New Ficus!

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
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@Hannahmm
Welcome to crazy. I read your avatar, love it. My 30 year old niece works as a raft guide on the New and Gally Rivers in West Virginia every summer. She is only 5 ft 2 inches tall and less than 100 pounds. Yet she wrangles a 12 man raft as well as the biggest of "da Boyz", drunk tourists and all. Last January she kayaked the Grand Canyon for 10 days. So I love your avatar, it is true.

I keep my Ficus as an outdoor in summer, indoors and as dormant as possible for winter. The fat roots of ginseng ficus are an adaptation to a wet-dry monsoon climate. They grow like crazy when warm (over 70 F) sunny and wet. Kept cool, below 65F, they store enough water to go 3 or 4 months without rain (dry monsoon).

I find it difficult to give my Ficus the sun and heat it needs for good compact growth. So I leave mine out until nights get cool, upper 40s, then I bring it inside, bright shade, cool location (60's F) and let it dry until leaves begin to wilt, then give a light surface misting with water, then keep letting it dry until it wilts a little. It will drop most of it's leaves, and growth will pretty much stop. It will take longer each time for the few remaining leaves to wilt. Towards February it might get water once a month. Leafless is okay, branches will stay flexible, showing they are alive and dormant. In spring, once weather warms up, back outside into full sun for nice, compact growth.

So your wood heated home doesn't need to be a problem, just put the ficus where it is cool, but above freezing, and keep it relatively dry. Cool and wet encourages various rot diseases. I once, by accident, left a willow leaf ficus bone dry for 5 months. It was completely leafless and fine twigs had started to die back a little. Watered it, set it outside and it exploded with new growth. The physically larger the tree, the better it will handle this type of abuse. Small trees without fat roots won't have enough stored water.

So consider this unconventional option. it might be an easy fix.
 
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Nwaite

Chumono
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Maine
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Hey just wanted to show you my G ficus.

What I did was bring it home put it in a 1 gal pot right up to the top of the bulb.
Let it grow in there till half way throw summer and took it out and replanted in a pot.
I got some great root coming out the side and it got big fast.

If your spraying your plants a few times a day the wood stove should be ok. I had mine about ten feet from my trees and they did fine. Just lots and lots of watering.
 

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AZbonsai

Masterpiece
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Welcome to bnut! I am sure many people on this site started out with this type of ficus whether they admit it or not is another story. I am just in the process of defoliating mine. This helps the leaves to be a bit smaller when they grow back. You should wait for spring to think about defoliating and only do it if your tree is in good health. Plenty of threads around here about ficus with much better advice than I can give since I am new at this as well. Have fun and be prepared to get hooked!
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thomas22

Chumono
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I would give it a go. Here is my G Ficus 6 years ago and how it looks now. I have about 4 years to go before it really looks like something but the time it takes to make a nice tree is the rewarding part and lack of patience is the reason many fail. Just worry about developing the trunk for a few years. Give the trunk movement and let some low sacrifice branches run wild for taper. I wouldn't defoliate until you have all the primary branches in place. I ground layered mine also. Good Luck
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