Never thought I'd buy a ficus until I found one with no leaves on sale... now what?

[HamburgerTrain]

I picked this critter up today while shopping for some more junipers. On my way into the nursery I took a detour to peek at the cacti and found him sitting alone on the shelf marked down 50%. As you can see from the photos it's dropped most of it's leaves.
There is a lot, too much, info regarding care for these plants online. If anyone could offer some suggestions for nursing him back to good health or provide a trusted link I would be grateful.
The area where the indoor bonsai were kept was pretty warm and humid, at least it was while I was there. It also appears as though they moved most of the trees from the display to a different location because there were only a couple trees there, where there had been many.
I have barrina t5 led grow lights on timers going in my basement for my cactuses. The basement is heated but can get drafty as there is a basement window, not well sealed.
I don't know if this information is helpful but I have dragonfruit seedlings as well as some more delicate cacti and euphorbia seedlings growing down there as well, so I would imagine if it got too cold, or I was too incompetent they wouldn't survive.
Is this a good location for the ficus? There is also a really large window ledge above my kitchen sink that faces west. High humidity, warmer temps and less drafty. My jungle cacti thrive in this location as well as a pachira aquatica stump that has grown an entire canopy from a couple buds in the last two months. I don't think my wife would care to look at this thing in it's current state though.
Maybe someone can recommend some diy setup for overwintering these critters? Aquarium, heat pad, usb humidifier, plastic wrap?
Sorry about the poor photos, they have a celebrity mugshot quality to them.

Thanks-Ham

 

[canoeguide]

Give it the best light that you can, keep it at room temperature, and be careful with watering. This will use about zero water until it pushes new leaves, so you're relying mostly on evaporation to dry out the soil in the meantime. Ficus are pretty forgiving, so long as they aren't sitting in muck for weeks on end.

This should be fine, even if it does nothing until spring. Other people may have more good advice but light, temperature, and water are the main things.

 

[leatherback]

It should be fine. Lots of light, humidiy and heat.

Just be carefull bringing stuff in your basement: You might be bringing in unwanted hitchhikers!

 

[jason biggs]

This is 1 UGLY starter tree - throw it away and buy something not on 50% sale...
This should be an evergreen tree but is looking to have very little green...
sorry for the brutal honesty

 

[Lutonian]

Don't throw it away, figs are like botanical plasticine you and do a lot to them. Get it warm, under lights and watered correctly and this will bounce back.

It is ugly at the moment sure, does not have to be in the future though all you have to add is hard work and time

 

[plant_dr]

One man's "Ugly" could be another man's "gnarly".
I even see a couple surface roots down there that could be potential nebari.

Follow the instructions you've been given and it will grow and recover. The branches with leaves look like they will be just fine. Let them grow and grow for now to produce food for the tree and sustain its life. Any branches with green tips are still alive too and will hopefully produce leaves from those tips. The branchlets with black tips are dead and can be removed. Once it is healthy again and the branches have each produced several new leaves in a row, you can prune those down to get backbudding closer to the trunk and rebuild the canopy.

 

[sorce]

This is one of the best ficus trunks we've ever seen.

Last winter, I left mine in no light with so little water it should have died. Then I moved it out this spring for about 2-4 freezes.

I hacked it to no green when I brought it in this fall, used the branches to stoke my kiln last night, and this thing is probably sprouting as we speak.

I would concave cut all those old branches, smartly for movement, then use the new shoulder shoots you get for new branching.
Clean up that top wound. Get you some taper. Keep just an apical branch with leaves.

Nice.

Sorce

 

[SWfloirda]

I think it was worth saving for sure but IMHO you will never fix the taper issues without doing something drastic like the picture. After chopping let the leader run wild until the scar heals over and hope for a couple of branches to pop down low too and let them run. I did something similar to one and was able to get the cutting to take as well. I live in zone 10, in your climate you may want to keep it alive and build some vigor first. Do the work in the summer.

 

[Carol 83]

It's not nearly as bad as the awful Ginseng ficus my brother gave me. Like everyone said, keep it warm, give as much light as possible and take it easy on the water.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I heartily agree with the advice to chop this trunk back, maybe root the cutting, and build your taper from there. BUT...if the tree is not extremely healthy when you do that, you will regret it for a very long time, and I predict you will end up giving it away and retreating to your more traditional species. Following the advice of light, (correct) watering, warmth and (if you can) humidity should come first - for at least a year before starting any serious work on it. And if I were you, the very first thing that I would do is spray it down liberally with a solution of neem oil and soap or similar. If you do not have neem oil, then you might just dunk it in a bucket for a few hours and hope that kills whatever bugs might be lurking. I strongly suspect this dropped its leaves due to a spider mite infestation or something along those lines.

 

[sorce]

I hacked it to no green when I brought it in this fall, used the branches to stoke my kiln last night, and this thing is probably sprouting as we speak.

I was a couple weeks early. This is just sprouting now!

Note it sprouting on the thinnest longest piece there is.
It wants to grow there, cut it off so it can't.



Sorce

 

[Paradox]

Get it healthy before you do anything drastic to it.
Lights would be better than a window
Put it under your T5 lights and seal or fix that damn window.
If your basement is heated, you are burning money with the drafty window anyway.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Agreeing with Paradox/Sandy...you don't do any work on a tree that is not healthy. There is absolutely no rush to push this into a style direction until this tree is healthy, growing well...and recovered.

 

[HamburgerTrain]

thanks for all the thoughtful advice you guys. It seems to be happier. There's quite a few new leaves, branchlets and buds popping up in places. No action on the side near that wound. I think some of the branches on that side may be dead. I have a humidity tray thing set up and mist it every time I visit the basement to listen to Black Sabbath's, Sweet Leaf, can't get enough of that diddy lately. I spotted a massive mealy bug a couple nights ago perched on the tippy top leaf. I'm not sure if he was a resident or came from another plant though. I've had mealy outbreaks on different plants in different places over the last few months.
The only branch I like on this tree is on the part I need to cut off, so maybe now is a good time to learn how to graft?
I'd like to get some air roots going as well. I'm thinking maybe I need to grab a free aquarium off craigslist.
@Paradox don't worry I recycled some wire clippings to seal the window with an old beach towel, except I had to use it to soak up the water that was coming in through the walls the other day. I rent :}

 

[Paradox]

I rent :}

Do you pay for the oil or whatever it is that heats the place?
If you do then you need to have a conversation with the land lord or really fix it yourself.
Because as I said, with a heated basement, you are literally pissing money away and the cost of fixing the window will save you money in heating costs.
If the land lord pays for the heating then I guess Id mention it anyway

 

[Cadillactaste]

thanks for all the thoughtful advice you guys. It seems to be happier. There's quite a few new leaves, branchlets and buds popping up in places. No action on the side near that wound. I think some of the branches on that side may be dead. I have a humidity tray thing set up and mist it every time I visit the basement to listen to Black Sabbath's, Sweet Leaf, can't get enough of that diddy lately. I spotted a massive mealy bug a couple nights ago perched on the tippy top leaf. I'm not sure if he was a resident or came from another plant though. I've had mealy outbreaks on different plants in different places over the last few months.
The only branch I like on this tree is on the part I need to cut off, so maybe now is a good time to learn how to graft?
I'd like to get some air roots going as well. I'm thinking maybe I need to grab a free aquarium off craigslist.
@Paradox don't worry I recycled some wire clippings to seal the window with an old beach towel, except I had to use it to soak up the water that was coming in through the walls the other day. I rent :}

Now is a good time to study up on grafts. I can't stress enough...one should never work on a tree that isn't healthy.

Also, even in Florida they don't really do much work on their tropical during winter. A tree slows down...even the healthy ones.

 

[HamburgerTrain]

One man's "Ugly" could be another man's "gnarly".
I even see a couple surface roots down there that could be potential nebari.

Follow the instructions you've been given and it will grow and recover. The branches with leaves look like they will be just fine. Let them grow and grow for now to produce food for the tree and sustain its life. Any branches with green tips are still alive too and will hopefully produce leaves from those tips. The branchlets with black tips are dead and can be removed. Once it is healthy again and the branches have each produced several new leaves in a row, you can prune those down to get backbudding closer to the trunk and rebuild the canopy.

What do you mean by several?
It looks like it’s pushing new branches down lower. Should I clip the main branch above where the new branches are forming?the original shoots have each put out a few new leaves.
I was thinking of applying sphagnum moss around the trunk to encourage air roots or just a cylinder filled with pumice. Would that be stressful to the tree?

 

[leatherback]

Should I clip the main branch above where the new branches are forming?

I would leave it alone untill you have some meat on the branches. In other words: Let this grow a little bushy for now. Once spring hits and the tree transitions to the outside, take another look at opps for trimming.

 

[Cadillactaste]

It came weak to you. Let it just recover without pruning for now. Give it time to recover...these are good signs.

 

[HamburgerTrain]

This little freak seems happy.