Update on Dying Ficus - March to October

[Ed_Inc]

Hello!

I originally posted about my ficus I repotted at the end of Feb, and how it was quickly declining after the repot. I had some wonderful advice from here about getting a grow lamp ASAP, and it kept the little lad alive. I come back to you after 7 months with an update after a full growing season (outdoors of course)!

The tree absolutely flourished, I left it to grow wild with almost no pruning and just wiring, because I'm really trying to thicken up the trunk and branches. It loved the pure akadama blend with wood moss as a topping, the whole rootbase has lifted up due to so many roots. The tree even had a 6 week holiday back to the UK in the car!

I've posted some current photos and a reminder of it at its worst back in March. I'm chuffed with how it has recovered this year, and also extremely pleased with how the lowest pad has formed after I attempted to fuse 2 branches.

March	October - Comparison Angle	Front	Left Side	Right Side	Back	Fused Lower Branch	Trunk Roots Finally!	And More!

My next steps are to prune back a lot of the canopy, take some vigour out the leaders, and also remove the whole small branch growing out the back of the trunk. I left this in as a sacrificial branch for a time, to help with the thickening process. However my main question is, when is the best time to do this? The tree is fully indoors now as of this week, due to daytime highs of only 12c or so.

Is it best to do now as growth is slowing down? Wait until spring? Or does it really not matter with ficus?

And yes, I experimented with cutting half of leaves off in places with lots of vigour, no real changes I think from it.

Thanks for all your advice and I hope you like the update.

Ed

 

[Colorado]

Nice recovery! I would perform large chops/large foliage reduction in the summer. If you are just removing one branch that is not a significant amount of your foliage, I’d just do it now if you like.

 

[Ed_Inc]

Nice recovery! I would perform large chops/large foliage reduction in the summer. If you are just removing one branch that is not a significant amount of your foliage, I’d just do it now if you like.

Thanks I'm thinking it would be about a 30% reduction in the top canopy, the smallest back pad off completely (but it's very small foliage-wise) not much coming off yet from the pads.

 

[Ed_Inc]

Little bump to see if anyone else has advice on when to prune?

 

[Snorlax99]

In the heart of summer is the best time to do large scale pruning. Tropicals will not skip a beat when heavy work is done while it's stinking hot.

 

[Ed_Inc]

In the heart of summer is the best time to do large scale pruning. Tropicals will not skip a beat when heavy work is done while it's stinking hot.

Is there an approach for pruning so it can start a new growing season from a better point? I was going to repot again next summer and do some root work, so ideally would want to get some big pruning out the way beforehand so it has chance to recover.

 

[Snorlax99]

I usually do it all in the heart of summer. Ficus recovers well in the heat,I find you can repot and chop back heavily and it will spit in your face and push growth again!

 

[Forsoothe!]

You can trim for a more economic appearance now, and spread the canopy out to do two things: make more distinct clouds and even out the space between the lowest branches on either side, both of which are artificially low if foliage is trimmed to less clunky shapes. Rotate some branches down 15° or 20° with wire or guy wires to keep the spaces between the clouds approximately even or consistent...

Keep in mind that the new spring growth will start from where you end your trimming now, plus there will be some back-budding.

In the future, pick off leaves that violate the outer shape that you have in your mind's eye of any cloud top, bottom, or outer edges. Try to favor leaves that lay nice for the space that they occupy.

 

[Ed_Inc]

You can trim for a more economic appearance now, and spread the canopy out to do two things: make more distinct clouds and even out the space between the lowest branches on either side, both of which are artificially low if foliage is trimmed to less clunky shapes. Rotate some branches down 15° or 20° with wire or guy wires to keep the spaces between the clouds approximately even or consistent...
View attachment 402743
Keep in mind that the new spring growth will start from where you end your trimming now, plus there will be some back-budding.

Oh interesting! I had not thought about creating some new pads out of the existing canopy! I have a strong leader on the right side which would work well for a new lower pad.

I will have a play around with visualising some of these changes, exciting!

 

[sorce]

Little bump to see if anyone else has advice on when to prune?

When you know what the reaction will be. This is a thing of personal advancement.

There is a place in time when you will have no fear cutting the S out of it, which is what will be necessary to understand the more important, how to prune. This is when you should prune.

I wouldn't worry about percentages. Seems you are doing so with "March" brain, realize your advancement, you have brought it great health.

So you can begin to prune for design rather than to keep the tree healthy.

The problem with the design is this rather branch, branch, branch, clump thing it's doing.

IMO...that whole top clump can go, it would probably be best to remove it now, as under lights, the differential between light top to bottom is so much greater than outdoors, this lopsided energy and design will only worsen.

I think you have brought this enough health to realize a great tree from what doesn't even exist yet, in the same time it would take you to make an OK tree out of what already exists.

This leap is only possible when you realize your advancement.

Sorce

 

[Ed_Inc]

When you know what the reaction will be. This is a thing of personal advancement.

There is a place in time when you will have no fear cutting the S out of it, which is what will be necessary to understand the more important, how to prune. This is when you should prune.

I wouldn't worry about percentages. Seems you are doing so with "March" brain, realize your advancement, you have brought it great health.

So you can begin to prune for design rather than to keep the tree healthy.

The problem with the design is this rather branch, branch, branch, clump thing it's doing.

IMO...that whole top clump can go, it would probably be best to remove it now, as under lights, the differential between light top to bottom is so much greater than outdoors, this lopsided energy and design will only worsen.

I think you have brought this enough health to realize a great tree from what doesn't even exist yet, in the same time it would take you to make an OK tree out of what already exists.

This leap is only possible when you realize your advancement.

Sorce

You see that's the scary thing, this is my only bonsai! My confidence to experiment is quite low as I would be absolutely gutted if killed it off. With multiple trees I am definitely someone who would play around and try out different strategies, but with my one little lad, it's a scary thought!

I have also considered really cutting the top off and just leaving a leader. The unfortunate thing is there used to be a perfect central leader in the top canopy, and the previous nursary removed it, which caused the canopy to just spread out.

Saying that, I really like the idea from Forsoothe, there are some strong branches on the left and right of the canopy that I could definitely make into some new pads. And although it may not be a traditionally balanced example of bonsai, I'm really happy just going through the process and learning along the way

>as under lights, the differential between light top to bottom is so much greater than outdoors, this lopsided energy and design will only worsen.
By this, do you mean that the canopy would almost block the energy to the lower pads from a grow light, and cause it to grow more, and block the lower pads even more?

 

[Forsoothe!]

When you know what the reaction will be. This is a thing of personal advancement.

There is a place in time when you will have no fear cutting the S out of it, which is what will be necessary to understand the more important, how to prune. This is when you should prune.

I wouldn't worry about percentages. Seems you are doing so with "March" brain, realize your advancement, you have brought it great health.

So you can begin to prune for design rather than to keep the tree healthy.

The problem with the design is this rather branch, branch, branch, clump thing it's doing.

IMO...that whole top clump can go, it would probably be best to remove it now, as under lights, the differential between light top to bottom is so much greater than outdoors, this lopsided energy and design will only worsen.

I think you have brought this enough health to realize a great tree from what doesn't even exist yet, in the same time it would take you to make an OK tree out of what already exists.

This leap is only possible when you realize your advancement.

Sorce

Boo Hiss. Ya know how I hate to be contrary, but this is a large-leafed tree which means it needs to have a style consistent with that, and big time chopping only results in big time scars and a 'Tater. This needs to be either a formal or informal upright or a broom unless OP wants a distorted clump. I'm not saying distorted clumps are undesirable, I'm just saying the goal needs to be plainly stated if so. The program I outlined results in "the tree on a hill" that everyone would recognize as such.

 

[sorce]

big time scars and a 'Tater.

This doesn't have to be true, though it very well can be, but it isn't in my definition of "great" in..

I think you have brought this enough health to realize a great tree from what doesn't even exist yet, in the same time it would take you to make an OK tree out of what already exists.

Which then remains a very true statement, but only if one advances beyond......Fear!

(Fyi...now is a great time to fear fear itself and fear alone)

By this, do you mean that the canopy would almost block the energy to the lower pads from a grow light, and cause it to grow more, and block the lower pads even more?

Pads shmads, but yes.

This is when percentages do matter.

Even an average tree out in the sun will always want to be thicker at the top, so removal of a larger percentage of the top is required, around 20%.
Under lights, to keep this balanced requires closer to 80% more foliage removed from the top.

Pads Shmads because, it's not the pads that matter, it's the thickness of the branches.
Pads, or leaf density, is merely the tool we use to keep the branch thickness correct. Thick low, thin high.

These things will be severely out of balance for most of the development time, moreso with tropicals due to the lights time. When we impatiently want to see "finished", we allow these "ok" trees which are literally finished after a couple seasons because the branch thickness is out of balance. So we get to view "finished" for 6 months than what we have is basically useless.

Where, if we were to wait out this period of severe imbalance, we will have a good finished tree that can last decades before it needs a complete overhaul.

Take some cuttings, this way, if this thing dies, you don't kill 100% of your trees!

I still have cuttings from my original Walmart ficus, I let them go to shit but their 3rd restart may prove promising.

I let them grow into the ground through summer them hack them out in fall and they do fine. This ground assisted growth is that which can prevent large scars, taters, and crappy trees!

Sorce