Oh mankind. You impatient little critters. Why are you not able to wait for nature's path. The hurry of your minds...

I was at the garden centre yesterday, looking for a good buy to two. (Actually managed: Got a mulberry tree with 20% off, as well as a pair of kiwi's). On my way to the register, I came across pots with small ficus cuttings. And I decided to try another trunk fattening technique. By merging several trunk into one...



So I bought a put with some 15 small cuttings. When I removed them from the pot, unfortunately part of the work was already done: The roots were so badly intertwined, that I could not split them without *very* seriously mal-treating the plants. Ah well.. It is an experiment anyway.




So what I did then, is tie the trees just above root-level in a sort of a string small trees. These I tied around a small piece of wood, so it formed a circle of saplings. I then tried to weave the saplings together. The ide was that the individual saplings will merge to multiple other saplings. That way, when one root-system fails, the sapling will be fed by the others. Subsequently I tied a think cotton thread around the whole bunch to create a tight bunch of saplings with the stems touching on many places. I did do a bit of thinning, removing perhaps 25% of the canopies to provide light and air in the canopy.

After potting it, I have placed the whole thing in a clear plastic bag, on the window-sill above the heating. That will provide bottom-heat, stimulating re-growth of the roots.

How true...of mankind's impatience. It is a time of immediate gratification. The true purpose of any form of art is in the process (the journey), not the destination.

I would love to have a nursery nearby like the one you have! Well...we do actually, they just don't have the tropicals I need however, all their trees are now 60% off! Wanna come shopping, Jelle?

Good for you trying various methods and, I'm glad you are doing this one...I want to try this myself in the future when my cuttings are big enough. These saplings are Ficus Benjamina, correct?

I'm wondering if one could use a special tape used by house painters called *painter's tape*. It sticks well but removes easily without leaving residue or doing any damage to the surface it is adhering to. There is another tape that is rubberized called *friction tape*...it sticks to itself but not to the surface of the object you are wrapping it with and it's very flexible. It seems using tape would be far less likely to leave scars.

Did you enclose the whole plant...foliage as well, inside the bag? How are you letting air inside? Could one use an electric heating pad set on low as a heat source beneath a plant?

Thanks for sharing, Jelle. I'm really looking forward to following the progress of this one.

Hey leatherback, how is the trunk merging coming along? Any sign of hope? I was wondering if i should give this a try

That sounds like a great idea -- how's it going.
... think we all wanna know.

Unfortunately the mistreatment of the roots was not good for it. On top of that I have had a serious infection of 'gnats' the larvea of which feed on plant roots; 2 Weeks ago I gave up and tossed it out; I now only catch a dozen or so of the critters, but I am watering the plants with poison now

R.I.P.

This woudl work, but the plants I grabbed were very much grown together, and the gnats tossed the weak plants over the edge.

Shame man, thats a bummer. Stupid GNATS!!! grrr. What poison do you use? Because i get the same problem with my cuttings. If i ever find a load of cheap ficus at the nursery im definitely going to give it a try.
I need to get a poison for gnat larvae too, does algae promote gnat larvae?

I was thinking about doing this with sugar maple seedlings. They are everywhere here in Maine. I could easily gather 30 in an hour. haha
The leaves don't reduce but oh well..experience.

The only time I get these little flies (Mosquito's?) is when I buy potting soild from a specific place. I just thought it was a coincidence, but now is the third time I have them, and it is the third time I got soil from there. So I am back to buying it in Holand, unfortunately that is 30km away. Oh well.. Unfortunately, I bought the soil when I bought the pot of ficus cuttings; They did not really stand a change. The first 2 weeks the plants were doing great, but then all of the sudden an explosion of these annoying animals and I saw them deteriorate at a great speed.

I would have to look at tthe package. I have the stuff in my office now as I have a major infection going on there (My ficus elastica cuttings were repotted with the same soil+ Sigh, but because of their size they seem to be pulling through, although most of the aerial roots have been hollowed out).

Cool. I would love to grow sugar maple! THat is so nice that you have dozens of seedlings available!

Mosquito's? Is that the problem that you had, and not rootworm? Well you lucky you live to close to Holland. I'm surprised Germans cant make a decent potting soil, maybe its the one thing they not good at

Shame, this soil really is giving you a nightmare.

And that sound like a cool idea pinkham, you should definitely give it a try

The animals I have now are the same as Leslie had earlier this year, I think, and are part of the bibionidae family (marsh flies). In Dutch they are called rouwmug, where 'mug' is dutch for mosquito . i think they are taxonomically flies though.

crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth03.html
anic.ento.csiro.au/insectfamilies/biota_...6268&PageID=families

You can easily get them from composted soil if the composting process was not hot enough, or if the soil is not sterilized. In the Netherlands I buy coconut fibre based potting soil (For Dutch reading this: Potting soil at 'bouwmarkten' are typically of this kind; Check the wrapper) which is not composted and therefor has less of such risk.