Trunk Growth on Burt Davy Ficus

[remist17]

I have a burt Davy ficus that seems to hit the trunk growth stopage. I have had it for 3 years and the trunk will just not get larger. I keep the overall plant trimmed and have it in a turface/pine bark mix. I give it miracle grow solution every two weeks. I water when needed. It is in a southern facing window and gets (2) two bulb flor buld set up from 5pm to 10pm at night.

I also have some cuttings that grew but are not putting on the trunk size.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[JudyB]

when you say you keep it trimmed, do you mean you don't allow free growth? If so, then maybe that is the trouble. To get trunk growth, you need to allow free growth of the branches to feed that trunk.

 

[remist17]

I let it grow as it wants. I tirm it back every 6 months or so. I also take the little fruit off .

 

[daygan]

Don't trim it back at all. Every time you trim it back, you are, in effect, saying to the tree "you don't need to grow any thicker than you are right now". A tree will grow in thickness in relationship to the foliage mass that it is supporting. If it hasn't started increasing significantly in thickness, you probably shouldn't trim it. a tree will usually get very tall (10 - 20 feet) or very bushy, with a large number of low, dense branches before it actually starts showing significant girth (well, depending on what "significant girth" means - subjective term).

 

[JudyB]

Daygan is right, and that's what I meant by free growth. You must just let it go, no cutting back until you are happy with the trunk size, or nearly, then you do your chop and start the next section. It's not a fast process, but if you want a thick base tree with taper, it's what you must do.