Chinese Banyan Advice

[socobonsai]

I would appreciate any advice on this Chinese Banyan I recently took over from a friend. It was essentially abandoned and dying. All of my bonsai are Japanese Maple. I have zero experience with Ficus so I’m in need of any advice!
This tree is approximately 12 years old. It was in some junky soil with a top layer of glued gravel. Watered “about once a week” for 12 years.
I have pics of the day I took it over (June 6) and today (2 months later).
I live in Sonoma County 9b.
I removed from the original ceramic pot and repotted with a ficus bonsai soil mix. I’ve begun watering every 2-3 days as needed to keep soil damp but not soaked. Mist 3-4 times per week.
I’ve been keeping it in a windowsill with good sun exposure but not direct, intense sun. Recently I’ve begun taking it outside to get more full sun and returning inside in the evenings.
My biggest question is a strategy to prune back the long, stringy branches and encourage back budding to begin to make the plant more compact.
I’ve read that in order to really encourage back budding it requires lots of sun and moisture?
Do these respond like a maple if I were to simply cut back the tallest, vertical branch? Would it necessarily push new leaves from the cut back location?
I’ve noticed all new growth appears to come from the tips of the shoots and there hasn’t been any noticeable budding from lower on the existing branches?
Would it make sense to cut the tallest branch back, leave one or two of the other branches as is in order to maintain leaves and allow the pruned back branch to back bud then begin the the same process with the lateral branches in an effort to reduce their size and create compaction?
Is there a time of year these plants prefer pruning?

Before and current pics.
Soft drink can for refermce
Redline as reference for suggested initial cut back on tallest vertical branch.
Any suggestions welcomed. Thank you!

 

[BrianBay9]

Your ficus needs to be thriving before you worry about working on it. Ideally it should be outside all the time, all summer long. Moving it in and out will cause more problems. It should come inside when the night time temps in your area drop below about 45 F. I keep my ficus out until temps drop in the 30's, but most people are a bit more conservative than that. Keep it inside for the winter in the brightest place you have, and supplement the humidity (and light?) if you can. Get it back outside as soon as the temps warm up in spring.

It looks like you have good soil. I would slip pot it into something 50% bigger though. Keep it outside. Fertilize regularly. Don't cut it back until it is growing strongly, maybe next summer even. Don't worry, ficus back bud easily with hard pruning so you can get the design tighter at a later time. Work on ficus when it's hot.

Good luck. Show us a pic when it's thriving again and then we can discuss design.

 

[socobonsai]

Your ficus needs to be thriving before you worry about working on it. Ideally it should be outside all the time, all summer long. Moving it in and out will cause more problems. It should come inside when the night time temps in your area drop below about 45 F. I keep my ficus out until temps drop in the 30's, but most people are a bit more conservative than that. Keep it inside for the winter in the brightest place you have, and supplement the humidity (and light?) if you can. Get it back outside as soon as the temps warm up in spring.

It looks like you have good soil. I would slip pot it into something 50% bigger though. Keep it outside. Fertilize regularly. Don't cut it back until it is growing strongly, maybe next summer even. Don't worry, ficus back bud easily with hard pruning so you can get the design tighter at a later time. Work on ficus when it's hot.

Good luck. Show us a pic when it's thriving again and then we can discuss design.

Brian, thank you for the advice. All noted. Easy for me to keep it outside. We typically don’t get below 50 at night in the summer. Rarely above 95 during the day. I’ll begin keeping it outside more.
Direct sun ok or should it be dappled?
I’ll just let it grow for a year then begin more detailed work.
Just so I know, when is recommended for hard pruning? Winter? Anytime?
I will also slip pot into larger. Should I wait to do that as I just repotted into this pot in June. Wait for a few months/next spring or ok to do now?

Thanks!

 

[BrianBay9]

Brian, thank you for the advice. All noted. Easy for me to keep it outside. We typically don’t get below 50 at night in the summer. Rarely above 95 during the day. I’ll begin keeping it outside more.
Direct sun ok or should it be dappled?
I’ll just let it grow for a year then begin more detailed work.
Just so I know, when is recommended for hard pruning? Winter? Anytime?
I will also slip pot into larger. Should I wait to do that as I just repotted into this pot in June. Wait for a few months/next spring or ok to do now?

Thanks!

Start with partial shade, then move to full sun. Don't be too alarmed if it drops leaves when you move it out. Its current foliage is created to take advantage of low light conditions. Ficus tend to drop leaves and rebuild when conditions change significantly.

Hard pruning, repotting, root work should all be done during summer. Tropicals want the heat.

 

[SWfloirda]

Pictures are from 2019 and a few weeks ago. Full sun outside the entire time. It gets as high as 97 and as low as 37 here. It is much more humid so be careful below 40 or so. I use inorganic soil and water every day most of the year but only as needed in the winter. As Brian said I would wait until it is healthy to do much with it and move it into the sun slowly.

 

[Shibui]

Do these respond like a maple if I were to simply cut back the tallest, vertical branch? Would it necessarily push new leaves from the cut back location?
I’ve noticed all new growth appears to come from the tips of the shoots and there hasn’t been any noticeable budding from lower on the existing branches?

Ficus growth habit is to keep growing longer and longer from the tips. Definitely need to cut to force new side shoots.
This particular Ficus buds very easily from bare wood so we can prune back and expect plenty of new buds. Like other species, weaker trees will produce a few buds, strong healthy trees will usually produce many buds.
I'd say your tree is healthy enough to take a hard prune but if you want really good response, spend some more time getting it into better health - plenty of fertiliser, water as needed, light and warm.
Best response to pruning is when they are most active - late Spring through Summer. Growth slows as temps drop so slower response to pruning in cooler weather.
Repot and root pruning in warm weather while they are active.

 

[socobonsai]

Ficus growth habit is to keep growing longer and longer from the tips. Definitely need to cut to force new side shoots.
This particular Ficus buds very easily from bare wood so we can prune back and expect plenty of new buds. Like other species, weaker trees will produce a few buds, strong healthy trees will usually produce many buds.
I'd say your tree is healthy enough to take a hard prune but if you want really good response, spend some more time getting it into better health - plenty of fertiliser, water as needed, light and warm.
Best response to pruning is when they are most active - late Spring through Summer. Growth slows as temps drop so slower response to pruning in cooler weather.
Repot and root pruning in warm weather while they are active.

Thank you for this info. It sounds like the consensus is to just continue watering as needed, fertilize, plenty of warm sunshine and let it continue to add foliage for strength.
At this point I’m thinking I’ll just do all of the above for the rest of this year and think abut doing some more aggressive pruning going into next summer.
I will probably go ahead and repot into a slightly larger pot this week.
Otherwise, just keep doing what I’m doing rest of this year to strengthen the tree.