AusBonsai

Hi everyone,
Well I have had this PJ fig for I dont know maybe 18 - 20 years my mother bought it for me when I was quite young and it has survived all of these years in bonsai pots and has never been grown in the ground or nursery pots. As you can see from the pictures the trunk is quite thick but it is quite short. Short and stubby you might say. I am unsure of how to turn this into a wonderful bonsai, styling tips and advice would be great I dont have any other figs as bonsai.

What do you pros out there think ????

Archie

nice trunk, i think you should select a few branches and cull the rest, use one as a new leader to give it a little height, which will help with the taper which is quite nice. then build those leader and branches to give it some definition. right now it has a lot of tight growth but not much definition.

Nice fig mate!
It almost lends itself to a "walking" style Bonsai. I would lean it a bit more, then encourage the aerial roots to become legs, grasping for the far side of the pot. Then grow foliage in that direction also, if you get what I mean.

Hmm both very interesting thoughts, particularly the leaning airial root. I still think I might thin it out a bit so I can see whats under there the growth is very tight

walking style ............... nice one mate

good idea archie. get some pics up of it once thinned out, get one that shows the whole tree not one that is cutting off the top. sorry mate i dont know where your located, if it is cooling down where you are you might want to wait until spring.

amazing! in what type of environment do you keep your figs in?

luke

Thanks Jamie,
Im in Sydney so yeah it will be starting to cool down a little pretty soon

hot house?
luke

Hiya Luke,
Nope no hot house here just kept outside well fed and fertilized and has pretty much been left on its own to grow.

good stuff!
luke

Jamie wrote: walking style ............... nice one mate

Hang on a sec!!! I swear i'm not going crazy! Google seems to think I am though, perhaps I got that reference from a vid.

They were using the term "walking" to describe a set of roots which looked to be moving directionally. I think they were also mentioning the comparison, to mangroves stretching their aerial roots out into the water.

This is bugging me now.... where did i see it....

Mitchell wrote:

Jamie wrote: walking style ............... nice one mate

Hang on a sec!!! I swear i'm not going crazy! Google seems to think I am though, perhaps I got that reference from a vid.

They were using the term "walking" to describe a set of roots which looked to be moving directionally. I think they were also mentioning the comparison, to mangroves stretching their aerial roots out into the water.

This is bugging me now.... where did i see it....

http://www.fukubonsai.com/5a9.html

well there ya go mate, never ever heard it or seen it before. im sure it is a very uniquely not often seen style

Jamie wrote:well there ya go mate, never ever heard it or seen it before. im sure it is a very uniquely not often seen style

I was referring to "Styling the roots to look like they are walking" not styling the plant as "walking style". I used the wrong terminology. I wasn't meaning there was a style called "walking"

Crazy Hawaians hey!?

all good man good stuff. so when are you gonna try this?