AusBonsai

Hi all,

I acquired 2 massive stumps was thinking to do a hard root prune to put them in pots individually. i got an idea but i don't know whether it will survive or not. Any tips on how to go about with this project?

Regards,
David

Hi david,
When you say stumps, do they have foliage? If not, may be better to wait until they do before doing root prune. If it was any other fig I'ld say go for it, but benji's have a tendency to be fickle about budding back on old wood if all foliage is removed so it may be too stressful to do root prune as well.

Post a pic. Would love to see it.

Benji can be problematical when trying to get them to back bud.
I would prefer to graft them first before cutting to be sure they survive.
if they are already cut, make sure seal all cuts and then keep the the water up to them and cross your fingers.

Ken

Here is the pic. There are 5 thick trunk like this. This one is quite small it is budding. It is in water with root hormone. Will pot it in soil and sphagnum moss. Will it survive?

Regards,
David

Ahh they are cuttings not stumps
I have no idea if Benji will root well for a large cutting.

Pot them up. Keep moist and see what you get in a few months, Make sure that they do not move in the pot.

Ken

thanks for advice Ken.

These are stumps. The roots are massive. Weighing well over 150kg. I just cut the stump as close to the root as possible. Just see if this one survive

David

if it has roots then you should be fine, it has shoots to grow from so
Pot them up and keep moist.

I took some layers that are up to about 100mm in size a few months ago and they are going great.

Ken

10 months later, she's moving on. Just did some initial craving and wiring on some branches. Hopefully, she' ll be a beauty.

Hello Tuma,

It's coming along well.
I reckon you should get stuck into the trunk carving a bit more aggressively.

Thanks for the progression updates,
Kevin

You should be careful carving figs - sometimes they will rot and once it starts it usually ends up with the tree dying. Other times there are no problems. I always seal the heartwood with Earls as I don't feel it is hard enough for carving.

Hi David

Firstly well done getting the fig to stay a live and shoot.

Secondly why did you carve/violate it like that for ?...Sorry that's not beauty my friend,not in my eyes anyway....Okay having said that,lets look at why we would carve a fig and only in extreme cases do we do that and mainly because of ...major fault and/or...ugly and/or...not stimulating and so on.

So in your case looks like no taper,so what can we do?...You have a branch very low which can be used as a sacrifice I would use it,you really need it on that trunk,so there is a good start and it will help with taper.

Next idea is carving with a 'purpose',which is all about illusion of taper,which I will show with a pic...by bringing the carving down by spiralling from skinny to/and wider to the bottom and which helps us pull the bottom open by hand and choc,we get a little bit of width and illusion with spiral as explained.

Hope this helps David and as Tony has said Earls preservative/hardener to stop rot then and some stain to also help seal and not so much starkness as compared to sulphur in this case.

This technique was only done in an extreme case by a good friend who has many years of experience.

This is a deciduous White Fig
Okay lets look at some options for styling that your looking for...Firstly I would tilt to the side and lean it back,your call on how much ...Secondly bring the next section slightly forward of bottom trunk...thirdly next section/or top bring over or forward of bottom sections...up to you how many times you cut back for taper...just keep slight movement left to right on upper sections to keep interest.

The pics hopefully will help.....Hopefully this all helps David and I was'nt too brutal...good luck my friend...cheers Anthony
Tilt to side front on
Lean bottom back and slowly bring higher sections forward and top over/or forward of bottom
Maybe a direction to go.

Thank you for all suggestions. My concerns are:
1. A straight trunk. Carving was initial done to put an illusion on the tree.
2. No taper. Trying to get movements in the trunk. How?
3. No nebari or very few young roots. Will raise and develop nebari this summer.

All suggestions will be taking up and hopefully a beautiful tree will develop.

David

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