ficus clump possibility

[bodhidharma]

No that is true Jamie. I havnt seen many either. Always go with the gut feeling. I am wondering if they will grow together naturally anyway.

[Jamie]

No that is true Jamie. I havnt seen many either. Always go with the gut feeling. I am wondering if they will grow together naturally anyway.

well thats a big possibility mate, if i keep them bolt upright the probly will eventually come together and fuse, i am thinking of wiring them out a bit to create a "broom" style clump, but i want to increase the base of it by trying to get airial roots to grow then keep them tight to the trunk, reason for this would be to stop reverse taper if i wire the trunks out from being straight up.



i think i might use a techinque i seen on a lindsay farr begginer tutorial about creating airial roots on figs.
that should help, i hope anyways

[alpineart]

Nice one Jamie , clump or fused it will look better than 12 bucks in your hand . Bit cold down here for figs but i have a couple , no benjamins need to bring them indoors for winter . Might migrate north as the cold chills me too .Cheers

[Asus101]

let the trunks grow and fuse before cutting back hard.

[Jamie]

Nice one Jamie , clump or fused it will look better than 12 bucks in your hand . Bit cold down here for figs but i have a couple , no benjamins need to bring them indoors for winter . Might migrate north as the cold chills me too .Cheers

lol, thats why i left adelaide, to cold in the winter, its a good climate here, doesnt get to cold but doesnt get stinking hot, best of both worlds. allows me to have dormancy in deciduous trees aswell! so its all good mate, best move i ever made i reckon, met my beautiful wife up here to, couldnt be happier!

let the trunks grow and fuse before cutting back hard.

so you reckon get them closer together then mate? they are still quite flexible, i just havent made up my mind with it yet!
any one else think fuse?? ( i know a few have said so already)

[techpetal]

You know what I'm going to say...

Wrap it, Strap it, Fuse It, Then abuse it!

[Asus101]

let the trunks grow and fuse before cutting back hard.

so you reckon get them closer together then mate? they are still quite flexible, i just havent made up my mind with it yet!
any one else think fuse?? ( i know a few have said so already)

As the trunks grow, they will fuse. If you have given them room to grow you shouldnt need to move them closer.
There was a benji group here in adelaide. I never brought it as the owners changed price at will depending on what car you turned up in. It was a fused forest with a start like this and was wonderful.

[Jamie]

let the trunks grow and fuse before cutting back hard.

so you reckon get them closer together then mate? they are still quite flexible, i just havent made up my mind with it yet!
any one else think fuse?? ( i know a few have said so already)

As the trunks grow, they will fuse. If you have given them room to grow you shouldnt need to move them closer.
There was a benji group here in adelaide. I never brought it as the owners changed price at will depending on what car you turned up in. It was a fused forest with a start like this and was wonderful.

sounds interesting, maybe i should go this way with the fusing! still losts to consider..

[Jamie]

i have been thinking a lot bout this one of late.
i chopped it back to half of its original size bout 3 weeks ago, and it loved it, it has come back from no leaves to having it pop all over the joint.

i will post pics tomorrow when i get them but i am thinking of fusing them. it took a lot of thought before coming to a decision, but i took a lot of cuttings of it too that will help with the process. so, i guess i wont get much of an opinion tonight till i get pics but what do you peoples think ???

jamie

[Tim]

Imo fusing would crdate an interesting trunk but it will be straight and lacking taper. Go for the smallest tree, i would cut it down to an inch or two in december two weeks after fertilising. Cheers.

[lowlegs]

id chop it down as far as possible then lete it grow out as wide as possible not letting it grow up then as the trunks grow they will fuse together and the result would look like a strangler. keep it in the grow box and feed it mracle grow half doses p/w on top of your seasole every 2 weeks. i have one very similar but it is more seperated and i have made it a group planting it worked really well ill have to start posting some pics.

[Jamie]

ok, pics update, a before of when i got it. and to how it is now. unfortunately i dont have pics of when i cut it back, but you can sorta see where i cut back to on it from the now shots.
it has come back extremely well, this shot is only 3 weeks after i chopped right into it, it just goes to show a good feeding regime, with room to lets its roots spread out and the right after care will do wonders for trees in growth stages.

now heres my conundrum- if i let it grow like it is it will make a decent clump, problem is it will form reverse taper eventually when it grows together, this will be something hard to remedy.

if i tie it together now to fuse it, i will have issues with its depth of field, it is far wider from one veiwing angle then it is the other, by about a 1:2 ratio.

one way of fixing this will be to use cuttings i have taken from it that have struck and to put them in to fuse together aswell, i think this will work.

so all in all i think i will be going for a fused tree

figr1.jpg

as it was

ficus clump 001.jpg

as it is now

ficus clump 004.jpg

90 degrees from the second pic. as you can see it is about half the width of the other angle.

so give me your ideas people, let me know your thoughts
i am open to anything as i only paid 12 bucks for it, it is healthy and i am willing to experiment

jamie