AusBonsai

A While ago i mentioned that I took a few large PJ fig branch cuttings and 3 months later they are powering along. I will leave them for another year or so before I do anything major, but next spring I might start selecting leaders to start shaping them.

have four successful cuttings below:

This cutting actually has a nice flair under the soil, as I took the cutting at a branch intersection, but i will slowly expose this when it develops strong roots. I will cut away a lot of the flat trunk to help the tapper as well
A single trunk is below the soil, I think I might try and develop a twin trunk on this one.
A very straight trunk, this will be a challenge But i will lit it grow & see what is produced to work with
Hopefully get something interesting out of this fella when a few more branches develop
Any ideas would be appreciated

Cheers all

nice work mate

if you have strong roots underneath the soil i wouldnt hesitate on starting some minor work now. some wiring, cleaning up, selecting new leader and branches


some good scores there mate! the straight one could be cut back after a while and turned into a formal broom, similar to the celtis i am working on for a formal broom, i have reduced the height several times.


jamie

And when cutting back, remember to do it by ariel layering = more trees easier

i dont think it even needs air layering, i have seen cuttings upwards of 450mm take, and that isnt a typo, 450mm or 45cm or 1 foot 6 inchs.

the way figs are they strike so easy its no drama, i guess air layers guarantee it but i havent had a drama getting them to strike really. some root hormone gell and the right conditions and presto!


jamie

Ficus cuttings take extremely well, that is true and I have seen bigger cuttings than those you mentioned take mate, however I have found that a much better root spread is more often achieved from Layering the cutting. Many times only a few roots, or just the one , will shoot from a cutting unless the tree has been prepared properly beforehand. With only a sparse root shoot more time is lost developing a good root system later down the track when time would be better spent developing the top of the tree.
Having said that, I will more often than not stick my prunings into a pot as cuttings as well
The one big thing I like about Layers, is that styling of the future tree can be commenced while the branch is still attached to the parent and growing its new root system.

thats definately a plus on airlayer being able to style the tree while it is getting a new root system, i have found air layers to take much quicker when you dont play with the top and have as much foliage as possible on, after all its the foliage that is gonna feed the development of new roots right?

as for a better root spread, not so much with ficus but more so olive i found that it layered but not great, it struck roots on two sides, but was trying to heal over on the rest of the area, i ended up taking it off anyway cleaned up the area where it tried to heal, put more hormone gel on and planted it out, that has worked well


jamie

These are my first attempt at cuttings & i did notice that they only had a few main roots shooting out from each stump. I hope that they will develop more roots around the base of each tree to work with? I think I was just happy to get them to strike


Cheers

Ryan

thats cool mate, what you can do is use a scapel or similar at a 45 degree and to your flat cut base where there are no roots, add hormone gel and replant, this should just about guarantee new roots where you need them

jamie

Cool, thanks Jamie, I will wait till next summer to see how they are progressing, thanks for the advice.