AusBonsai

Hi,
I have a nice little moreton bay fig and would like to change the look of the trunk. The trunk is very straight and plain looking and takes away from the crown of the tree. Is it possible to air layer some roots with spagnum moss and then after they've hardened bind them to the trunk and allow them to fuse? Its producing aerial roots in the enviroment its in now but not where I want them.

regards,

Keith.

I have seen this technique used when I was on a trip in Singapore. Soak sphagnum moss in water and liquid root hormone. Squeeze out the excess water so that it is moist but not saturated. You can wrap it straight onto the trunk and bind with plastic or broad grafting tape, they did not cut into the tree in any way. If you bind the moss closely the roots will emerge and travel downards to the soil level. Later you could bind or braid them against the trunk and fan them out from the trunk at the soil level to form a buttress maybe. And take some pics to show us the result.

Hi Keith

I have the same problem with a MB fig and 3 months ago had the very same idea. I used the air layer technique with a pot around the trunk and spag moss. Two weeks ago I removed the pot to find a large clump of roots to weed out of the moss. Once they were free from the moss I ran them down the trunk and held in place with plastic wrap. I just need them to thicken up a bit befor I remove the tape. Pics to come. Good luck with it. Hopefully it will work to give a thin trunk some gerth

Andrew

thanks for your input. I thought it would work i just wanted to get the opinion of some more learned persons than myself. I'll upload some pics so you can see what I mean.

Regards,

Keith.

Hi Keith

This is the result that i got form the layer i tried on my MB Fig When i get the roots set i will work on the branch structure of the tree.

Andrew

I don't have a great deal of experience with figs but I have always been lead to believe that leaf reduction on morton bays is very difficult and its better to stick to port jacksons. Am I correct ?
Craig

Hi Craig

Over the past few growing seasons I have reduced the leaves by about half. Once I have got the tree settled I plan to work on the ramification and hopefully will get the leaves to reduce more. I only have a couple of MB Figs and nothing to old so some else might be able to answer your question better.

Hi Craig,

The main problem with the morten bay fig is the internode length. I am not sure if this can be done successfully as I have not tried it. The leaves readily reduce like other figs.