Banyan Ficus

[A Random User]

Here is some pics of one of my banyan ficus, that I have been doing alot
of work on lately... Last pic is what it looked like before when I was thread
grafting some branches on.

I removed a large branch that awkwardly came off of the front as evident
by the cut paste...

I started thread/peg grafting some more aerial roots to the trunk, and will be doing
more as soon as more roots become available... eventually they will hide/mass
the typical import looking trunk.

I did a wedge cut at the base of the very large leader that shot straight up, and
bent the whole thing 15 degrees to the left, securing it with a deck screw. Which
will be buried inside of the trunk eventually. This also allowed for a more compact
apex. See the last pic of what it looked like before.

Lastly, wire the whole tree, and flattened out the pads, allowing more light into
them which will back bud and fill it. I will allow the top two pads to grow wider, once they fill in and eventually the shape of the foliage will be more of an umbrella look.

Sorry, will get more photos from various sides, camera battery died....

 

[A Random User]

Man... No love for a Banyan ???
I thought you guys liked these things around here ???

 

[Pattik]

Thanks for sharing

I'm certainly no expert but I think it looks great.

 

[A Random User]

[video=youtube;0SFEzyjGSec]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFEzyjGSec&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Perhaps this might get a response ???

 

[JD_SouthFL]

The video seems to be "set to private". As such, I cannot view it.

-JD

 

[KennedyMarx]

Looks great! When I saw the thread title I figured it would be another ficus with extreme taper, but its nice to see something with a more old school trunk to height ratio.

 

[agraham]

Looks nice, but(there's always a but), the foliage pads seem a little flat to me.

 

[Poink88]

2nd pic shows 5 branches coming out from relatively the same place...a definite no-no and a future problem IMHO. I also agree that the branches seem too flat but that too is personal preference.

Re: your thread grafts, if you are after creating aerial roots...I think the pots should all be at or a tad below the soil level. If you are after some to collect later for peg grafting then these are okay.

 

[agraham]

Ha!..now we're all going to beat up on you,lol. It's a very nice tree and the amount of work you've done on it is impressive. Did you do the wiring while it was in leaf?...and how lond will you leave the wire on?

I do quite a few ficus myself and am very interested in others' techniques.

thanks,

Andy

 

[A Random User]

The video seems to be "set to private". As such, I cannot view it.

-JD

Thanks, will look into it...

 

[A Random User]

Looks great! When I saw the thread title I figured it would be another ficus with extreme taper, but its nice to see something with a more old school trunk to height ratio.

I had a choice to make with this tree...
eliminate all the branches and start from scratch,
or work what was here...
Obviously I decided to do the later.

 

[A Random User]

Looks nice, but(there's always a but), the foliage pads seem a little flat to me.

I like to lay the foliage pads out straight, reason being it allows a lot
more light into the tree and helps promote a lot of back budding... Eventually when this
takes off it will no longer be flat... The new growth will grow up.

Others prefer to not do this, for they say that it doesn't look how a tree grows naturally...
that the branches should not be wire flat, but up... Prob. here is that you end up with only
a couple of leaves growing on a branch, because the leaves shade the rest of the branch out.

 

[A Random User]

2nd pic shows 5 branches coming out from relatively the same place...a definite no-no and a future problem IMHO. I also agree that the branches seem too flat but that too is personal preference.

Re: your thread grafts, if you are after creating aerial roots...I think the pots should all be at or a tad below the soil level. If you are after some to collect later for peg grafting then these are okay.

Some of the branches you are referring to will actually be removed at a latter time.
I am actually waiting to see how they develop, before removing.

The picture with the pots, is old, it is where I was thread grafting young whips on,
to make new branches... They were not long enough to set the pots on the ground,
so I hung them with wire... worked fine, the branches are now actually a part of the
tree...

 

[A Random User]

Ha!..now we're all going to beat up on you,lol. It's a very nice tree and the amount of work you've done on it is impressive. Did you do the wiring while it was in leaf?...and how lond will you leave the wire on?

I do quite a few ficus myself and am very interested in others' techniques.

thanks,

Andy

Yes, just wired it earlier that day...
Will leave the wire on until it holds on it's own.
Which is usually about a couple of months.

 

[tmmason10]

I like to lay the foliage pads out straight, reason being it allows a lot
more light into the tree and helps promote a lot of back budding... Eventually when this
takes off it will no longer be flat... The new growth will grow up.

Others prefer to not do this, for they say that it doesn't look how a tree grows naturally...
that the branches should not be wire flat, but up... Prob. here is that you end up with only
a couple of leaves growing on a branch, because the leaves shade the rest of the branch out.

This is actually a very good point. I have noticed that the buds just reach up when growing out, which means after defoliating and wiring, the branches start to look like they need wire again once the buds break out.

 

[A Random User]

Sorry guys... I forgot all about checking on the Video.
Seems somehow it did get set to private...
I have corrected it now, and added some cheesy music
so you didn't have to hear very loud birds chirping in
the background...