Gifted an Old Willow leaf ficus!

[Mattlopez313]

I just wanted to show off this amazing willow leaf I got from the North Florida Bonsai club! It was my first meeting and they had a member who couldn’t care for the trees and I was luck enough to get this!

Im still deciding where to go with it as I’m not a huge fan of the canopy and top structure. I’m thinking I am either going to keep a branch leader and reduce the others back 75% or more. OR just reduce them all and develop a canopy at the split.
Time will tell

 

[Firstflush]

For sure all the branches coming from that one central point will create reverse taper in the near future. Keep that in mind.

 

[DonovanC]

What’s your location? Will the tree be indoors for the winter?
I like to start with the roots, and you have some nice surface roots to work with. But to my eye, they need just a little work.
If it were my tree, I’d let it be until summer and give it a severe root pruning. And I’d burry the roots when repotting. You want the roots well covered after a major pruning so they can recover and grow finer roots. Right now they kind of grow straight out and then turn straight down. So I would work to correct that first.

 

[Mattlopez313]

@DonovanC I am Zone 9a and it will be outdoors. I appreciate you discussing the roots. With what you’ve said, I think it would make sense to reduce them at the point of where they start to curve down. Then pot them in a proper pot. (Coming Tuesday/Wednesday)

Then I’ll need to work the canopy. Do you have any advice on the canopy?

 

[DonovanC]

Do you have any advice on the canopy?

Depends on your overall goal. If you want to go with a broom style (which is what you have going currently) then I would just shorten all the branches down to about 3-5cm to start with. Right now you have a lot of long straight branches with no taper or movement.
But, if it were mine, I’d either trunk chop it, or at least reduce the canopy down to two branches and go from there. As mentioned, inverse taper happens when there’s too much happening too close together.
Explore your options though, see what others say.

 

[Firstflush]

If you do what donavanc recommends, you should get back budding lower on the main trunk. IMHO, you need lower branching. If you get lower branching, make one a new leader and get movement on otherwise a perfectly straight stem.

 

[Mattlopez313]

@Firstflush thats a good point. If I can get a nice lower branch from the back bud it will greatly support the overall tree. I’m going to look at what you and @DonovanC have recommended a bit and see how it might look. I am interested if anyone else has any other ideas! This has been insightful.

 

[DonovanC]

I am interested if anyone else has any other ideas! This has been insightful.

Do take your time! The more time you spend with the tree, the better you can see it AND it’s potential!
The best advice I would give my beginning self is to take my time and just watch the tree grow for a while. Get to know the tree as it is before attempting to change it.
Research the species, look at what others have achieved with it, become an expert on its care (at Google University of course).