Ficus Benjamina Natasja fusion project

[minkes]

This my project from around 20+ years ago. I bought Ficus Benjamina Natasja seedlings in local store wrapped with jute. I removed jute, tangled them together and wrapped with transparent tape. Here are few photos from back then to these days about how it goes.








I tried to do my first very big pruning of this tree





Responded very well - lesson learned


Later I decide to go for second very big prunning and make better branching. Here it is few weeks after pruning growing again.




To gain more strenght I put it into collander for two seasons



Third big prunning. Now I am decided to really focus on building better branching and be more focused on making corrections as soon as possible.

 

[minkes]

And few photos from today - wintering inside of my house

 

[minkes]

I am also considering to do airlayering around here, but it is just on my Maybe toDo list

 

[oranjeaap]

Thats pretty cool!

I have one just like it. But it's still in the early stages, id say its maybe 3 or 4 years old. Long way to go. Happy to see it backbuds well, I had some concerns about that.

 

[minkes]

Good job there @oranjeaap ! If I had more room in my house I would definitely make more fusion projects with ficuses, it is very easy and rewarding with them.

 

[KateM]

Amazing!
Nice to see that yours back budded so well.
I have one benjamina I need to start cutting back to get better branching and feel a bit apprehensive about it.

 

[Michael P]

minkes and oranjeaap, great looking fusions! When you first put the young trees together, did you do anything to make them fuse other than tightly binding them together?

 

[minkes]

Only thing you need to do is to wrap them together for example with transparent tape and wait 1-3 years, nothing special. It is very easy with ficus

 

[stubmle]

Very nice! I'm trying something similar with a brush cherry, but on a much smaller scale- just 2 trunks joined at the base.
Are you planning to layer it because you want it in a shallower pot?

 

[minkes]

Very nice! I'm trying something similar with a brush cherry, but on a much smaller scale- just 2 trunks joined at the base.
Are you planning to layer it because you want it in a shallower pot?

Yes exactly. Also it is probably too heavy roots base now, so I will see. This spring during reppoting I will investigate roots and decide what I could do with them. Surely they need some work to be done.

 

[Michael P]

Only thing you need to do is to wrap them together for example with transparent tape and wait 1-3 years, nothing special. It is very easy with ficus

Thank you! I was considering doing something like an approach graft but leaving the roots of the "scion" to grow in the pot. But maybe I am over-thinking.

 

[minkes]

Thank you! I was considering doing something like an approach graft but leaving the roots of the "scion" to grow in the pot. But maybe I am over-thinking.

If you will do it with ficus, only thing you need is time

 

[Conrad2k]

No need to prep the interior surfaces of the trunks?

 

[minkes]

No need to prep the interior surfaces of the trunks?

You could, but do not need to.

 

[oranjeaap]

No need to prep the interior surfaces of the trunks?

You fuse them at the seedling stage, they are fragile and you can easily kill them if you try scrape the bark. You can scrape the bark if the ficus is already older, it works well.