First thread! 
- 2012 -
I dug this MANY years ago from my Gran's garden, and was going to air layer off all the branches but never got round to it. I decided to get a move on and treated the 1.5" offcuts as giant cuttings, most of which have rooted (in a bucket of water).
There were recently really odd thin roots tracking through and ruining the bark, so I wanted to stop that and find out when was going on. What I found was that the original heavy roots are all dead ( ?!! ) and the roots growing through the bark are the ONLY roots now! Not what I had in mind, I hope they all fuse into one surface again and don't end up looking like a ficus/mangrove effect.
I'm not sure when the main roots died, but I suspect it's my fault as the tree has been in compost, and it got really really boggy in winter. :-/
- 2014 -
Last week I moved it into a bonasi pot in turface / cat litter, and today I roughly pruned it back so I can start to work out a plan. I'm actually pondering cut-and-grow, these grow so fast I might be able to cope with any extra time over wiring - plus it should look more natural.
After a prune, all bases of the branches left in place to keep my options open.
- 2012 -
I dug this MANY years ago from my Gran's garden, and was going to air layer off all the branches but never got round to it. I decided to get a move on and treated the 1.5" offcuts as giant cuttings, most of which have rooted (in a bucket of water).
There were recently really odd thin roots tracking through and ruining the bark, so I wanted to stop that and find out when was going on. What I found was that the original heavy roots are all dead ( ?!! ) and the roots growing through the bark are the ONLY roots now! Not what I had in mind, I hope they all fuse into one surface again and don't end up looking like a ficus/mangrove effect.
I'm not sure when the main roots died, but I suspect it's my fault as the tree has been in compost, and it got really really boggy in winter. :-/
- 2014 -
Last week I moved it into a bonasi pot in turface / cat litter, and today I roughly pruned it back so I can start to work out a plan. I'm actually pondering cut-and-grow, these grow so fast I might be able to cope with any extra time over wiring - plus it should look more natural.
After a prune, all bases of the branches left in place to keep my options open.
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Pretty sure it’s L Pileata not L Nitida in fact..
