Ficus for Nigel

Nigel,

here is our local Ficus p. a willow leaf type, found all over San Fernando and Southern Trinidad.

Yup, problem is you keep it healthy and it continues to fatten dramatically.

I can now produce these results [ 3 inch / 8 cm trunks ] in about 3 years from a pencil thick tree, in
1 inch / 2,5 cm of soil and in only 10% aged compost / 90 % 5 mm silica based gravel, by volume.
More Images later.
Khaimraj

Nigel,

here is another attempt. The balls are hand-rolled 8 mm earthenware / porous balls, and the rest is
aged compost. I stole the clay from the anthills in the yard
Laters.
Khaimraj

Last one -  5 mm gravel and aged compost
Until,
Khaimraj

And another Nigel.
Stay Well
Khaimraj

And another 2



Mame' size [ under 15 cm / 6 inches ]

Nigel,

I have discovered that I can grow anything in a simple mix of 5 mm silica based gravel and aged compost.
If I need extra moisture in the soil, I can also replace some of the gravel which is non-porous with porous
5 mm crushed red earthenware brick.

However the local ficus and a few other trees do not need much organic, nor does it need to be a deep
pot of soil.
In fact as little as an inch [ 2.5 cm ] is sufficient.

However the ficus is able to trunk thicken without ground growing. Just allow a branch to lengthen to
3 feet / 1 metre.

What I am working on is a way of using these properties to slow down the over thickening of the fine
branching.

Due to some climate features of Trinidad and I suspect Jamaica, our soils do not heat to over 90 deg. F
which is supposed to stop growth.
This allows our plants to grow fairly evenly in pots. Excess rain will stop or slow growth, or lack of
it, but in pots, some factors are different.
Additionally, from June we drop back to the mid or lower 80's during the day.

It's raining now so I have to stop fertilising and depending on the rain, this may be it for the year.

Our next dry spell is our Petite Carime [ Spelling ? ] around September for two weeks.

By the way I keep the shapes simple, so I cam focus on the research.
At this time I have about 5 more other native types to work on.
Until.
Khaimraj