Little Ficus

[Coach]

Ficus seem to do very well in Texas. So I picked this one up a little over a year ago. It had great radial roots and decent taper. I've pretty much just grown branches out and controlled the canopy up until this weekend. I reduced it's height by about a 1/3 and trimmed and wired (I know my wire job sucks...working on it). Roots were cut back drastically to fit in this pot I've been eager to use. Thanks for looking.

 

[Coach]

A little more sunshine on the pot

 

[Jeremy]

I kind of want to chop it to the 3rd branch at the front I think the real thing that bothers me is the lowest branch, it seems to be growing upwards while everything else is horizontal or below. It's a nice looking trunk, and as the trunk and branches thicken you will see other options.

 

[Coach]

I kind of want to chop it to the 3rd branch at the front I think the real thing that bothers me is the lowest branch, it seems to be growing upwards while everything else is horizontal or below. It's a nice looking trunk, and as the trunk and branches thicken you will see other options.

I need to wire that vertical branch...sloppy! Thanks for noticing...I agree the branching needs some age. Because I gutted the root system today it will be left alone this year (except for a little more wiring)

I do agree with the idea of reducing the height further as it gets chunky "er".

Thank you for your suggestions

 

[Jeremy]

Will be best to keep the top half in check and let the bottom branches run until late summer so they catch up in girth. Any curves you wire in will be lost unless they're extreme angles, but that's OK because you will then want to cut back hard to repeat the process and get taper in the branches. The overall canopy looks fine, but I do feel in a few years you will want to chop it lower to grow a finer apex and gain more taper. Sunshine and fertiliser!