Help with pruning mistake

[nuwildcat928]

Hi,
I purchased a ficus microcarpa online and when I received it, it had a strange branch layout. Two branches about a third of the way up were really long and the tree looked funny, kind of imbalanced. I read a couple of books on pruning and per the advice of one, cut the lower branches pretty short, then sealed with cut paste. Minimal if any growth at the sites but now the crown is getting overgrown and the plan looks top heavy. I've attached a picture. Any advice on how to reshape the plant? Ideally I would like the bottom branches to be longer and the tops shorter. Is it okay to heavily prune the top branches? Or should I just let everything grow out? Thanks in advance!

 

[Vin]

Welcome to the forum. First thing, where are you located?

 

[nuwildcat928]

Hi,
I'm in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Thanks!

 

[bonsaichile]

Let those branches that you want longer grow and prune back a little those that you want to keep short. Rinse and repeat as needed

 

[nuwildcat928]

Okay - The side branches were pruned 2 weeks ago and there are tiny buds on them. The upper area has been growing crazy fast. If the top is pruned more heavily does that induce growth on the bottom?

 

[Vin]

Okay, the good thing is it's a ficus and they bounce back pretty quickly. Currently, all the tree's energy is being directed toward the apex. The apex needs to be thinned out considerably. Also, you don't need to use cut paste on ficus because it produces it's own sealant by way of the sap. Give it plenty of water and sun for as long as your season allows and then get it under the grow lights for the winter. By the end of the summer you should have some more branches to choose from all along the trunk.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Northwestern grad here! Go Wildcats!

That said, you are in for a world of frustration with ficus in Chicago - unless you have a greenhouse or similar structure to keep them in the winter. It's not just the cold that gets them - it's the low humidity. Ficus like it hot and moist - and you will get best results if you can provide it. I kept ficus in Chicago for years... but they never really thrived the way they thrive here in California.

The reason I am sharing all of this with you is because if you lived in Miami, you could chop that ficus down to a bare trunk and it would burst out with new buds everywhere. But in Chicago you have to embrace the short growing season (for tropicals) and hope that all good things happen between June and August. If you want strong growth lower on the trunk, or back-budding, you have to constrain the strength in the top or the top will just continue to shoot up. So given the strength of your tree and the time of year, I would fertilize and defoliate it, and then water it like crazy and you should have buds all over the place by the end of July.

 

[nuwildcat928]

Awesome. Great advice, thanks. Also great to meet another wildcat. Graduated in 2002. I'm very new to bonsai but would like to start seriously. What would you suggest species wise? I was thinking of getting a trident maple, seems like it would fit in this zone - but worry a bit with the brutal winters and I would need to keep it outdoors then. Any other species, or ones that can be kept indoors for this area? Thanks again.

 

[shinmai]

One other thought....with ficus perhaps more than any other tree, you can retard growth and increase ramification by pinching off the apical bud on the end of a shoot. This is often an easier method to sort out than actual pruning. Three cool things happen:
The branch stops growing longer.
Pinching the apical bud causes hormones to be released that prompt dormant buds along the branch to send out branches away from the main [pinched] branch.
Leaves along the branch back to the precursor branch or trunk will not get any bigger.

It’s also the kind of thing you can do in five minutes on your way to bed after locking the back door—unless you get really engrossed in it and a half hour later your wife is hollering down the stairs, “Are you coming to bed some time soon?”

 

[sorce]

Don't listen to that....Californian!

He been gone too long!

No seriously. ...
I have been wholly impressed by the growth on mine ever since I Outsided it last summer....
And it got some roots into earth....
Hacked it out with a full top in fall...
Threw it under 16's (hr fluorescent s)
And it never dropped a leaf. Spare a couple old interior...
Threw it back out this summer and even the leaves that yellow burned came back and its banging again....

Been growing in a dish on the ground and surrounded by weeds....

Has put on mad aerial root starts....

Quite honestly.....if done right....

We could take cuttings to trunks like that in three years easy here......maybe 2.

I'll get some New pics.

Sorce

 

[sorce]

Oh....Welcome to Crazy!

Try The Hidden Gardens off 55 and 83.

Sorce

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Awesome. Great advice, thanks. Also great to meet another wildcat. Graduated in 2002. I'm very new to bonsai but would like to start seriously. What would you suggest species wise? I was thinking of getting a trident maple, seems like it would fit in this zone - but worry a bit with the brutal winters and I would need to keep it outdoors then. Any other species, or ones that can be kept indoors for this area? Thanks again.

It is difficult to grow bonsai inside - anywhere. It is normally difficult to provide the adequate light and humidity. You are far better off finding trees that will naturally work well for your climate, and embracing the "bonsai have to be outdoors" attitude - assuming you have some outdoor space.

There are plenty of natives in your area that I think would work well. Oaks, maples, elms, junipers, pines - you just have to understand how to care for them in winter. I used to overwinter my bonsai in Chicago in an unheated garage and didn't have problems.

If you live in an apartment, or some place that doesn't allow you to keep trees outdoors, you don't have to go full tropical. Consider trees that are mediterranean or evergreen deciduous.

 

[Cypress187]

Balance the growth (by pruning) in the right season, welcome to the forum!

 

[nuwildcat928]

Okay - I took the advice and defoliated as well as thinned out the top crown. Heavily watered and fertilized. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the tip on Hidden Gardens. Gonna head out there soon, maybe pick up a nice trident.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I'm in NE Illinois, between Waukegan and Kenosha. We only get a third of the possible growth every year that you could get in Florida or S. California, still that third is good enough in my book. Ficus are great, and they are green in winter, another good thing.

Skip the trident, our Winters are too cold, especially bad are our late frosts. Tridents will start growing as early as 3 warm days in January, and then you are dancing them in and out trying avoid a hard freeze until middle of May. Better is Amur maple, so cold hardy that you hardly need to move them for winter. I leave my Amur maples in plastic nursery pots right where they were all summer, full sun, no protection, they do fine, never lost a branch. Good red and gold autumn color. Really a good hardy maple. And odds are fair Hidden Gardens will have one.