My first benji - styling advice

[Jamie]

hey mate

its your tree i was just giving you ideas thats all mate i just think to get what you want its necessary, all good pal

keen to see how you go anyways!

take pics as you go, make it a progression


jamie

[Regan]

Hey Jamie

I appreciate your help and it may still need to be chopped right back, but I think I'll just see what new growth it puts out now and decide from there. it's a lot easier to see where I'm going with it now that I have thinned it out.

The more help and ideas people throw at me the better.

I just met Rod at the Bimer meeting, I might take it in with me next month for the workshop, see what they think.

[Greth]

Meff, that looks like a really good start, see how it settles and then take some more pics and ask advice from there.
As for the ants, I would give it a soil change, shake or hose out all the ants and eggs and replace the mix. Have a can of fly spray ready if they feel like being bitey. You could try antrid or something the day before so you won't have too many to deal with.

[Jamie]

Hey Jamie

I appreciate your help and it may still need to be chopped right back, but I think I'll just see what new growth it puts out now and decide from there. it's a lot easier to see where I'm going with it now that I have thinned it out.

The more help and ideas people throw at me the better.

I just met Rod at the Bimer meeting, I might take it in with me next month for the workshop, see what they think.

good stuff mate all good

and taking it to see Rod will be a huge help, he is a brilliant stylist. how was the big guy? great bloke by the way, easy going and very knowledgable and only to willing to help

he has helped me a lot in how i look at a tree

jamie

[Regan]

Well there definately was a problem with this tree, root rot was starting to set in.

I was trying to work out why the soil was staying so much wetter than the rest of my trees. So I had a bit of a poke around under the surface and found a nice sodden, sticky mudball, It seems that the previous owners had just stuck it in the styro box without cleaning out the rootball of whatever they were growing it in, just spreading some good soil around it.

had to cut back about a third or so of the roots, there is one big thick sucker in there that will have to come off eventually.

Hopefully this will fix the ant problem that I had.

In the process I think that I have found a new style that the tree will be heading in

Regan

[Jamie]

regan,

doesnt sound good about the root ball, at least you have found the issue and are fixing it, the tree should be fine getting root prune it will come back pretty strong.

so whats this new style for the tree then?


jamie

[Regan]

You will just have to wait and see Jamie

But it looks like I will be cutting it down a fair bit and having a much smaller tree than I first invisioned, bonus of that is that I will get 1 or 2 trees out of the top section

Yeah I'm not too worried about the tree coming back it's a fig after all, just glad I found it early enough to stop it from becoming a major problem.

Regan

[Jamie]

i thought that may be the case mate, and yes you will get them to strike no drama ( i will cross my fingers for ya as i could put the mocka's on them by saying that )

if you want that left hand branch smaller there is a way to do it... cut it off! a new shoot will form around the wound area and you can start from there

jamie

[bonzaidog]

Benjies in Australian Native section......ARRRRRRRRRGH!!! >....Dog.

[Regan]

Bonzaidog as far as I know they are an australian native.

I think it would probably make it easier if we had a seperate section just for ficus as they are so common and the natives and exotics have pretty much the same needs.

What do you think Jamie?

Regan

[Jamie]

Bonzaidog as far as I know they are an australian native.

I think it would probably make it easier if we had a seperate section just for ficus as they are so common and the natives and exotics have pretty much the same needs.

What do you think Jamie?

Regan

ficus benjimina is an australian native although not endemic to austrailia, it is native to the nortern eastern seaboard and nothern territory area.
(i did the research B-Dog, i thought they werent a native either )

as for a seperate section for ficus as they are a common species used i will see what the boss says and i could be busy again, i might be able to get a section in the tropicals of its own.

jamie

[Regan]

Hey Jamie

I just thought it would be easier to have them all in 1 group than spread out all over the place.

I did look into it before I first posted.

Regan

[Jamie]

no problem regan

im still waiting on the boss, should hear back from him over the weekend!


jamie

[Regan]

No worries mate

Regan

[bonzaidog]

My wrong guys ...mental note to check information source/validity, in future! Next thing you know ,Dragon and Split Enz were'nt Aussie bands either! ....Dog.