Bent PJF concerns

[Lance]

A month or so ago, I bought a little fig, it was root bound so I re-potted it. It's been a few weeks and it's now growing well.

I wanted to put a bit of a bend in the bottom end of it.

I forgot to put something in the photo for scale. The trunk is about 12mm at the base (and I thought it was surprisingly rigid).

I attempted "undercutting" and bending the trunk as described in Deborah Koreshoff's book.
Time will tell if I got it right.

In the before image you can see the normal growth of the young figlet .

pjf-fig-before-sm.jpg

After

pjf-fig-bent-sm.jpg

Should I be worried about the leaves being all bent over (effectively sideways to normal)?
I guess the foliage might bend upwards as it grows.

[Asus101]

Why not let it grow for the season, then chop back and repot at a slight angle? you will get a hard angle forming then.

[shibui]

No need to worry about the leaves turned sideways. The new ones will all come out right way up. Just interested in why you wanted to bend the trunk?
Fig seedlings usually have few roots around the 'bulb' at the base - just roots underneath. The surface roots seem to develop later so planting the seedling on an angle should achieve the same result?

[Lance]

Thanks for the replies.

ok perhaps I didn't give enough info (noob).

I'd like to achieve a similar effect to the trunk in image 19 (I think it's a fig? on a tall rock) in the following post from Mr Benyakob
viewtopic.php?f=96&t=3059&p=32489#p32489

Anyway it's kind of a squashed S in shape.

I realise the one bend I've done is not enough however I haven't done undercutting before and want to let it recover before making more bends.

Should I have started bending the seedling when it was even smaller?
or used some other technique?

[Jamie]

those tight compound bends are gonna be very awkard to acheive, especially when you go to bend back to create that S you are after, you will probly find the tree will end up with cut marks from the wire before you acheive that sort of shape, maybe ask luciano how he has done this, you might find it is a simple procedure


jamie

[Bretts]

I would take a different response than the others and say great effort Lance. Making an undercut and bend is adventurous and it looks like you have done well.
I think the bend you have done could probably have been done without an undercut but now you have experimented with it all the better.

I would let it grow strong for a year from here and try it again harder next year. Possibly in the other direction. You may not get exactly the shape you are after but you are on your way to making this an interesting trunk for the future.

[Jamie]

I would take a different response than the others and say great effort Lance

dont get my response wrong, all due respect for the technique involved, what i was saying is i think it could be hard to reacreate those sort of tight bends, although i havent tried anything like that i would think it be quite an awkward shape to acheive, thats all i was saying


jamie

[aaron_tas]

my advice is to smash it

heepsa wire, torniquets, other...

just go nuts, but when you're tightening your bends, take it easy

i reckon you could get a similar silhouette in an arvo

[Bretts]

Na thats alright Jamie. I was just thinking that a tree this young almost anything you do to it is going to help the carachter of it.
I can think of Fly's gum as testiment to that.

I would agree with Arron as well but I am not game to tell poeple to do that to thier trees

[Lance]

Thanks for your advice.
Next chance I get, I'll hook in and just do it