F.Natalensis (advice welcome)/Wigert's review

Hey guys, so I thought I would post this here because so many people helped me pick out a ficus species, where to buy it, and what to look for.

I ended up getting a ficus natalensis from Wigert's online store. I was pleasantly surprised with the size and health of the plant. It looks like a few year old cutting, but has grown into quite the pre-bonsai.

I got the tree a few days ago, so I have not done much at all with it. I rearranged some thin aerial roots, just because i want to keep them and it will be hard to grow any new ones in Minnesota during the winter.

What I had originally wanted to do with the tree was a root-over-rock banyan type of thing. I saw a few cool photos a while ago, where someone had a F.benjimina on a fairly small rock, with the canopy extending to one side with many aerial roots. It was a cool mix of root over rock and Banyan.

However, this tree is much taller than I thought it would be - taller than what i would want on a rock. So here's what i'm thinking. For the time being, and probably until next spring I will let the tree grow and get used to my apartment. The only thing i may do before then is thin out some of the foliage on the top - as light can't really get in there well.

Next spring I will need to repot for sure, but am also thinking about doing a trunk chop. You can see from the picture below and the trunk is straight with no taper - and is a bit too tall for what I want. Additionally, most of the tree's branching is higher up, and if I do end up doing what i want, I will need some lower branching.

If anyone has any input there, that would be good. Where to chop, when to chop, if i should wait another year before trying to put it on a rock.

Just for reference: I live in minnesota, so the tree can't be outside very long during the year. Right now, it is in a west window but partly shaded because I didn't want to expose it to super bright light after shipping for 5 days. Once the days get shorter, I will put the tree under T5 lighting for the winter, and hope to still have a bit of growth over that season.

Wigert's review: I wanted to add a little note at the end here. Wigert's was simply fantastic. I emailed them with a few questions, and they answered within a day. Additionally, they gave me suggestions on other tropicals that would be good for indoor growing. The tree arrived exactly on time, and was packaged VERY well, the whole box was filled with packing peanuts, and upon removal of the tree, only one branch had broken - and it was a smaller useless one at that.

I ordered a dwarf fruiting mulberry from them a couple weeks ago and as you said they were extremely helpful here's my little guy

Hard to see exactly where because the top of the tree is kinda bushy but I'll air layer the top of the trunk (somewhere in the circle) and chop at the 2 red lines (actually the chop on the branch at the left could be closer to the trunk, I just saw that now).

You could also air-layer (or try to propagate as cuttings) a bunch of the big branches before the chop, like the one at the left below the circle.

You'd chop it that far down, huh? I'm finding it hard to decide to chop this tree, because it's so big and nice looking aside from no taper - especially all those aerial roots. I have never done a chop this extreme before, but I do want more taper in the trunk. Eventually I want the final height of the tree to be where the bottom of the red circle is.

By the way, the top of the trunk is only a quarter inch above the red circle.

I think I will air layer the top before i cut though, getting more than one plant out of this will be nice. Maybe @Redwood Ryan has some input for me.

Will this ficus survive a blind cut like that as well? If i chop it, I will likely wait until next june or july when it's warmer and brighter here. I may air layer some branches before that if i decide for sure to chop the trunk.

@aml1014 that is a nice looking tree - they do produce really good material there. Definitely going with them from now on.

Follow up question, when i chop the trunk - can i get away with using concave cutters or do i need to saw? And what are your guy's views on cut paste for cuts like these? I want it to heal nicely.

I don't know as I'd be that drastic, but it does need a pretty low chop. You'll probably want to use a saw, as otherwise you'd need a pretty big pair of pliers.

You can use cut paste if you want, but these bleed a lot of "sap", so there's really no need to.

However, before you do anything, let it push out new growth first. Once you see new growth, repot it into free draining soil. Then once it starts growing again, chop it on back.

You have to be brave and have faith to chop like that. I don't know if I'm that brave, I'll always attempt to encourage the tree to backbud and get something lower. Or look into either an approach, thread, or free graft. If you don't have access to a saw, concave cutters will do the work, you'll just have to attack it right side up and upside down to take out almond shaped pieces. Wound sealant doesn't hurt if you've already got it.

If you don't want to chop it (assuming you like the height, or if you would want it a little taller) you can always bind the aerial roots to the trunk in a flaring cone shape, or surround the trunk with a container of sorts and fill it with soil to encourage the formation of more roots. It makes sense to me for Ficus to be styled with aerial roots as there's a million other broadleaf species to play with that don't do it, if you don't like it. You don't see many formal broom Ficus trees.

@Redwood Ryan That was exactly my plan. I was guessing maybe chopping it close to spring just to give the roots a lot of extra time to grow after repotting - There is a fairly out of proportion surface root that I need to handle. Thank you for the advice.

When i repot, i can prune the roots pretty aggressive, yeah? Also, when should i start an air layer of the top that i want to keep - after the repotting?

@Desert Rat The style I wanted to do with this tree involves a lot of aerials - it has quite a few already that i'm trying to keep alive. The plant is going from florida to minnesota though. I want to style the tree banyan-like and very natural looking, so aerials will be good.

It looks like I will have to chop the tree - it's just frightening, because for me a $50 tree is a lot of money - But i'm sure the tree will survive, it's a ficus. I mean, i have ripped maples out of the ground and left them bare rooted for four hours before potting them without any death - i'm sure I can keep a ficus going after a chop. It's good to know that this species can be chopped hard - I know F.benjimina has trouble back budding sometimes.

Well, I'm looking desperately for a benjamina or a microcarpa or whatever kind of ficus that I could chop down to nearly nothing but the start of the trunk and try a sort of sumo ficus so may be i was just projecting my Texas chainsaw massacre's dream to your own tree

You can prune the heck outta the roots, assuming the tree is actively growing. Shoot, you could cut every root off and treat it like a cutting and it would bounce back. This species is awesome.

@Alain I might be mistaken - but i've been reading that F.Benjamina doesn't bud back from blind cuts well - one of the reasons i didn't get it.

@Redwood Ryan Do you have any advice as to when in this process i should start the air layer of the top? specifically should i do it before or after repotting? Waiting to do the chop will give me time to free up space under my lights as well, as all my other stuff will be going dormant and/or being pulled up for the winter.

Ficus grow when the roots grow. Which could mean two things. You could air layer after repotting, when the roots begin growing again. If you air layer before repotting, the lower portion of the tree won't be stressed at all- since you're interrupting the xylem and sugar transport.

What is the current height of the tree, and what is your ideal "finished" height? I'm under the impression that it's easier to fill out a ficus than grow it tall.

You could do it before or after repotting. You just want to make sure it's growing before you do it. I've got a humongous natalensis that has just been growing nonstop all summer. They're awesome to work with.

@Desert Rat the tree is about 14 inches tall, and ideally i'd want it to be about 9 or 10 inches to the top of the canopy - not very big at all.

I think I will start the air layer as soon as i know it's growing then - I would rather let the air layer grow many, many roots than cut it off before it's ready. I am going to leave two branches on the lower part of the tree after i do the layer so it still gets plenty of energy. I will give updates as i have them - just need to wait for it to recover from shipping now.

JasonRedwood said:

@Alain I might be mistaken - but i've been reading that F.Benjamina doesn't bud back from blind cuts well - one of the reasons i didn't get it.

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Looks like they do

http://www.bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/large-ficus-score-need-help-with-id.17738/

I think that's this thread which give me a craving to chop something bad

But anyway or I'll will use a cheap ficus or I'll try to find one free - with Sorce's help - for this extreme makeover.

Let me know how it works! I mean, I did read some things about people cutting F.benjamina to a stump and having it work out just fine - but those people lived in humid florida where the plants thrive.

JasonRedwood said:

Let me know how it works! I mean, I did read some things about people cutting F.benjamina to a stump and having it work out just fine - but those people lived in humid florida where the plants thrive.

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I will actually go to Miami for Thanksgiving and I plan to get some tropical there, ficus and also Brazilian rain tree (the exact number of trees will depend on my wife eager to let me put them inside the house for winter, she's fine with a tons of trees in the yard, she's kind of reluctant when the tree has to spend half of the year inside )
Hope I could find some cheap ficus for my experiment.

Wigerts has shipped to me twice in the middle of a snow storm- in iowa. Both made it fine just as pictured.
I did eventually kill both trees from lack of water but not their fault.

I bet garden centers in FL have ficus everywhere - even here you can get a big messy F.benjamina for $20. Honestly, the only reason i didn't do that is because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of completely raw stock right now. The Wigert's cutting stock has obviously been cared for somewhat - it has some good branching already, and the forming nebari is so much better than a garden center plant.

Coffeegirl, that's not very good! I thought ficus were forgiving of dry conditions.....

Yeah- I failed. One was a green island ficus. I just have no luck with those at all.
The other I trunk chopped and left outside. It was hot.
I have learned though.