AusBonsai

Hey Pruners & Shearers,

I've had this what I think is a Port Jackson Fig for about 15 years now. Just thought I would post a picture to see if anyone has any advice on what I should do with it. What it needs more of or maybe a little bit less of.
It's overdue for re-potting which I plan to do in the next few weeks. I have 5 trees in total so a pretty small collection. It's a bit of a part-time hobby for me but I enjoy it.

Thanks,

Matt

How often do you fertilise? Looks like it needs some more fertiliser as the growth is fairly sparse. Is it getting plenty of sun? As you said it May also need the repot into some good free draining mix.

Looks like this one needs far more TLC - feeding, watering and repotting
A little less starvation and hard love?

I'd start feeding it now (any fertiliser at recommended strength every 2 weeks) to get it a bit more healthy for repotting after weather warms up. If you feed it and repot it you should get plenty of strong growth. When they grow you can trim more often. When you trim more often you'll get more shoots which will give ramification and density and it will start to look like a proper tree.

Hi,

Thank you for your replies.

It has spent the last few years in a location that only really gets morning to middy sun. I have just moved it to a location that gets sun for most of the day and afternoon so hopefully that should help. I don't think I have ever given it any fertilizer come to think of it apart from SeaSol once in a while. I will start to do that before I re-pot it to build it up.

Do you guys have a particular fertilizer that you recommend for all Bonsai or one that is more suited to Figs?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Cheers,

Matt

The more sun you give these Figs, the better off they will be. If I were you, I'd slip it into a bigger grow pot with minimal root disturbance, no trimming. Add fertilizer and then leave it for a month or two until buds appear all over it, then give it a root prune and trim. They are tough as nails, but they can sulk sometimes. (Pretty much what Shibui said).

Figs will eat anything and everything. I use osmocote all purpose, it has is a mix of chook poo and regular fertilizer granules. Seasol is just a plant tonic, it's not actually a fertilizer as such.

It does look like it has been on short rations for some time.
Jarad is right about figs:

Figs will eat anything and everything.

Give them anything that says fertiliser. Note that Seasol does not claim to be a fertiliser. It does have some nutrients but they are different with every batch so not really reliable as a fertiliser. Seasol have now produced Powerfeed which does contain better nutrient levels and will make plants grow better than Seasol.

Some of our bonsai club members got great growth from plenty of chook poo pellets (eg Dynamic lifter, etc) Up to 3cm deep on top of a grow pot is OK but does not look great on a bonsai pot. I usually sprinkle a few pellets on each bonsai pot every few weeks to maintain slow release fert every time I water. I also water with soluble fertiliser every 2-4 weeks as well.

Your tree is starving now. I would use a soluble fert - powerfeed, Thrive, etc for instant available nutrients. Nutrients leach out of the pot every time you water so need to keep fertilising every few weeks.

Controlled release fert (eg osmocote) is good for long term release of nutrients but you are going to repot in a few months so no point in adding osmocote now. Put some in the fresh potting mix for sustained nutrient next year.

I would use a fertilizer more syuitable to natives such as Charlie Carp , Nitrosol and osmocote native pellets (slow release)
I wouldn't disturb the roots yet as it is too cold, but it could be transferred to a bigger pot with more soil; even a Styrofoam box.
full sun and water and spray leaves with water to create some humidity.
Good luck.
This is only a small step back to achieve a big step forward.
The ficus book by the owner of Sydney Bonsai South is good reading.
Good Luck,
Michael

I grow a few figs, and they love hot humid weather, Idealy potting time in Melbourne is Australia Day when it's very hot. They recover very quickly and stand some hard treatment, But as the other guys mentioned. The tree needs fertiliser on a regular basis which you should introduce slowly as the weather starts to warm up. I would guess the soil wouldn't be in any condition that might help the roots either. You could try to cut out small wedges around the edges to try and get some better growing medium. Good Luck!

Repot Ficus when minimum temps get above 15 Deg C.
Fertilise well and full sun.

Ken

Hello Everyone,

I didn't realise I would get so many responses and great information. Thank you!!

I went to Bonsai Environment and got some of the cages with the slow release fertilizer to start. I also got some thrive and have watered that on as described. I will give it another hit in a week or so and see how it goes.

I will then re-pot it when the weather warms up a bit more.

Hopefully I can post up some photos with some good results.

Thanks Everyone,

Cheers,

Matt

I had some spare time yesterday so I decided to re-pot this tree.

I am glad I did. It came out of the pot really easily and there were nowhere near as many roots as I thought there would be after such a long time. Having a look around there were at least 10 curl grubs that I found in the soil. I got rid of all the old soil and used the garden hose to make sure they were all gone before it went back in the pot.

Is there anything special I should do while it recovers from this?

I re-potted another fig also and that had curl grubs as well

Chuck (more?) diatomite in your mix, Ken has done quite a bit of experimenting with it and found that when you have over a certain percentage of diatomite, the curl grubs stayed away. I'll have a look for the thread where he talks about his mix.