Trunk Fusion in 2 months. Tiger Bark Ficus

YamadoriFL

Mame
Messages
160
Reaction score
348
Location
Florida
USDA Zone
10b
No, not taking the wire off today. Maybe another few weeks. They grow so fast down here that those wire marks will be gone shortly after the wire is removed. I had never tried this before and what really amazed me was the fact that the wire held them together tight enough to fuse, and that it happened in two months.
 

YamadoriFL

Mame
Messages
160
Reaction score
348
Location
Florida
USDA Zone
10b
PS I included fresh green leaves around the grouping of cuttings when I tied them. You can kind of see that in the second picture. I thought about this at first, but decided to leave them to see what would happen. Perhaps it increased the localized humidity around the trunk portions and promoted faster fusing.
 

YamadoriFL

Mame
Messages
160
Reaction score
348
Location
Florida
USDA Zone
10b
Are you planning on making a broom style tree?
I’m planning on making more of these. I have no shortage of cuttings from the same mother plant.

This one, I’ll just let grow for now. See how it goes.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
You want to remove the wire when the wire cuts in about 2 to 4 millimeters. Roughly 1/8 to 3/16 inch. Don't let the wire get buried too deep or you will tear bark when you remove wire. I have willow leaf ficus with wire scars that remained after 10 years. Wire scars will disappear on a trunk or branch that the plan includes dramatic increase of diameter. On a branch or trunk that is near "finished diameter", the wire marks will remain for a very long time. GROWTH is required to heal over wire marks. So wire marks early in a tree's development are no big deal, growth will heal them. Wire marks on a branch that is not going to be allow to get much bigger will take forever to disappear.

With your fusion, you need the pressure of the wire to keep the trunks together so fusion can occur. And the fusion process needs to continue internally even after the exterior bark seems to initially have fused.

In the original post by @YamadoriFL , last photo, the wire is cutting into the bark. I would remove the wire and immediately re-wire, taking care to either wrap in the opposite direction, making an "x" pattern with the eventual wire scars or if you do wrap the same direction, be cautious and do not place the new wire into the old cuts. But you need to keep the pressure on this trunk for at least a year, even if you have to wire, then remove wire, then wire again, three or four times over this time period. The internal elements need to fuse, so keep removing wire when it cuts in, and immediately re-applying wire in order to not allow the trees to separate.

Once the fusion is over a year, and really solid, you can stop with the wire. If you wire the upper parts of the scions, and arch then out and away from each other to create a broom style, or to make some of the scions horizontal branches, definitely have wire or raffia or other wrap holding the trunks together just below the bending points. Otherwise you will tear apart the newly fused trunks.
 
Top Bottom