ficus ground layer removal and style.

[Jamie]

hey guys, this here is a small ficus retusa that was bought a few years ago when i didnt have much of an eye for buying nursery stock and the missus thought it was cute, it sat in its pot with its 2 "legs" poking up looking odd, i knew i had to do something, so 3 weeks ago i ring barked the tree at the point where the two leg trunks joined and checked it 2 weeks ago to find this

ground layer.jpg

not bad for a week of growth eh?

so i left for another 2 weeks making sure to keep the water up to it and i know the roots were using the water quite well as it was drying out after watering in the morning well and would be reasonabley dry/moist by the arvo. so i have removed the tree from the parents trunk and this is what i have

fig root mass.jpg

from there this is what i ended up with after putting it in a small training pot to keep the root mass tight

fig after removal.jpg

and after removal of excess growth so the new root system wont be under massive stress.

fig wire.jpg

so all in all, not a bad little effort from this one as it has only really taken 3 weeks from ring bark, to solid rooting to training pot, i dont think it will take long for this one to fill the training pot and need repotting but a little bit of root binding wont be a major prob it will help thicken nebari and bring the shape of the tree in, also it wont take to long to fill with a flush of new growth either, this one seems to just boom like nothing has happened

let me know your thoughts


jamie

[Heshian]

Hi Jaimie,

Thats a great result in such a short time and it looks like that the end result is going to be a nice shohin. Looking forward to seeing this in future. I have myself recently tried a different approach to my figs. I have chopped off the root ball at the widest point of the trunk and treated as a cutting over a week ago and judging by the buds that are popping out of the trunk that there may be roots developed already.
Again great work and thank you for sharing.

Mario

[Jamie]

not a problem mario and yes it will make a lovely little tree, i think it will end up quite a small tree, as it stands now it is 150mm tall, trunk is approx 40mm wide, so taper is not gonna be an issue with this hopefully.

now mario, your tree, i would be very cautious using this technique, i think it will work for sure but the buds that are popping out may be from trunk energy right now, not necessarily the roots supplying the tree yet, especially if it is only young, although i know that figs have an extreme growth rate given the right conditions and treatment.

i think the reasoning behind the success of this and the speed of the layer is due to the feed up i gave it before layering, i fed very heavily for about 6-8 weeks before i put the layer on, this has given the tree enough energy to push such strong growth i think.

did you feed yours right up before you proceeded with this cutting? if not i think you should still be ok with it it just might take a bit longer to develop a root system that will push strong growth of it other than just buds, this is just my thoughts.
i would love to see your process if you photographed it?? and results obviously when you get them, feel free to post in this thread as it is a related technique

jamie