New project White Fig Ficus virens subsp. sublanceolata

[Ash]

I collected this White Fig Ficus virens subsp. sublanceolata fifteen years ago on my first 'yamadori' hunt. I returned with three trees of the same species which were divided among my close bonsai friends. This one was the smallest and I gave it to my bonsai teacher. It was then planted in a black plastic pot in which it remained for eight years until 2004. In 2004 I noticed something big and leafy in the side yard on one of my regular visits. It was this tree having growing through the drainage holes and into the ground! With a lot of heaving and cutting we lifted it from the ground and planted it into a new plastic pot. By 2010 it had done the same thing again and was lifted in October and planted in this pot and finally placed up on a bench where it could not get away again. On my visit last weekend my teacher asked me if I would like it back because it had become too heavy for her to lift. It now has a bigger base than the one I kept so I was very very keen. Plus I remember fondly walking that day with my dad in search of bonsai! This is the first post of what I am going to do with this fig. I will try to keep an update every 3 months or so.

White fig as given.jpg

The base is 20 cm across the widest point. The height is many times that but I am not worried. Once the new shoots low down have hardened off and gained some girth I will reduce the height further and get rid of those big straight 'bones'.

White fig my preferred planting angle.jpg

The base is thick but it does not flare out because it has been in a standard pot and has thickened as a result of roots that grew through the bottom of the drainage holes and not from growing sideways. Also it has a few crossed roots that have fused and some aerial roots coming from high up which will thicken rapidly and cause problems down the track. Still with original tag!

White fig base before work.jpg

It has only been planted in October so I did not want to repot it again. I am a firm believer in letting recently 'cut down' or 'dug up' material grow like mad for a while before disturbing them again. So I started to work on the roots as it was in a plastic pot without repotting it. I removed some of the crossed roots and I rearranged others. I pinned them back against the base using a nail and lay them on the surface of the pot to promote a more flaring root base. I cut a 'v' in the rim of the pot where I wanted it to spread more widely than the pot allowed and planted the root over the lip and into a forestry tube that I screwed to the side of the pot. I moistened some moss in water and rooting hormone and protected the roots. One of the crossed roots was too large to deal with now and firmly fused to another so I will deal with it later.

White fig after first root work.jpg

It will be a good while before this tree meets what I have in mind for it. Ficus virens subsp. sublanecolata is a local dry tropical fig. Although it grows aerial roots in a pot it does not have the curtains of F. virens subsp. virens when growing in the wild on local creeks. It usually has a wide spreading root base and a wide and low multi-branched broad crown which is what I will try to do with this one. It drops its leaves in 'the dry' when its crown of leaves goes yellow. It then has no leaves for a while then long large buds emerge white with a pink blush. They open into deep red new leaves and harden to a bright green with more prominent veins then F. virens subsp. virens. The figs are white when immature and get a purple blush in the last stage (after the wasps leave) when they are ready for the birds to take. The two subspecies grow side by side in our region and I would love to know how they don't interbreed!

So hopefully you will see me back here in February for an update!

Ash

[craigw60]

Hi Ash, you have got the making of a lovely tree there, I would put it into a wider more shallow pot so you can prepare the roots for life as a bonsai.
Craigw

[NathanM]

Far out Ash, that one looks like a bit of a monster!! Nice!! I’m ken as to see where this one goes!
I’ve got one virens, nice little base, small tree. Might take a pic of it

[Steven]

Nice tree Ash with another interesting history to it.
Great photography, great information, great post!

I look forwards to watching it progress

Regards,
Steven

[Ash]

Hi Craig, Nathan and Steven, Thankyou for your comments.
Craig a wide and shallowish oval pot is my long term plan for this fig and I agree they are best for maintaining root spread as would be frequent repotting and combing out the lateral roots. It is a good while away though before I will be pot shopping. In next April when this fig has been potted for six months I will move it into a broad and shallower plastic grow box. By that time the young lateral roots should be of sufficient size to train into place and have enough water absorbing capacity to replace any larger roots that need to be cut down so that I may start bringing it down to bonsai.

Below is 'Venus' which was the larger tree collected at the time. I grew it in a grow box for only six months before styling it and planting it into its present pot. The trunk has changed little but at the same time the others have grown. It is now the smaller of the trio. The trunk above the first branch was originally horizontal when collected and it was levered up with an aluminum bar and tensioned wires as a workshop in '96. I repotted it today and decided to start tackling its strange and contorted roots. I removed two bridged aerial roots (as evident in the sealed scars) and also two roots 3 cm thick from underneath so that I could get is back down into the potted position it had ten years ago.

Venus the White Fig.jpg

cheers
Ash

[craigw60]

Hi Ash, venus has a beautiful trunk line but the branching is incongruous to the trunk. The branches are too strong and too straight, in bonsai continuity of movement is very important so if the trunk is curved so the branches should be curved also, this movement should carry on right out to the twigs. To be perfectly honest with you if Venus was mine I would cut off all the branches and grow a new set wiring them for movement as they grow. I would imagine in your climate you could grow a new set of branches pretty quickly.
Craigw

[Ash]

Hi Craig- I do agree. I have procrastinated about changing Venus for many years now but change has to come. I like the trunk very much and even the irregular root base but I do not like the straight horizontal branches at all. They also have wire scars, and lack inner buds because they were grown in 'one hit'. Furthermore it has a single apex- this type of fig would never do that in the wild. When I repotted it the other day I grafted several new shoots closer to the main trunk on the two primary branches where I would like them.

Some 'vintage' pics to show how this all came about-

Old bonsai photo.jpg

Venus with leaves.jpg

In the picture attached below crudely done in photoshop the branches are still far to strong but they have some shape. It is still not what I envisage.

Venus the White Fig new branch.jpg

regards
Ash

[Jerry Meislik]

Ash,
I love seeing your work. Keep it up.
Jerry

[Ash]

My new project 'experiment on me' fig tree is a bit ahead of schedule. I mentioned in my first post that I would post again after three months, but it has grown enough for me to post after only two. After my last post I reduced the height of the two righthand trunks. They back budded strongly and the shoots were allowed to grow grew about 30 cm each. They were wired and the wire already removed after one month. The branches are thickening quickly and I do not want any scars. They will be wired and the wire removed again in quick succession many times again during the next twelve months. The picture below shows two areas that need attention. A straight section on the central branch and a smooth section on the right hand side of the trunk.

Fig Jan2011 before work.jpg

Yesterday I was able to reduce both right hand trunks further to remove straight, vertical sections that lacked taper. I am not concerned over the cut size because Ficus virens subsp. sublanceolata heals cuts very well if allowed to grow unchecked for a short period. To add some texture to the smooth right hand side of the trunk I decided to encourage some aerial roots which I will fuse to the trunk. I made a deep horizontal incision in the trunk and lifted the flap and wedged in a piece of coconut husk that had been soaked in rooting hormone. I then covered the working area in chopped sphagnum moss and put a half a pot over it to stop it washing away. I did this at two points on the trunk. After three weeks a new root had grown from the incision flaps and elongated to the rim of the pot through the moss. I cut another V in the rim of the pot and added a third tube of fertilizer rich soil for this root to grow into. I will repot this tree in March into a growing box I have prepared for it.

Fig Jan2011 after work.jpg

Aahh but I hear you say the leaves had a better shape in the first pic! That is true! Now it is hollow in the top! I am not worried about leaves now- just trunk and branch development. The shoots will be grown out unchecked until they are as thick as my fingers and then cut back hard to leave only a few nodes. This will encourage further branching and back-budding and after several grow and cut cycled smoother taper from the thick base to thin branches. In the long run I envisage a tree with a crown ~ 1 m wide and only half that high.

I will post again when I put it into the grow box at which time we can see what has happened to the roots I am training.

regards
Ash

[aussie4bonsai]

Hi Ash
I like your Idea of coconut husk soaked in rooting hormone.
I will give it a try as I haven’t been successful with my rooting powder on wedged flaps.
Could you let us know what type hormone liquid you use?
Barry

[NBPCA]

Hi Ash, venus has a beautiful trunk line but the branching is incongruous to the trunk. The branches are too strong and too straight, in bonsai continuity of movement is very important so if the trunk is curved so the branches should be curved also, this movement should carry on right out to the twigs. To be perfectly honest with you if Venus was mine I would cut off all the branches and grow a new set wiring them for movement as they grow. I would imagine in your climate you could grow a new set of branches pretty quickly.
Craigw

You could turn it into Venus de Milo and only cut its arms off!

Grant

[Ash]

Hi Ash
Could you let us know what type hormone liquid you use?
Barry

New Project White Fig:
Barry the purple goey stuff from Bunnings I used on the coconut husk wedge. I use multicrop growth formula to soak the Sphagnum moss. Fertilizer is Magamp. For the root cut to work the stem or root you are cutting must be growing strongly and you must interupt the phloem flow so the cut must be deep and must be spread open. On old slow grown shoots the root take is slower and they may not work as well. Bear in mine this is a very 'rooty' type of fig. Chop your sphagnum or it will be hard to get out of the roots when they do take.

You could turn it into Venus de Milo and only cut its arms off! Grant

Venus:
The grafts did not all 'take', so her arms are coming off! And her 'head' too. It has so many leaves on it at the moment that its crown is about three times the pot diameter! I let it grow strong first then will cut. The other one back-budded well so now I know.

Ash

[aussie4bonsai]

Thanks Ash
I had only just finish root grafting when I read your article I could have used your Idea there was plenty of room.
I use Magamp with the hose applicator it is very popular in our Orchid Society.
Barry

[Jerry Meislik]

Ash,
Great work. Keep us posted and learning some great techniques.
Jerry

[Ash]

Hi all,

I think I was going to update on this fig after three months but I it is getting closer to three years. Oh well...my excuse is that I got another job, moved cities, started a family, launched my boat, went sailing...all that stuff instead. The poor fig was still in the same pot until about six months ago! My main aim with this tree was to introduce some basal flare and when that was on its way some time down the track start work on the crown. This is how it looked six months ago when I finally (three years late!) got to potting it up. Lots of leaves with a trunk hiding underneath:

White fig.jpg

The little teeny aerial root I encouraged on the right hand side is now a big thick root growing into the ground.

Ashs new fangle fig trick.jpg

Because I did not pot the fig up it did not grow that quickly - but it did mean that the roots growing over the side of the pot into the magamp and gravel tubes I screwed to the pot grew really well so I finally got some basal flare to the trunk.

Fig root tubes.jpg

I only really noticed when I looked at the photos tonight that I also got some of the earlier roots to fuse and they are starting to meld together. I screwed the right hand aerial root back against the trunk, it flares back out just below present soil level. I also cut away the crossed aerial in the mid front and changed the planting angle a little. Overall I was rather happy with what had happened while I wasn't looking. I had to cut some pretty heavy downwards roots and use the knob cutters to nibble away underneath to get a flat root base. There is an upturned plastic pot under the fig in the tub which I usually do in large growing on tubs.

White fig in growing on pot.jpg

I am wondering whether to go with my original plant of using all three trunks, or to remove the lateral two one at a time, heal the scars and then just use the middle trunk and grow new branches. I am not sure if the scars would be to big, the LH one could come off pretty easy, not sure about the bigger right. I would be interested in a few opinions on this - keep all three, one or two.

Lets see if it takes me another three months or three years to get back with the next update!

Ash