Vinny’s first tree — My ficus progression

[Michael P]

Wow, you a man of action! Looks great.

 

[Vincent Tanner]

Wow, you a man of action! Looks great.

Trying to be objective and think long term. I appreciate your helpful feedback!

 

[Vincent Tanner]

 

[Vincent Tanner]

One month since cutting back!

 

[pandacular]

This is the first tree I've seen on here that makes me think "man, I want to get a ficus". I think for now I'll stick with the house plant ficuses, and maybe pick up a small leave variety to see if I can get decent growth inside.

Good choices with the chops!

 

[Michael P]

It's hard not to love a tree that will do that in a month. Let all of those new shoots elongate until they have 5 to 6 leaves on them, then you can cut back to 1 or 2. The exception would be any branches that seem weak or that you would like to be thicker, leave those alone.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I'M NOT SAYING TO DO THIS WITHOUT A LOT OF THOUGHT....

But I think now that its had it show moment, id think 5 or 6 years in the future. You have some lack of taper in the top of the tree.

Id remove the red and grow the greenish.

Great tree! Youve done an awesome job!

 

[Vincent Tanner]

This thing is full steam ahead. It’s back budding everywhere to the point where I’m having to pinch leaves off of the main trunk.

We’re about 5 weeks since chopping everything.

 

[Vincent Tanner]

I did a workshop today with Doug Taylor. We did branch selection and wiring. The plan is to grow the apex and left branch out a bit so that their movement is more complimentary with trunk’s movement. In time, we also wanna get this even wider than it is tall like they grow in the wild.

Next year, repot the tree more to the right.

 

[pandacular]

great little tree, especially now that you've opened up the apex a bit.

 

[Michael P]

Better and better!

 

[MHBonsai]

Great progress in a short time!

 

[Vincent Tanner]

Thanks everyone!

 

[Vincent Tanner]

I took the wire off the tree today as it was just starting to bite in. The shoots have grown to 5 or 6 leaves. I’m going to leave them so that the tree can store ans much energy as possible in preparation for the move indoors that will sometime in the next few weeks. Once the tree starts to show growth indoors, maybe mid-December, I’ll prune it back to two leaves or so.

 

[BrianBay9]

Great work! I wouldn't prune much in winter unless you have a really good indoor environment for it. They respond much better when actively growing outside in the heat. When I did the indoor/outdoor routine I'd wait until I was ready to move outdoor and prune and defoliate then. It will probably lose "indoor" leaves when you move outside anyway.

 

[Vincent Tanner]

Changed the moss and pruned a little for an exhibit our club had at the CT Flower and Garden Show.