Ficus Pumila - Covering the Exterior Walls in Green 🏡

[nelsonic]

Ever since we embarked on the @home project it's been our ambition to cover the house in plants. https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/8

This is Ivy: It looks great but requires a lot of maintenance to keep it looking this good. The major downside of Ivy is that gives a very "thick" cover which can encourage pests like rats and snakes. 🐍 The vine we are planning plant is quite tight against the wall so there's less chance of pests. Luckily, we've never seen a rat/mouse @home outdoor.

https://carminereddarter.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/my-favourite-buildings-in-london-the-house-overgrown-by-ivy-in-de-beauvoir-hackney

After much research (online and IRL) we stumbled upon Ficus pumila https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_pumila While walking at Conservatório Bomfim http://conservatorio.bomfim.org/fotografias/#!

Side Note: Braga has 4 highly rated music schools/conservatories. google.com/search?q=braga+escola+musica 🎶

The panorama of the wall really does not do it justice. It's 80+ meters of green wall and looks amazing!

The wall is north-west facing and it has only partial sunlight for around 2 hours per day.

This close-up photo allowed us to use Google Lens to lookup:

The density of the foliage is excellent and it's evergreen, new leaves grow while the old ones are still on the vine. Which means there are multiple colors of leaves at several times of the year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_pumila#/media/File:Ficus_pumila.jpg

The most mature leaves are the darkest green: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_pumila#/media/File:Feuilles_de_Ficus_pumila.jpg

The fruits are edible: http://www.eattheweeds.com/climbing-fig-creeping-fig they are used in Taiwanese cuisine.

Not that we are growing the plants for their fruit; just we wouldn't grow them if the fruits were toxic to humans or animals.

This house has it's own wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Wilson_Beach_House #LifeGoals 😉

Additional Reading

There is conflicting info on how tall the plants grow. Some places say 4m, but there is plenty of evidence of taller. We need ours to grow 7m while maintaining decent coverage.

• https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/7210/Ficus-pumila/Details
• https://www.uaex.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-database/vines/creeping-fig.aspx
• https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/16737/

Considerations

• [x] We need to plant one seedling every 1 - 1.5 meters to ensure consistent coverage.
  • on the north wall, I think it makes sense to space the plants closer as we need them to grow to 7m tall and given that it less sunlight

Todo

• [x] Visit Conservatório Bomfim and ask them who their gardener/groundskeeper is.
  • [x] Ask if we can buy (or just take) a few clippings of their plants.
  • In total we need 100 clippings. 🌱
  • 52m (25 + 15 + 12) of exterior fence to cover. (the remaining 25m will be Kiwi vine)
  • 50m (15 + 10 + 15 + 10) of main building

    If we can get 10 clippings we could get the West wall started and then take clippings of our own plants next year. 💭

[nelsonic]

Today on our evening walk we visited the Conservatório Bomfim (music school) and Inês talked to the caretaker. He kindly gave us these clippings:

Following the instructions I found online for clipping propagation: https://www.gardenguides.com/101322-propagate-ficus-plant.html

going to do the work now so they don’t dry out. 🌱

[nelsonic]

Placed 20 prepared cuttings into glass jars filled with filtered water. (Only 10 shown in this photo, we have another tray of 10 on the next windowsill):

really hope this works. 🤞🌱

[nelsonic]

Good news! It’s been 5 weeks since we put the clippings in water and most of them have sprouted roots! 🌱

so I went to Leroy Merlin this morning and bought some small (15cm diameter) pots to transplant them into soil:

Going to do the potting of the seedlings this afternoon with A. Will continue to house them in our mini-greenhouse to keep them warm. But I will be using rain water (that I collected this week when it was pouring) to irrigate them as I think our tap water isn’t great for plants. 🤔

[nelsonic]

Transplanted the 16 cuttings with the best looking roots:

[nelsonic]

@iteles I've been spraying the leaves with tap water each morning to keep them hydrated. I haven't added any NPK/nutrients to the water or soil; do you think we should add?

[iteles]

I think that it would be great to add some nutrients - give them the best start possible in life! Will have to do some research on the most appropriate ones though :)

[nelsonic]

@iteles thinking of using worm tea from the composter diluted 1:10 with water. (not on the leaves, just add to the soil)

[iteles]

Worm tea sounds... 😂 🐛 Lovely! But yes, great idea.

[nelsonic]

@iteles misting the leaves to keep them hydrated until the roots are established to draw enough moisture from the soil:

[nelsonic]

One of the things to have in mind when embarking on this kind of adventure is how we are going to maintain the vine once it grows enough to cover the walls ... Specifically we need to avoid it growing above the roofline and onto the Solar Panels #20 ... these vines can easily grow to cover the house and if not kept in check will become a nuisance!

A quick search for a telescopic pruner returned the "Fiskars UP86": https://loja.jardinitis.com/fiskars-universal-vara-telescopica-varios-tamanhos-bfee7/?otcountry=PT&sku=F1023625

No point looking for this on the Leroy website, they only have the 4m model. We want the longest possible one. If we can find an 8m one we would get that instead of 6m.

Fiskars UP86 Tree Pruner Revisited (long-term review): most of the down-votes are from people complaining about the sound ... 🙄 the content is decent. One of the video comments is a question is about the cutting diameter: it's 32mm.

@iteles this means we could use it to trim the tree branches of the street trees that are dropping all the leaves/seeds into our yard ... given that the council isn't going to do it ... 🙄

Usefully it appears to be easy to maintain the mechanism; the internal rope that operates the pruner is changeable and there is a replacement part kit: https://youtu.be/Pj2nUka0SaU The blades are also sharpen-able / replaceable.

When? ⏳

We don't need to buy this for the next couple of years while the vines are establishing themselves. We want to train them with wire around the house (above head height) but not prune them until they are mature.

I'm just capturing this mini research so it's clear we have thought about how to maintain the vines. 💭

More detail: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/climbing-fig/

[nelsonic]

The clippings have grown remarkably well in the last few months and are ready to be planted out! 🌱 🎉 @iteles do you want to take a walk around the garden to plan the placement e.g. tomorrow afternoon?

[nelsonic]

@iteles yesterday you mentioned that that you had read that Ficus Pulmia was "Toxic" ... 💭 Would you mind sharing a link to where you read it so that I can dig a bit deeper?

Sadly, I get the feeling this is Facebook-fuelled misinformation. 🤷‍♂️

http://www.eattheweeds.com/climbing-fig-creeping-fig/ (shared in the OP above ... sharing again)

The FDA list of Poisonous that some non-experts refer to: https://www.cfsanappsexternal.fda.gov/scripts/Plantox/Detail.CFM?ID=18120

Does not include Ficus Pulmia:

The California Poison Control System: https://calpoison.org/topics/plant#nontoxic-common

Ficus Pulmia is listed in the Non-toxic plants by it's common name "Creeping fig":

North Carolina State University has this page with detailed info: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ficus-pumila/

If you search the page for "toxic" (or variants of the word) you will find zero hits:

Similarly Clemson.edu College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences has a very informative Factsheet: https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/climbing-fig/

The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has the following Fact Sheet: https://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/shrub_fact_sheets/ficpuma.pdf

Again, no mention of toxicity/poisonous.

It references: https://www.cabi.org/isc The "CABI" (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International) Invasive Species Compendium Which has a specific page for Ficus pumila (creeping fig): https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/24162

"In China, Taiwan, and Japan, it is commercially cultivated to make jellies from the fruit"

In the Risk of Introductions section: https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/24162#tosummaryOfInvasiveness It says: "is poisonous to mammals" ... References: Wiersema JH; León B, 1999. World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference. Boca Raton, Florida, USA: CRC Press, 749 pp.

Couldn't find a PDF of the book available online, but Google Books allows searching in the book: https://books.google.pt/books?id=gZlWfNTm-boC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=ficus%20pulmia&f=false

The book basically a compendium of 10k+ plants with tiny amount of info for each one. It says "Poison (mammals)" ... no other info. 🤷‍♂️

Which "mammals"...?! 🤷‍♂️ If the fruit is eaten in several Asian countries, how is it "poisonous" ...?

[iteles]

Sadly, I get the feeling this is Facebook-fuelled misinformation.

🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄 It's like you've never met me. Or like you think I've never met you. 🙄

This is where I first saw it when I was looking at possibly buying some plants: https://viveirosvl.com/produto/ficus-pumila-white-sunny/

Then also see below:

https://hortology.co.uk/collections/trailing-hanging-plants/products/ficus-pumila-white-sunny-creeping-fig

https://www.trees.com/house-plants/creeping-fig

https://www.houseplantsexpert.com/growing-a-creeping-fig-indoors.html

I think we can safely conclude it's not fatal but can be an irritant.

[tuxkernel]

Im attaching some pictures of my backyard. Ficus pumila is the best choice for covering the wall.

Some info about cares, benefits, myths and truths (spanish):

ficus-pumila.pdf (letterpaper) ficus-pumila-2secciones.pdf (signatures, letterpaper, 2 sections)

[nelsonic]

@tuxkernel this is incredible!! 😍 How long did this take to grow? ⏳ 💭

[tuxkernel]

@nelsonic two years to grow. But with cares you can reduce the time. If you need additional info, don't forget ask me. Happy growing! ;-)

[nelsonic]

Sadly, the chap I asked to water the already established Focus Plants took it upon himself to add a fertiliser to the plant 🌱...

Again I had not asked him to do it, he did it thinking he was helping... And this is was the effect. Killed a perfectly healthy plant. 😭

This has made me very sad. 😭

[nelsonic]

July 2023 Update!

Our most well-established Ficus Pulmia plant is on the pillar below the main staircase:

It only gets 2-3 hours of sunlight per day but is already around 1m tall and strongly attached to the wall.

A month ago when we visited Landim I took around 30 clippings from various Ficus vines. I placed them in plastic bottles with water and

Our son is keen on plants & gardening. So when I told him we were going to transplanting he was excited!

We took a bowl and went to the construction gravel bag (Brita 1) to grab some gravel:

Put a little bit of gravel into each of the 8 plant pots:

Then got some soil ("Terra Preta") from the pile and put crumbled in into the pots:

Next we got some potting/germination compost and put a little in each pot:

Selected the 8 clippings with the most well-established roots:

Once we had transplanted 8 together we packed in the root section into the nutrient rich compost:

Once the compost + roots was gently compacted, watered them:

The pots are placed in the trays on top of the wall where they can get good sunlight but not all day only around 2-3h/day:

The tray holding the pots allows us to water them generously:

And the water in the tray is pulled up by the plants by capillary action.

Added a teaspoon of rooting agent to each plant, but far from the stem:

When I gave them a final water the rooting agent filtered into the soil and will encourage the plants to establish.

Transferred the remaining cuttings into glass bottles with fresh water and rooting agent:

@iteles we need to axsk DT to water the plants while we're in Gerês next week. 🙏

As for the remaining clippings, none of them have sufficient roots for transplanting, yet... 🌱 ⌛ The glass bottles with tapered necks reduce evaporation so they should be fine for a couple of weeks without us. 👌 When we get back from Gerês, we will buy new pots for transplanting and prepare the next batch of 8. 👩‍🌾

[iteles]

Hooray! This looks like a fun morning too ❤️ I'll ask for the watering to be done 👍

[nelsonic]

The advantage of the trays is that DT/Miguel can can visually see if the plants are "dry" and need watering. 🚰

[nelsonic]

Today we removed the protective “cage” from our second strongest plant l:

I installed a support wire to allow the vine to grow against the wall:

watered it generously - as there hasn’t been rain the past week - and considering adding some NPK tomorrow to stimulate growth. 🌱

[nelsonic]

According to: https://greg.app/creeping-fig-fertilizer/ (dunno if that link will last...)

We need a balanced NPK fertiliser to stimulate growth. Going to collect some 10:10:10 from Leroy on my next visit. 👨‍🌾🤞🏼

Also need to buy 3 Passion Fruit vines to plant. 🌱

[nelsonic]

This is the 3rd well-established ficus vine that had a protective plastic fence around it for the past couple of years:

I removed the green plastic protection around it and added a white mesh to the stair banister vertical bars. The mesh serves as child protection as the gap between the vertical bars is too wide for child safety - the house was built long before those regulations existed!! - but it will double as a trellis for the ficus vine:

The vine is now trained to grow on the trellis and I have watered it generously with the organic NPK mix. 🌱👌

[nelsonic]

My plan tomorrow is to plant out 7 more of the cuttings that are well-established in pots on the wall:

I've planned where they will go. Just need to prep the support wires and temporary green plastic protection mesh. ⏳ Super keen to get this done ASAP so the new cuttings can establish like the existing ones. 🤞🏼

[nelsonic]

Today @davcdj kindly cleaned the glass bottles we use for the Ficus clippings:

So this weekend (prob Saturday morning) we will prepare 24 clippings. 🌱 2️⃣4️⃣ 🪴

[nelsonic]

Sadly, having clean jars in the kitchen - that I had carefully collected for the seedlings - was seen as an invitation to use them, and also sadly, two were broken! 😞

So I only had 10 jars for the seedlings:

I added a table spoon of root growth powder and the same in NPK (plant food) to test if the seedlings grow roots faster on this experiment:

Took all the clippings from our own plants around the house for the first time:

Prepared them by removing the bottom leaves off the clippings and stuck them in the jars with water:

hope these take root. 🌱🤞🏼

Meanwhile the other 10 that are in pots are more than ready to plant out! 😍

Very impressed with the growth of the plant under the stairs:

It gets barely any sunlight and is very healthy and vigorous! Gives me a lot of hope for the places I’m going to be planing others in the south garden. 🪴🤞🏼