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Bonsai

Has anyone of this group tried training  a fig tree?  Check this!

http://kuromatsubonsai.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/IMG_4637.jpg

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  • BLB

I have, I've played around with bonsai using traditional trees, subtropicals and succulents for many years. Never got into it very seriously though, but love the effects. Had a nice bonsai fig going too but I killed it during winter when it dried out too much. If I paid closer attention to watering while it was in my garage it would be alive and doing well.  

My wife is currently working on one, a Brunswick was selected for the leaf.

Ficus carica can make a nice larger-scale bonsai.  However, the leaves will only reduce by so much, and most specimens are photographed after a good leaf pruning, so that the new leaves will grow somewhat smaller in scale.  The figs (fruit) will not reduce in size.

The really gnarly-looking trunks are made by doing a severe trunk-chop, and growing out, and training, new, sprouting branches...then chopping them back also.  It's a work in progress, and best results come from in-ground trees grown in a training bed until they look like something you'd display.  Then reduce the roots until the tree(s) will fit in a display pot.  Then you can refine the overall design.  Standard bonsai techniques should be followed, like root-pruning, feeding with correct fertilizers, and wiring branches into desired positions.

Good luck...post photos from the beginning of this process.

Frank

I have not tried to grow figs as bonsai.
However, I have a few plants that want to grow like bonsai despite my efforts to make them grow normal growth. They ignore all my efforts.

There are a couple of threads on it with awesome pictures that are discoverable using the search feature of the forum.

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