it's possible you don't actually water it well enough: if the rootball is very dried up, the water will just run thru. even if it's moist on top, it might be totally dry in the middle. soak it for 30 min in a bucket of water. or put it in the sink and let water slowly run thru it for 15 min. it's a large tree, it needs quite a lot of water. but to be sure - put a skewer thru to the bottom. and see how moist it is. it's like a cake test. if it's moist all the way thru - no need to water. if it's dry top 1/3 - need to water.

Yeah you want a solitary leader.

redneck grower ..... I am now in the process of "fuse-grafting" three, 5-foot "ATREANO" fig trees. I started this process about 2 months ago, as my trees were starting to break dormancy. Last year, I took the trees and potted them into a very large container, about 20-gallons. I made sure that the mainstems were all very close to each other, and then, I took some very soft rope, and tied all the stems tightly, so that the trees looked like a bundle of bamboo poles sticking out of the pot. This spring, after taking out the trees from my unheated storage shed, I drove #4 stainless-steel screws through one stem, then into another close-growing stem. In other words, screw all your stems together, at various points, until you have one, thick, fat, "composite-trunk" made up of the individual stems. Make sure you use only stainless-steel screws that have threads all the way up the shank, use an electric, screw gun, and, drive the screws SLOWLY! Counter-sink the heads just slightly, or you'll run the risk of splitting the stems if screws are driven too deeply. Brass screws are too weak, and the heads will shear-off from the torque. Marine supply stores sell the kind of screws you'll need. I've also used this "trunk-screwing" technique with "Winterberry Holly" -Ilex verticillata, which requires a male pollinator. I bought some "Winter Red" holly shrubs, with very tall stems, a male pollinator, and I planted all the shrubs, including the male, into one hole. I rope-tied all the stems into a fat bundle, then drove screws through the stems to make one, big, fat, "holly-tree", wich is now growing in my front yard. The male holly is right there in the middle of all the females, insuring good pollination, and the bright, red berries that these hollies produce, can stop you in your tracks!! All the screw heads are now being covered over by the new, bark layers, and, stems are starting to fuse together. The screws force the stems to fuse-graft because they cannot move away from each other, but must, grow INTO each other. "tapla" suggests that you expose the cambium, to better aid in the grafting process, but I was reluctant to do this, because I was afraid of introducing entry points for disease, etc. It would be my guess that the fig trees will eventually fuse together anyway, even without wounding the cambium layer, but it will probably take longer. The reason I chose to fuse-graft only one variety instead of different varieties, is because, all the single-variety trees will have the same growth patterns, ripening times, etc. Different varieties may cause problems, or, maybe not. Try it. What can you lose? By the way, there are a number of older postings, on this forum, dealing with this subject .... just use the "search" feature for more information. Good luck with your experiment. Also check out: "Arbosculpture" sites, and also, "Fuse-grafting Trident Maple" bonsai site (Doug Phillips). Cordially, Frank DV

Well, Andy, the pic is sideways. Also, I can't tell how much surface area has been fused. This plant is actually not a Jade at all...not even in the same family or order of plants. This plant is Portulacaria afra, the "Elephant's [Food] Bush," Spekboom, from South Africa. As such, the woody trunk is much tougher than a Jade's, and I do think you could carefully cut - with a sharp implement - the two trunks apart with minimal damage or scarring. Or....you could grow the trunks this way as a novelty. Your choice. Josh