New to bonsai - Ficus Benjamina

[mikemking]

Hello everyone! I'm just getting started with bonsai, and I'm here to learn.

I picked up this ficus benjamina a week ago. I'm reading as much as I can and watching lots of YT videos. I want to get started correctly with this tree, and I have lots of questions.

First, my goals for this tree: learn to keep it alive; learn the basics of bonsai. Hopefully it becomes a nice bonsai over time, I will be patient.

1. Would this be considered a pre-bonsai at this stage?

2. Besides learning to care for the tree, and keep it alive, is there anything I should be doing right away?

3. The trunk is very thin. Do I need to be focusing on trunk thickening?

4. Is this an appropriate pot for this tree at this stage? Should it be in a deeper pot to develop the trunk and roots?

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Welcome to the site! I don’t do Tropicals so I can’t help you there, but others will reply.

As with most things in bonsai it’s very much debated what is and isn’t a bonsai. I think most would say this is a pre-bonsai or raw nursery material more likely.

Yes in my opinion your main focus now should be thickening the trunk. That means when you repot next put it in a larger pot, and let it grow wild and basically don’t prune it for a few years.

 

[Hartinez]

Hello everyone! I'm just getting started with bonsai, and I'm here to learn.

I picked up this ficus benjamina a week ago. I'm reading as much as I can and watching lots of YT videos. I want to get started correctly with this tree, and I have lots of questions.

First, my goals for this tree: learn to keep it alive; learn the basics of bonsai. Hopefully it becomes a nice bonsai over time, I will be patient.

1. Would this be considered a pre-bonsai at this stage?

2. Besides learning to care for the tree, and keep it alive, is there anything I should be doing right away?

3. The trunk is very thin. Do I need to be focusing on trunk thickening?

4. Is this an appropriate pot for this tree at this stage? Should it be in a deeper pot to develop the trunk and roots?

Hello Mike. Welcome to the site and this wonderful Art.

answers in order

1) Yes I would consider this pre bonsai but that is a purely subjective opinion. "Technically" its a bonsai, but ask yourself in 5 years the same question based on your images and your answer may change.

2) Keeping the tree alive is paramount, but if you ask me and many others on here, you should be buying 5 more of the same type of tree or different trees. It is easy to love a single tree to death from over working and just doing too much. Learning to keep it alive may just be have more to keep alive.

3) Yes I would def focus on thickening the trunk. Fortunately Ficus is one of those species that will increase in trunk size from just being in a pot and being healthy. Unlike many other trees, junipers, pines, elms that thicken much slower unless planted in the ground. as @TrevorLarsen said, you'll want to increase your pot size as the tree grows to keep enough room for the roots to push more vascular growth. You may find in 5 years that a new trunk line presents itself and you chop back to a new branch to achieve more taper and a more convincing look.

4) at this stage the pot is whatever. Just keep it happy and alive. You could go slightly deeper, but it's not necessary, especially with ficus. Just don't up pot the tree too much or the tree will have too much room to grow into and probably won't be as vigorous as you'd like to see.

a side note - Id put this tree outside now if you haven't already. You should be able to get another month or so of decent warm weather before fall hits. Gradually get it into full sun. Next year get this tree outside in full sun all summer. Ficus thrive on heat and when it's hot during the day and night, it'll grow like gang busters.

Good luck and buy more trees!!

DH

 

[Carol 83]

Welcome to the forum! Do what he says

 

[mikemking]

Thanks everyone!

Regarding increasing the pot size, I assume I should wait until Spring. When choosing a larger pot, do I want something deeper, or wider? How do I know if I've gone too big?

I am keeping the tree outside now, but will bring it in for winter. I have an area with good natural light, and I will supplement with artificial light. I can also keep temps relatively stable and humidity relatively high.

 

[sevan]

I repot my tropical trees late spring or early summer when nighttime temperatures are consistently in the 60s or 70s. Ficus recover from repotting very quickly when it's warm.

 

[WIlliam_Butler_Yeets]

Thanks everyone!

Regarding increasing the pot size, I assume I should wait until Spring. When choosing a larger pot, do I want something deeper, or wider? How do I know if I've gone too big?

I am keeping the tree outside now, but will bring it in for winter. I have an area with good natural light, and I will supplement with artificial light. I can also keep temps relatively stable and humidity relatively high.

for ficus, you actually need to turn the advice on it's head a little bit. because ficus (like a lot/most tropicals) don't go dormant, you want to repot them when they are growing most vigorously during the year, for most of us in North America that means the height of summer, so that they can quickly recover from the repotting

 

[mikemking]

What kind of fertilization routine should I be doing at this time?

 

[Gabler]

What kind of fertilization routine should I be doing at this time?

Use any general purpose fertilizer as directed on the label until you bring the tree inside for the winter.

 

[mikemking]

I took the advice so far in this thread. I had the tree outside until the fall temps got too low, then brought it inside for the winter.

I focused on keeping it alive and healthy, I think I've done okay with that. I'll be moving it outside once the low temps are above 50 degrees (7a) in a few weeks.

I also bought a few other cheap trees (cypress, mugo) and focused on keeping them alive and healthy as well (separate threads to come for those).

Now that it's spring, I'd like to make a plan for this little benjamina. I want to get it into a pot suited for growth, and I want to get it into soil that I know what it's made of. This was purchased at a garden center and it looks to be mostly inorganic soil, but I haven't disturbed it at all.

A few questions:

1. Do you think it looks healthy? As compared to the original pics from last Augst.
2. What kind/size pot would you all recommend?
3. What type of soil would you recommend? A complete inorganic bonsai mix? Or something more organic to promote growth?

 

[mikemking]

This guy has put on a bit of (leggy) growth over the summer. It's outdoors and gets direct sun about 4-6 hours of the day. I don't have anywhere on my property that gets more than that.

Wondering if I should do some pruning before I need to start thinking of overwintering?

 

[WIlliam_Butler_Yeets]

This guy has put on a bit of (leggy) growth over the summer. It's outdoors and gets direct sun about 4-6 hours of the day. I don't have anywhere on my property that gets more than that.

Wondering if I should do some pruning before I need to start thinking of overwintering?

If you want the trunk to continue to thicken more than it has, don't prune. It could still keep thickening if you do prune, but progress will be slower, fastest way to get a thick short tree is to start with a normally proportioned tall tree

 

[blackadam]

That ficus doubled trunk caliper in like 1 year?

 

[TimIAm]

Benjamina can be a bit less predictable with their response to pruning. They can bud on bare sections, but you can't cut back a branch and reliably expect that it will put out some or even any new buds on a branch with none. The risk is no new buds and possible die-back. I prefer to shape these by waiting until you get a round of growth and then cut back to where new buds already exist. Also be careful not to cut back too close to new buds, I've also had F benjamina decide to abandon buds when I've cut back too close, so I always cut with some extra space and then trim back after the new buds begin growing out.

If you are heading into winter and you are not expecting another round of growth during winter (for example, if you are using grow lights and can reliably expect a flush of growth), I wouldn't suggest pruning now. Not because you are likely to kill your tree, but because you are not likely to get a strong growth response. The longer you have a tree the better you will get at timing, but usually the warmer months you will get a few rounds of growth from your Ficus and that is the best time to prune. This is also inline with what I mentioned above, having new buds ready to go is a good sign that your tree is ready to put on another flush and it's also a good time to prune a benjamina because you know you have buds available that you can cut back to.

 

[mikemking]

That ficus doubled trunk caliper in like 1 year?

Yeah, I was surprised when I compared the before and after photos!

My goal is to thicken the trunk and main limbs. My concern is those leggy bits are coming off the tips of branches, not the main trunk. So I could treat them as sacrificial, but will it thicken in the right places?

 

[mikemking]

Benjamina can be a bit less predictable with their response to pruning. They can bud on bare sections, but you can't cut back a branch and reliably expect that it will put out some or even any new buds on a branch with none. The risk is no new buds and possible die-back. I prefer to shape these by waiting until you get a round of growth and then cut back to where new buds already exist. Also be careful not to cut back too close to new buds, I've also had F benjamina decide to abandon buds when I've cut back too close, so I always cut with some extra space and then trim back after the new buds begin growing out.

If you are heading into winter and you are not expecting another round of growth during winter (for example, if you are using grow lights and can reliably expect a flush of growth), I wouldn't suggest pruning now. Not because you are likely to kill your tree, but because you are not likely to get a strong growth response. The longer you have a tree the better you will get at timing, but usually the warmer months you will get a few rounds of growth from your Ficus and that is the best time to prune. This is also inline with what I mentioned above, having new buds ready to go is a good sign that your tree is ready to put on another flush and it's also a good time to prune a benjamina because you know you have buds available that you can cut back to.

Thanks, this is very helpful! It will be coming indoors for the winter and I don't expect growth over the winter. It has some budding going on right now.

FWIW, by "pruning", I mean a light trimming of the top leggy bits to keep the growth more compact down lower.

 

[TimIAm]

FWIW, by "pruning", I mean a light trimming of the top leggy bits to keep the growth more compact down lower.

If it has buds available now then it's making a decision of cutting back now vs. early Spring.

In Sydney trees have another round of growth in Autumn, so I would be happy to prune at the beginning of Autumn. If you are expecting the tree to go somewhat dormant soon, my guess is cutting now is not going to make much difference and the buds will still be there when Spring kicks off. But the best answer is your knowledge of your local seasons and your experience with your tree to decide to cut now or wait.

Waiting does mean extra leaves to drive some growth during winter, but again in Sydney we have a warmer winter and trees only really slow down for about 4 - 6 weeks.

 

[mikemking]

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

@TimIAm - good point about experience and expectations about how the tree will develop over the next few months and winter. I have only had the tree one year, and I didn't get to observe any growth during last year's growing season, so I don't really have experience to lean on.

Given that, I'll leave it alone for now, learn its behaviors more and develop a plan next spring.

I plan to re-pot next year at the appropriate time, into something a little larger to encourage more growth. This pot is tiny and it'll have been in this pot for at least two years by next spring.

 

[mikemking]

I noticed small ants crawling on this ficus, and did a close inspection. I think I found some parasites. Are these scale?

 

[rockm]

I noticed small ants crawling on this ficus, and did a close inspection. I think I found some parasites. Are these scale?

View attachment 612711

Yes. Ants are farming them for their honeydew secretions. Generallly ants on trunks and branches are a tip off that you’ve f
For scale or aphids or both