Does anyone have an idea how to speed up the development of air roots? Glad Wrap (the thin clingy plastic)?
  
  Have we now got consensus about when I should prune-mid summer or early spring?
  
  With the example in mind, at what height and should I try to prune above leaves?

Albie,
Figs are tropical...You can work on them only when it is warm...any time before late autumn.
There is a topic here in the past week how to develop air roots.
I like the tree you posted. At least remove the left most root on top not to have a bump there.

Root over rock

Observations:
Your stone is above soil level. Soil needs to be at least around the base. This will go in a bonsai pot later and the stone will need to be buried at least at the base little bit, and from there the roots will spread laterally and preferably not downwards.
At this point if it was mine I would tilt it all 30-45 degree to the right on the last "

You are like a walking encyclopaedia!
I will bury it- when will be the best time? Now that things are slowing down or in early spring?
I like your examples of the tilted trees and will tilt this one as well when bury it a bit. Do you mean that the right side should be the lower side?

Cut the right branch 1-2cm...The idea is for it to bud at the base and later carve the extra part.
Cut the left one where I indicated and try to develop new leader. Give direction to the branches as the drawing...
That is if you like my idea. It is just a schematic drawing but I am aiming for something like this.

I do not see where you indicated, nor do I see your schematic drawing??

avz10 wrote:Root over rock

Observations:
Your stone is above soil level. Soil needs to be at least around the base. This will go in a bonsai pot later and the stone will need to be buried at least at the base little bit, and from there the roots will spread laterally and preferably not downwards.
At this point if it was mine I would tilt it all 30-45 degree to the right on the last "

You are like a walking encyclopaedia!
I will bury it- when will be the best time? Now that things are slowing down or in early spring?
If you plan to dig it out, any warm month...spring or summer.
I like your examples of the tilted trees and will tilt this one as well when bury it a bit. Do you mean that the right side should be the lower side?
Look at the roots and when you are repotting it tilt it left and right to see which way it looks better. It can go either way.

Cut the right branch 1-2cm...The idea is for it to bud at the base and later carve the extra part.
Cut the left one where I indicated and try to develop new leader. Give direction to the branches as the drawing...
That is if you like my idea. It is just a schematic drawing but I am aiming for something like this.

I do not see where you indicated, nor do I see your schematic drawing??

Let me look for it...maybe I forgot to post it.

"Air root" wild fig



As I wrote earlier in the post, "As the "stem" is so long, I was advised to air layer the stem half the length and then eventually split it and make 2 trees.I haven't looked at the development of the roots under the plastic, but there are definately some roots developing. I think I air-layered the stem in the spring of 2013.
I taped the branches, as they were hanging everywhere.

The last one if I recall well was a root, and I did a virtual some time ago for you...

If I look at the vertical, it looks as if you envisage that one should remove most of the top "roots" and leave one, from where the branches will develop. My question here is if I should cut the roots that I want to remove, oblique upwards?

Thanks for all the contributions

Albie

Albie is this the same one as this one?

The idea is to make trunk that has taper...I gave you few ideas above about it...Maybe mid spring try to open the tape and see how it looks under.
I dont know why you keep taping the branches up?
If they are in suitable position use them as branches...and most of the time branches on figs are horizontal, or at least the first ones.
You wire, grow a branch 6-8 internodes and cut it back to 1-2 internodes if they are short, and repeat that, with primary and secondary branches.
The idea of shortening the trunk is not bad.