S Shape BRT

Here is a BRT now in training to be re-potted next spring.
Any suggestions on styling?
Should the height be reduced?

Depends on whether you like the S shaped trunk. You have a good branch you could chop it to and with a new angle could be a nice tree. Wait to cut back till summer season.

I would grow it out fatter...

Lessin you got another to drop on us!

Just a note....
I watched a Ryan Neil thing, and while he admitted not knowing BRT too well, he shared a price of excellent info on them.

Apparently...they "flatten" out on the side that a branch is allowed to grow....
So if building a trunk, use that to your advantage.

Tell you what....
I'd rather see a hundred BRT s like these before looking at another Wal-Mart ficus!

Good stuff!

Sorce

Thanks guys!

Definitley let it grow out.
They will flatten at branches. I've got one in the ground now, letting it grow it. It's flattened and starting to develop that sinewy trunk that looks so good.

Looks great, really liking the base.

cool @LanceMac10

@LanceMac10 - nice, it just keeps getting better.

@Petebak - nice young starter BRT. It needs to grow wild another year or two or three. That beautiful, exfoliating bark on Lance Mac's tree is something you need to have a larger diameter trunk to show it off. It is one of the big positive features of the species, so you want to beef your trunk up to at least 2 inches in diameter, so you can see the colors of the bark on the finished tree. If you finish over 2 feet tall, you might want the trunk even thicker in diameter. BRT tends to be slender, so they are not easy to do "sumo wrestler fat trunk" stryle, but developing a 4 inch diameter trunk on a tree and then bring it down to 2 feet tall is a worthy goal. and do-able. To get that trunk you need lots of foliage. BRT bud back well, if chopped in summer, so I would just get it bushy. If you have to trim it short to fit inside for winter, let it develop lots of branches. Total number of leaves will determine trunk diameter. More leaves = fatter trunk. Then when the trunk is where you want it, you can chop it back to just a stump, and it will bud back. Likely by the time you have the trunk the diameter you need, you will have branches that are more than 50% the diameter of the trunk, generally to create the illusion of a tree, rather than a bush, the branches should be less than 50% the diameter of the trunk. So in all probability none of the existing branches will still be there when this tree is ready for its bonsai pot. When you do the chop, you can cut off all the overly thick branches at the same time.

Nice you material. That is what I'd do with it if it were mine.

Leo in N E Illinois said:

@LanceMac10 - nice, it just keeps getting better.

@Petebak - nice young starter BRT. It needs to grow wild another year or two or three. That beautiful, exfoliating bark on Lance Mac's tree is something you need to have a larger diameter trunk to show it off. It is one of the big positive features of the species, so you want to beef your trunk up to at least 2 inches in diameter, so you can see the colors of the bark on the finished tree. If you finish over 2 feet tall, you might want the trunk even thicker in diameter. BRT tends to be slender, so they are not easy to do "sumo wrestler fat trunk" stryle, but developing a 4 inch diameter trunk on a tree and then bring it down to 2 feet tall is a worthy goal. and do-able. To get that trunk you need lots of foliage. BRT bud back well, if chopped in summer, so I would just get it bushy. If you have to trim it short to fit inside for winter, let it develop lots of branches. Total number of leaves will determine trunk diameter. More leaves = fatter trunk. Then when the trunk is where you want it, you can chop it back to just a stump, and it will bud back. Likely by the time you have the trunk the diameter you need, you will have branches that are more than 50% the diameter of the trunk, generally to create the illusion of a tree, rather than a bush, the branches should be less than 50% the diameter of the trunk. So in all probability none of the existing branches will still be there when this tree is ready for its bonsai pot. When you do the chop, you can cut off all the overly thick branches at the same time.

Nice you material. That is what I'd do with it if it were mine.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback..

so if it cut off some of the think vertical branches will it grow buds at the lower levels? at the moment looks like all the foliage are at the top!
Since this tree is indoors all year around does it matter when it gets pruned?

Yes, if you cut off the thick, vertical branches, it will grow buds at the lower levels. Especially under lights, it is normal for all the foliage to be at the top, closest to the light. You are trying to thicken the trunk. You need lots of leaves to do this. Looks like it is tall enough the top is just about touching the lights. To get the trunk thicker, you will need to grow more leaves, and in the light garden, the way to do that is grow it wider. If it were mine, I would let it grow wild, until the leaves were up in the lights, even let a few get ''burned'' by touching the lights. Then I would cut off most, if not all the foliage off the upper 2/3rds of the tree. Leave the lowest branches untouched, until they spread too wide to fit in the light garden, then prune them back to ''just fit'' back in the light garden. When roots fill the pot, repot to a larger, wider pot that is also shallower than the current pot. Think ''bulb pan''. But the new pot should hold more media than the previous, so it will be significantly larger than the gallon nursery pot it is currently in. Getting your trunk up to 2 inches in diameter can happen in just a few years, but it is not ''easy'' to make the space needed to do so in a light garden.

You want to develop taper in the trunk, and you need to build taper through the entire ''growing out'' process. Keep all the lower branches possible, every bud that sprouts in the lower 1/3rd of the trunk. Don't prune these unless necessary to keep them in the light garden More leaves in the lower 1/3rd of the trunk the better. Of course the tree will fight you on this. It will put most of its leaves and growth closest to the lights. There will be a tendency for the trunk to develop ''reverse taper'' where the upper parts of the trunk will want to thicken more than the lower parts. Not a good thing in a ''finished tree'' but it is not a fatal flaw at all in young stock that is still being grown out. Your tree will have episodes of having reverse taper in one area or another. Since you are going to try to double the diameter of your trunk, you can by controlling growth, correct areas of reverse taper. I think a cycle of letting it grow out, then cut back dramatically, will work better than constantly prune one branch here, one there, every couple days. I don't know how fast it is growing, but probably once every other month, or maybe 2 or 3 times a year, you will cut it back hard. I would prune the upper 2/3rds of the tree, selecting branches that go horizontal, keep the trunk line as your only vertical. Leave the lower third of the tree alone, until it is too wide for the physical space you have to keep it in. In all probability, you will prune the top hard 3 or 4 times or more before having to prune the lower branches. If the upper part of the trunk develops a larger diameter than the lower part, keep the upper part pruned back more frequently. OR encourage a lower branch to become the new upper portion of the trunk and periodically remove the thickest upper section of the main trunk. You need to get the first third of the trunk, from the roots up, to be at or over 2 inches in diameter, before you really think about styling the top part of the tree. When the trunk is finally there, and has gotten up to size, you will likely remove all the branches in the lower third of the trunk, and probably most if not all the branches for the upper two thirds. Basically, when it is time to start styling the tree, you will pretty much take every branch off and start over on the branches. BRT grow fast, this won't take as long as it sounds. Remember, in a tree, a good guideline is that all the branches will be less than 50% the diameter of the trunk, if they are close to the same size as the trunk the visual impact will be a bush, and not a tree. So for broadleaf trees it is common practice to grow the trunk first, then at when the trunk is ready, remove all but the smallest diameter branches, and let the trunk bud back to create the branches that will be used in the final design. None of the branches there now are likely to be in the final design. Even mature broad leaf trees there is a succession of branch removal when one gets too thick, to be replaced with more slender branches.

Timing. If your light garden keeps the BRT actively growing all year round, it doesn't matter when you prune. But if you don't see any signs of growth, if it looks dormant, I'd leave it alone until it is actively growing again. My light garden is in an unheated basement, and while it never gets below 55 F, it is cool enough in winter that most of my tropicals ''pause'' and take a rest. So look at your tree. if new shoots and leaves are growing, it is not dormant. Prune anytime except when dormant. Same for repotting. You can prune and repot at the same time. I would only repot every other or every third year and then work on the nebari (root buttress) to arrange the roots. Keep your nebari buried at least one inch deep while growing it out. You will be able to raise it up when you move to a bonsai pot. You will develop better nebari with the roots buried at least one inch. Exposing the nebari too early in developing the tree will cause the surface roots to stop growing, which means you will end up with a poor surface root pattern, that won't match the rest of the tree.

Thanks for all the great info Leo, this one BRT is not putting out a lot of new growth like the other ones i have, may be it's the location as it sits new a windows which is cooler compared to the rest of my condo?
Will have to check to see if needs a bigger pot as well.
this other BRT i have is growing like crazy but a lot more near the top then bottom. trying to thicken this one as well!

This myogi style BRT has developed an interesting canopy. Yet as explained by Leo, I'll need to defoliate and avoid beginnings of reverse taper.

I got brave this morning.

jrw said:

I got brave this morning.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was talking about. Nice, should help, a few years of this treatment, and you will see results.