How Walter Pall would trim a ficus if he had any ficus, OR if my name was Walter Pall.

[Crawforde]

Guys, guys, let’s keep this thread on topic or else my name is not Walter Pall. Here is an update on my Jabba-potato. It was getting a little busy, so I made some edits.

I like it, as far as Huts go. Those trunks look like they are coming along well.
How far out will you let it go before you hedge it again?
Do you have bamboo handled shears?
I’ve decided I don’t like my ficus, it looks something like a cross between the real Walter Palls, and a chopstick, closed to a chopstick, it will get chopped down and put in the ground to grow for a while and see what happens.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I used bamboo core, stainless cutters that I purchased from @Redwood Ryan.
These days I try to let it go until it shows signs of vigor before curing back. I actually have another pot in mind, which will be the next insult for this tree other than calling it “Jabba-potato.” I had to be careful not to address it while trimming. Because only one insult at a time.
The next pot I am thinking of is dark and round and looks smaller but has more soil volume due to it being finer ceramic. The one it is in is cheap quality.. 50 cent price tag patina.
Good plan for developing your chopstick/Pall hybrid. If I were back in Florida (home state) I would want a casuarina to develop. Invasive, but pretty. They make great firewood too.

 

[Crawforde]

I have one I collected from the side of the road this year. It is recovering and growing up now. I’ll probably have to carve the brush hog chop site to fix inverse taper.
Good plan on one insult at a time. Ficus can get emotional.
If I were back in Maryland I’d have some Japanese maples!

 

[Bezalel Nebari]

hydroponic LED winter fish tank setup

Would like to see a photo of your setup

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Would like to see a photo of your setup

 

[Bezalel Nebari]

View attachment 281791

Nice. What lights you using in there?

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I got a mars aqua something off amazon. It says 300w in my order history, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay that much and it was more like 165w.

It is a little overkill, but it does the trick. I actually have a t5 backlighting it with the rational that it keeps it from being too directional with the growth and maybe to fill in some missing light frequencies. I still had the t5 and wasn’t going to just throw it away. I have an air fan, a water fan and a bubbler to keep the water fresh-ish. I only changed it once this season so far.

 

[Bezalel Nebari]

I got a mars aqua something off amazon. It says 300w in my order history, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay that much and it was more like 165w.

It is a little overkill, but it does the trick. I actually have a t5 backlighting it with the rational that it keeps it from being too directional with the growth and maybe to fill in some missing light frequencies. I still had the t5 and wasn’t going to just throw it away. I have an air fan, a water fan and a bubbler to keep the water fresh-ish. I only changed it once this season so far.

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing. I enjoy seeing other people's indoor setups using grow lights

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Here are a few before/afters. Pardon the terrible photography. I have eyes on new leaders for the “too little” and one of the willows. The too big too little, I’ve been growing out, but I figure in the hot part of the summer is the best time to make some choices. I thought it would be pretty cool to have a “too little” house plant but it slow going to grow it out, especially since it doesn’t fit in my grow tank for the winter.

 

[Ugo]

Hi!

I got nothing to compete with Walter's tree but here my old ficus.
Im working on the secondary branching since 2 years now and it coming along.
As I dont have a proper climate for this type of tree the growing rate is slowed down a little bit from October to Feburary.

As you can see lots of work still remains but wiring should be done in a couple weeks and left on until next summer if possible.


I think your tree will benefit if you let it grow untouched for a period of time.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Hi!

I got nothing to compete with Walter's tree but here my old ficus.
Im working on the secondary branching since 2 years now and it coming along.
As I dont have a proper climate for this type of tree the growing rate is slowed down a little bit from October to Feburary.

As you can see lots of work still remains but wiring should be done in a couple weeks and left on until next summer if possible.

View attachment 453473
I think your tree will benefit if you let it grow untouched for a period of time.

Mine do tend to look a bit like wet cats right after I cut them back. Then they have a sweet spot where the look nice for a few months and then I trim them back and then they look like mops.
check out my hydroponic setup earlier in the thread if you want to extend your growing season.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Before and after. This was an air-layer off of a braided trunk. Not the best variety for ramification or bonsai, but I like how the trunk turned out.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I didn’t go quite as hard this year at the start of the outdoor season for two reasons. 1) so it isn’t quite so wet-cat looking for now. 2) so it can have some more energy to recover after having the “sea legs” amputated (the long roots). That way once it has had some time to recover, I can either repot, and/or maybe do a defoliation, if it is showing plenty of vigor.