PLEASE HELP - Ficus retusa cutting

ozzerbon

G'day Blokes and Ladies,

This afternoon I lopped off this part of my Ficus retusa 'Ginseng'.

#1 Will it root in water?
#2 Do I need to use rooting hormone?

#3 Will I succeed in getting it to grow?

Plan to pot it up directly in akadama, any thoughts about this?

ANY, ANY, ANY Help will truly be respected.

The cigarette lighter shows clearly the scale.

Nigel

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Mattchew

From what I know about ficuses, taking cuttings is extremely easy. I would think they would probably root in water, but another medium, like regular bonsai soil with more organics might be better. I dont know much about cuttings however, so take the words of more experienced people over mine.

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sauce

Hi Nigel, I have never rooted a cutting that large but have read that large fig limbs and branches root easily. For small twiggy cuttings I usually root them in water, but for larger ones I just stick them in potting soil, though I must also say I have never dealt with the Ginseng variety. I have not used rooting hormone for fig cuttings but I would think that it could be beneficial, certainly so if you are rooting in an inorganic soil. In my experience when the cutting is rooted in soil it needs to stay wet, not just damp but at the same time not soggy if that makes any sense. Frequent misting seems to help as well. I recently, (about 3 or 4 weeks ago) took the top off a small Tiger bark or Taiwan fig, about 3/4 inch diameter. Stuck it in potting soil and it is already shooting out new growth. Good luck and hope I was of some help.

pootsie

1. Yes

2. No

3. Yes, we hope

One thing that may help at this point is to reduce the leaf mass by about 2/3. Cut off have the leaves at the middle of the petiole, and trim another half of what is left in half.

pootsie

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FlyBri

By my reckoning, that's reducing the foliage mass by 5/8ths...

Good luck with that monster cutting, Ozzer! I have some F. rubiginosa cuttings that have inadvertantly rooted in large pickle jar filled with water - I was keeping them wet so I could whack them into soil with root powder, but time got away from me, and now they have little rootlets!!! I'm unsure how well they'll transplant, given the drastic change of medium...

Thanks.

Fly.

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sauce

Hi Fly, I used to worry about that as well. What I have found that works for me here in Florida is to refresh the water every couple of days and let the roots grow to about 2 or 3 inches long. Then I plop them in potting soil and keep it on the wet side for a couple of weeks. I've had good success with this method, but then again that is with small cuttings here in Florida.

PinkFloyd

I've rooted several large cuttings from ficus nerifloria (sp?) and have found that if you put a "tent" over them while they root, they do better. I usually use a large ziplock bag.


John Lee

Happy Gilmore

I covered one 3/16" cutting froma demo I watched at the PNWBC last fall. It was in porous low organic soil and I'd expose it to air each day (remove clear cover). It molded up on me and never sprouted anything.

Another cutting from a club meeting that was 3/8" diameter I just put into a sandy potting soil mix, removed all but one leaf per main branch and it took off. I gave it literally one shooter glass of water each day right on it's trunk base. Base was inserted about 1-1/4" into the soil. Just about to go and repot my 'office' ficus to see whats under it for roots and get it out of it's 'heavy' organic laden non-draining soil.

If it was mine, I'd dip base in rooting hormone and put it right into a reasonably organic mix for starters and low water doses for a while.

ozzerbon

Howdy do Blokes and Sheilas,

About an hour after my posting last night, I was able to remove my nursing hat and done my camo cap, my patient was tucked away, safe as houses, so I made my decision and planted the brute of a cutting in a rather good Korean, deep, oval, mahogany-glazed pot, with a baker's pastry brush painted the whole of the base of the trunk with rooting hormone powder.

The pot ready and wired, with a fairly deep layer of akadama #2, I then wired the trunk firmly into place and gently topped the akadama up to the pot's rim, and watered it copiously.

Thank you Pootsie , forgot about the leaf reduction tip [shall certainly do that within the next hour from now], and then we'll see how he [my tree] will do, height is now just about 22.5cms [8 3/4"], then will place it in a West facing window in my Computer room, where latish afternoon sun [slightly screened] blasts in on a daily basis, practically everyday of the year.

Using the akadama #2, is a great medium, the water gushes thru and there is absolutely no chance of water logging.

The next thing that I have to do now is to go back to the original tree [an akward looker, make no mistake] and wire it's main uppermost branches, which I hope I shall be able to eventually sweep downwards, it's a brute of a thing, lives in my kitchen so is never forgotten, the 'Ginseng' name came with it [an import from Korea, they tell me], has two types of foliage, both of which I am allowing to develope, only time will settle that argument.

Thank you all for the above remarks and help.

Will keep you informed on this bloke's progress, success or no....

Regards,
Ezhausted Nurse Nigel

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