Bought a few ficus seedlings

[BonsaiElmo]

Picked up a bunch of fig seedlings at a local nursery for 50 cents each as they were overgrown for the 90mm posts they are in. Must have 60 odd, they are a mixture and the bloke at the nursery was not sure which were which, though he thought they are mainly hills and Morton Bay, though time will tell.

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Thinking of trying a couple of fused fig projects with them.

Tried two last week, I did not have any grafting tape so I used wire to bond the trees together, not sure if this will bite into the trees too much.

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2011-09-02 Ficus fused attempts (13).jpg

Also have a root over rock project in mind, trying to fuse three small hills figs that were not overgrown.

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[mb1029]

50c each, damn nice!

my local nursery/"bonsai store" sells smaller ones for $6 each

[Hornet]

Bloody score, the only ficus my local nurseries stock are weeping figs and elastica

[BonsaiElmo]

I might have mentioned I have been to about 8 different nurseries before I found one that had any figs at all.

Found this place in the middle of nowhere driving down the highway after having not found another nursery. They had some nice Hills Figs seedlings though it was only as an afterthought the bloke told me they had a bunch of overgrown stock that was no longer on display. I think their usual price was $1.50 for 50mm tubestock, and I think I paid $2.50 or $3 for the three 90mm tubestock Hills Figs, so even when not reduced they seem very good.

He said that with the Hendra virus figs have been very unpopular in rural areas lately (bats droppings near horses and all that). I bought almost all of his stock, he held onto 1 tray as he wanted to pot some of them up himself and give to friends.

Very happy to have stock to play around with over summer, and possibly cheaper than the materials I would have used to take cuttings off some of the local figs. Though I am still going to try some grand cuttings all the same.

Only issue might be space, as it stands I have an ever growing number of Celtis and now some 60 odd figs... I think I need to designate a larger grow area.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi BonsaiElmo, looks like you are off to a good start $30.00 for a bunch of fig seedlings, you can't go wrong with that. Please keep us posted of the progress.

Hi Hornet, you are in Brisbane, if you can't buy fig seedlings then you can get them yourself -- there are a lot of huge, mature Australian figs tree around Brisbane areas. Just wait until the fruit ripe, and collect them. I used to live in Windsor, on the overpass off Salt Street, there is a big fig, I collected a lot of fruits, still have around 10 trees from the seeds of that tree.

Cheers and good hunting

[platinum]

hendra


ya kidding


not myrtus rust

[BonsaiElmo]

Decided to have a go at screwing two trees together, should really be studying but needed some time out for a Sunday afternoon.

Two trees were selected, I removed as much of the compacted root bound soil and grit as I could, I used a sharp knife to cut some of the inside of the tree off, also cut off the roots along that side of the tree.

2011-09-11 two figs fused with screws (6).jpg

Drilled a small hole through both trunks, and inserted screw. Screw is probably way bigger than it should be but it is what I had. Will get some smaller screws...

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Screwed together. Also added another 2 screws below and above the original screw... I know the screw protruding out the other side will scar is is prob not a good idea, but working with what I had on hand.

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Put cutting paste along the tree meeting section on both sides, after a little time to allow paste to dry I wrapped the section tightly in grafting tape.

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Planted it in a small poly box, and it looked a little boring.

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So I applied some wire to get some movement in fused trunk, might be over the top, but it is a start. I can change it later. It might be better to let the tree recover before wiring but I am impatient and would be worried about breaking any fusing that may have occurred between the trunks...

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Put it back into the box and wired it for stability.

2011-09-11 two figs fused with screws (25).jpg

It is now in a makeshift greenhouse for the next couple of weeks before it will be phased into full sun.