GSCarlson
Shohin
January ‘25
September ‘25
September ‘25
Ficus Benjimina mame
- Thread starter GSCarlson
- Start date
Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
Get it strong, and next year in early summer defoliate it. You will cut your leaf size by 50% and generate tons of back buds.
hemmy
Omono
Escape roots into trays for outdoor and indoor tiny pots make a world of difference on vigor. But ficus can get too vigorous, very fast!
Maiden69
Masterpiece
If this one is just like tiger bark, cut the petiole, don't pull the leaves or you run a chance of pulling the latent buds out as they are at the base of the petiole.
Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
Yes. Cut the leaves off, do not pull them.
GSCarlson
Shohin
It lives in a grow tent. I may just defoliate when it starts it’s next growth cycle.
Stormwater
Shohin
I find that if I fully defoliate a branch, it tends to die. Do you all leave a single leaf at the end of each branch?
Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
No... but I am by no means an expert. I used to have these in landscape in SoCal and they would put up with any abuse I would throw at them. Now in NC I only have a couple.. and with the largest I wait until early summer when it is really strong, and then I defoliate and wire and let it recover. I do not try to balance growth on my largest tree... though a have a ficus cascade and I only defoliate the leaves above the soil line; the descending branch I never defoliate.
hemmy
Omono
Search F. benjamina on adamaskwhy.com he has many good articles. They will sometimes abandon pruned/defoliated branches that aren’t moving sap. I prune back to a leaf or leave a stipule and/or leaf at the end of branches during defoliation.
Stormwater
Shohin
That dude is hilarious!
Maiden69
Masterpiece
This may be zone dependent, ficus are tropical trees so probably they can't "fill their tank" fully in order to be fully defoliated in your zone. Here in TX I have no issues doing it on the ones I have. If you are cutting back at the same time it is recommended to leave a few leaves to help the sap continue to flow into the branch, this is recommended by David Cortizas, who I consider to be one of the most knowledgeable artists on ficus in Europe.
