AusBonsai

So walking to my parents shed today I noticed some port Jackson fig leaves popping out from the side between the shed and our neighbours wall.

I jumped up to see what was going on and found this beauty! Looks pretty nice right?

Hoping to collect early spring. No idea if I will be able to save it though, I hope so!

Any tips to collecting this later in the year?

Cheers Greg


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Nice little find there!

that is very cool. Amazing where they pop up from.
Can you get it out without too much difficulty?

Ken

The good thing about ficus is that you need very few roots to be successful. Just cut off any long roots, if necessary, slice under the base of the trunk and lift it out. Reduce the longer branches and pot up.
Best time for ficus root work is in warmer weather so don't be tempted to go too early. It won't disappear (unless someone else recognises that wall or roof?????)

I think there is always something special about a tree that has been collected. Even if it is not a world class bonsai it will have a special story for you.

Wow, what a find. Nice one

Well, I think this is going to be alot harder to remove than originally though!

Closer inspection yesterday I noticed that the tree has one main root that goes down through the brick and pops out the side of the wall. The root is the size of the trunk and proceeds about 3 meters down the wall and into the grown... this will be fun

There's no need to take all the root when collecting ficus, especially rubiginosa. They will effectively grow as very large cuttings so even having a few small roots is plenty to start with. Any of those aerial roots on your tree would be enough to keep this tree alive after collection so just cut the long roots short. That will also promote some root ramification which you will need in future.
A fellow club member found one growing out of a crack in a concrete bridge down this way. Couldn't extract any roots so they simply sawed it off flush with the concrete and planted the trunk. Did not look back and recovered very well.

PJ fig - resilient and ideal bonsai species.

shibui wrote:There's no need to take all the root when collecting ficus, especially rubiginosa. They will effectively grow as very large cuttings so even having a few small roots is plenty to start with. Any of those aerial roots on your tree would be enough to keep this tree alive after collection so just cut the long roots short. That will also promote some root ramification which you will need in future.
A fellow club member found one growing out of a crack in a concrete bridge down this way. Couldn't extract any roots so they simply sawed it off flush with the concrete and planted the trunk. Did not look back and recovered very well.

PJ fig - resilient and ideal bonsai species.

Thanks Shibui,

Very excited for spring

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