luvinthemountains ficus too little

[luvinthemountains]

Over 15 years ago, I passed up buying a ficus too little with the trunk the size of my forearm because it was "too expensive" (probably like $100). Ha!

Well, I bought myself one a couple of years ago on the FB auctions with nothing for scale. You can imagine my surprise when it showed up with a trunk the size of my thumb. I have been growing it out as best I can since then. My plan is to continue bulking it up for at least a few more years and then look at training branches.

A few weeks ago I did a hard cutback. (My tropicals spend the winter in a bright, warm grow tent, so I can get away with things.) I left two subtrunks as potential options for trunk continuations, and I just can't decide!

Here is the tree prior to the work:



This first shot of the tree today shows the first potential trunk line, the strongest, with a new shoot for further trunk continuation circled in red.



And this second shot shows the other potential trunk line.



As you can see in the following photo, the second option would diverge from the current 2-D plane of the tree, making the trunk more 3-dimensional.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I was able to track down a photo of this tree's humble beginning.

 

[JackHammer]

I would grow out that long arm on the bottom as a new leader and then get some aerial roots from the branch(es) you are talking about. Also flip the tree 45° and expose some of the roots. ...But I am a weirdo.