ficus clump possibility

[Jamie]

hey guys, here is a fig i bought yesterday from the 50% off area at a local nursery all in total it cost me $12, bargain.
i think it has great potential for a clump style.
the nebari is actually great radiating out from the tree very well.
all i have done so far is got rid of 40% of the crap roots from being in the plastic nursery pot. put it in a grow box and seasol to help develop the roots again.

any advice, comments and ideas are always welcome. i have a few ideas for this one but would like to hear what you guys have to say!
so let me know what you guys think anyways. :):)

[alexgee]

extremely possible, should work out nicely

[Jamie]

thanks alex, as i said nothing else has been done to it yet, no wiring or pruning. so will wait a bit to see how we go with its health i dont see this being a problem though, ficus are quite hardy and love the hard pruning

[NathanM]

Looks like an awesome find to me dude!! Chop it down ^_^

[Jamie]

Looks like an awesome find to me dude!! Chop it down ^_^

for $12 i thought so too
i will be bringing the height down i think i might wait a little bit for the roots to recover, i took a fair bit off it.
for interest the overall height is about 600mm high. the base is about 120mm wide overall and the canopy at the moment is about 400mm wide at the widest point.

the species is ficus benjimina-weeping fig

[Jamie]

here is a quick virt of something i was thinking with this one. i dont know how it would go with reverse taper, i could always "tie" all the branches together to get them to fuse to i suppose?
but then again the nebari will help it thicken out at the base so yes?
i am a bit lost with this one, i know the tree is in there somewhere, just got to find it...??????
any virts to help would be great

i find the full canopy in the virt rather boring once again but i know there is something better in it than that????

[MasonC]

i agree that you should cut all the trunks down to half their size

[Jamie]

thanks mason and nathan, and dont worry, there will be chopping, oh yes there will be lots of chopping!

[MasonC]

LOL

[bodhidharma]

Jamie it will be interesting as they grow they could be coerced into being fused together? Would make a kickarse trunk.Looking forward to the progress on thi s, one.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi,

No "advice" from me. Just some rantings

I like your virt. And I think $12.00 is a reasonable amount to pay for any experimentations

There are three clump styles that I could recall:

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1811&p=17267
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=243&p=1567
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=141&p=1068

If you get it to look like the virt, it will be worth more than $12.00

[Jamie]

thanks daviet, will have a look at the links appreciate that. and i appreciate the confidence boost! i think i have a far chance of getting it to look like something along those lines anyways...

[Jamie]

i am just thinking bout this tree... i seen a beginner video by lindsay farr about creating aireal roots on figs. i think i might be able to use this technique to create airial roots to help stop any reverse taper possibilities./ it involved putting small slices in the trunk inserting a small pebble, putting a toilet roll (yes a toilet roll) over the trunk filling with sand and waiting a few months. i think more aireal roots on this would make it awesome...

[Jamie]

Jamie it will be interesting as they grow they could be coerced into being fused together? Would make a kickarse trunk.Looking forward to the progress on thi s, one.

hey bodhi, sorry mate i completely missed ya post

i have been thinking this also, my only issue is that the clump is in a sorta straightish line when veiwed from the side... could rectify that with airial roots though maybe??? what do you reckon?
i am interested in keeping it a clump though, i havent seen to many around thats all.

[MasonC]

hey jamie
i think that fusing them would be the best option here