[SYANBS] Ficus Obliqua

[Kedron Brook]

Entering 4 species. The first photos will all be identical. All seeds were ordered from Living Green & Feeling Seedy, and arrived promptly. They were not float tested, as each packet has at least 100 seeds (excluding the Ficus Brachypoda).

I will probably use half the seeds now and half at the start of August. The Brisbane winter here is typically 10-20c and so maybe the heat tray is unnecessary. The time from germination until shooting is 1 month. The tray was filled with a seed-raising soil mix from Yates. The seeds were sprinkled atop, then lightly brushed with fingers to turn the soil. Then I sprayed with a fine mist until quite wet. This tray is on a seed warming mat and the vents are open. I have some caution about the chances of mold in this tray and migrating the seedlings from the tray to their own containers in late winter. From the seeds I expect to make some interesting trunks, some root over rock, and perhaps even some fused trees. They will be in direct morning sunlight until midday and then heavy shade until nightfall.

Ficus Obliqua.jpg

Ficus Obliqua grows around here. I am growing some from "cuttings" birds knocked off a tree, which I assume to be Obliqua. These cuttings look great for leaf size, the vigour of the wood for back-budding is unknown. As can be seen here, the leaves are about the size of a typical niko / "felt-tip pen". The difference in leaf size of the various fig species around Brisbane is obvious. Obviously these seeds are not from trees I see. Harvesting those wild figs is more than I can do at the moment.

[Kedron Brook]

During the seed stage, there was a lot of rain (prior to Tropical Storm Alfred). This flooded my seed trays and mixed things altogether. I selected 4 ficus seedlings to pot up. These 3 look the most similar to each other, and the Ficus Obliqua shoots were quite abundant. Logically I assume these 3 are Obliqua.

They were repotted about March and are all ready for another up-pot. The heat of summer is already being felt around Brissie and there are many other tasks. If it seems right I will up-pot soon but that may be delayed until March 2026.

The leaning tree has branching buds on the outer side of the curve. The one with the split trunk seems to have slightly darker wood and smaller leaves. The last one is just a bit of a slow starter.

These are all in pretty high quality substrate for the stage they are in. I write that because evidently there's moss which could signify that the plants are kept too wet.