QLD small leaf ficus banyan style progression

[kvan64]

Nice transformation. Great work Jamie, I love it. Hope it turns out like your virt.

[bodhidharma]

Good for you Jamie. I have been watching your improvement since you joined the site and the posts have gone from average trees to potential masterpieces. Keeping track of your pace of learning and involvement it wont be to long you will be conducting classes of your own

[Jamie]

Good for you Jamie. I have been watching your improvement since you joined the site and the posts have gone from average trees to potential masterpieces. Keeping track of your pace of learning and involvement it wont be to long you will be conducting classes of your own

oh gosh bohdi i dunno bout teaching classes, but i do appreciate what your saying very very much! it gives me a good confidence boost

i was just saying the other night to a mate since i joined this site o have learnt so much more in the past six months than i have in the past five years fumbling around trying to learn from books and reproducing pictures!
thanks to all that have helped me very muchly

Nice transformation. Great work Jamie, I love it. Hope it turns out like your virt.

thanks DK, so do i, i think it will have a good chance of getting there, it is showing signs of pushing new growth already


jamie

[Jamie]

just a bit of an update, i lifted it a bit, you can see the nebari a bit i will take some better shots soon, i lost a couple of small branches on the right but its got new buds pushing from the base of the ones that died back, all good

banyan fig.jpg

it has also been repotted into a diatomite mix. this will help with root development and make sure it wont be over watered


jamie

[bonscythe]

No big loss, I'm finding the same thing on all my figs at the moment. A couple of last years newbies have dropped off and shoots from the base are ready to go!
What kinda mix are you running for the figs now you have the diatomite?
I need to do a root prune on a couple soon, hopefully it doesn't get too hot here for the next few days.
Cheers

[Jamie]

hey mate

my mix with diatomite now is as follows

if you use a standard cup (250ml) as a part.

any standard bonsai soil - 2 parts
diatomite - 6 parts
zeolite - 1 part

thats all mixed up in a bucket, then used, any left over is just covered up and put to the side

this is a good mix for me, i have dropped the zeolite right back as it does hold a lot of moisture, from my little experiments the top looks dry, the top 20mm seem moist, under that is soaked still, so no good straight is the old zeolite, but its good for a bit of retention, the diatomite is brilliant, it holds and retains a bit of water but is very free draining and the bonsai soil helps just to soften the mix a little
with it being warm i wouldnt stress to much, its gonna be kept in the shade for a couple of weeks after the repot so i wouldnt be to concerned as long as it stays cool enough in the shade even with ambient temps you should be fine


jamie

[Hawaiian77]

Howzit Jamie,

Question, In your soil mix besides diatomite do you put any organic like pine fir, peat moss etc?

-Tim

[Jamie]

Howzit Jamie,

Question, In your soil mix besides diatomite do you put any organic like pine fir, peat moss etc?

-Tim

tim

just a standard bonsai soil mix that you get from the local hardware stores, like a searles or debco, whatever is in them, it is basically a potting soil i think, so pretty similar to the stuff you mentioned i think
peat moss isnt necessary as the moisture retention of the zeolite and diatomite works a treat

jamie

[Hawaiian77]

Mahalo Mate,

Sounds like you have a good soil mix. What I use in my mix is Akadama/Kanuma, (for Azaleas) Volcanic cinder, Adsorbent (like for oil spills) and Pine fir. It took a while for me to get it down but it work find for me. Especially the adsorbent. It holds a lot of moisture and it doesn't clump up like kitty litter.

-Tim

[Jamie]

tim,

is the absorbant for oil spills the powder or the granule? i was looking at that aswell but being a powder i was worried about it clogging things up..
if its the granule it should be sweet

sounds like ya got a good mix going on there anyways especially with the fig where we are trying to get a fine webbing of fine feeder roots too

jamie

[Hawaiian77]

Hey Jamie,

The adsorbent is in granule form. I bought it from an auto parts store named "NAPA AUTO PARTS". It is made out of "Earthen Clay" but you still need to screen it before use because of the dust. Make sure that it say "Earthen Clay" or close to it on the package. The great thing about adsorbent is the it will hold the moisture after you water and will release it back into the roots when it evaporates. Especially after you fertilize. And Like I said before it will not clump like kitty litter. Check out the link it talks about it more and about kitty litter.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

O.K. Cuz.... it's 05:30 in the morning and I'm off to work. Have a great day

-Tim

[Jamie]

ahhh cool tim. basically what ya got there with ya adsorbent is diatomite, i was hunting round for it in the auto stores aswell, its pretty much the same stuff but yes remember to screen it because that is going to have the powder in it that will clog up ya mix have a good day mate


jamie

[LZRD84]

any recent photos???

[Hawaiian77]

ahhh cool tim. basically what ya got there with ya adsorbent is diatomite, i was hunting round for it in the auto stores aswell, its pretty much the same stuff but yes remember to screen it because that is going to have the powder in it that will clog up ya mix have a good day mate


jamie

Also "J", If you don't want to screen it what you can do is after you re-pot just let the fresh water go though the pot until the water is clear. By then all the gunk and stuff is all out and then you can soak it in Super-T.

-Tim

[Hawaiian77]

ahhh cool tim. basically what ya got there with ya adsorbent is diatomite, i was hunting round for it in the auto stores aswell, its pretty much the same stuff but yes remember to screen it because that is going to have the powder in it that will clog up ya mix have a good day mate


jamie

Also "J", If you don't want to screen it what you can do is after you re-pot just let the fresh water go though the pot until the water comes clear. By then all the gunk and stuff is all out and then you can soak it in Super-T.

-Tim