Advise on pruning first bonsai, shop bought ficus ginseng..

[Phoebev]

Hi Bonsai people,

I have already posted in tropicals but will maybe get some more help from beginners forum?

My husband bought me a ficus retusa bonsai in the hope of piquing my interest in this living art. It certainly has

I am aware that shop bought trees are limited, but I want to learn with what I have.
I am including some pics of my tree.

*What I want to do is to cultivate the tree into a style resembling one of the the last two trees which I have posted.

Can you advise me also on the following on general pruning things??

-From reading it has been suggested that there should be roughly max four nodes to every twig, and two twigs to every branch to make the tree compacted? Is this true?

* If so what do I do with those branches that have a long branchy bit before the nodes begin? They look a bit ungainly no?

* Also the crown is very crowded with a bunch of twigs packed in tightly with alot of leaves, too many leaves? Too many twigs?

*Finally he has a big old pot, should he not be in a shallower one?? Is it possible to transfer him and moderate the rooting system or is it too late??

Many thanks for reading and any replies to my beginner queries would make me really happy.

 

[Poink88]

Can you post pics of the entire tree? (pot included).

Thank you.

 

[Phoebev]

Here it is : ))

In all its full glory, not great lighting I am afraid. I put in another of the crown..Thank you

 

[lieuz]

In all its full glory, not great lighting I am afraid. I put in another of the crown..Thank you

I really like your tree. It's got a sizable trunk and great movement, and looks healthy as well. I want to say that your tree has very little to work with right now to get it to look remotely like the examples you've provided just by pruning. This tree certainly has lots of potential in terms of grafting to make it look like the examples you've provided.

Also, where are you growing this indoor or outdoor or a combination? Reason why I ask is, I've found that indoor grown ficus, even though they are relatively easy to deal with, do not like to be moved drastically. Apparent changes in light intensity is not really liked by them, at least with my experience.

If it were my ficus, I'd definitely like to re-pot the tree into a much larger pot and into some good bonsai mix to get the tree energy level up for the work you want to do to it. I'd pretty much let this tree grow for a while before starting any work on it. The existing pads of foliage will do well from the re-pot as well to lengthen it and strengthen it as well. That lower right hand branch was chopped and I think that cut can be cleaned up a bit to make it look more natural.

I can definitely see the lower left corner of the bend could use a bit of foliage, and the only way I can see this happening without taking years and years waiting for something to grow from that area, is to graft something to that corner. If you've repotted into a bigger pot and let the tree grow a bit, you could possibly attain some long shoots that can be "thread grafted" through the trunk. If the graft takes, then it's all about time and pruning to thicken that graft up. I took the liberty of posting a youtube link on thread grafting and an illustration of what could be if that graft took and you let the tree grow out a bit.

I've included a link here showing a thread graft being applied and I think your ficus is a prime candidate for thread grafting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqr_tM0rk1M

I think this has such great potential! Really digging the trunk thickness.

 

[KennedyMarx]

If those pictures are your goal I don't think achieving that look is out of the question. Let it grow out and prune it back to those pads and you'll get there.