Willow leaf ficus has tiny leaves this year…. hmmm

[PattyB]

I have a Willow Leaf Ficus that was very slow to wake up this spring, seems that was a common issue with others here as well. I’ve searched threads looking for anyone else with these tiny leaves as this is not normal, in the past for my tree. It was late June, early July before any buds began to open. The tree is growing very well as far as amount of growth, just tiny leaves. Kinda cute actually!

I've had this tree since October of 2019, purchased from Wigerts as a Shohin clump style. The tree did pretty well inside under t5 ho lights in a south facing window all winter. It kept a lot of its leaves until I moved it outside in April of 2020 then slowly dropped the old leaves and grew a fresh new set. I did however repot the tree in April into a much shallower pot using Bonsai Jacks organic mix. At that time, I trimed the roots quite a bit and did not trim any leaves as it was dropping the older leaves already. The tree didn’t suffer any setbacks through the season after repotting although it was not quite as full as the previous year’s growth had been. Maryland is a bit ummm different than Florida for tropicals. I grow my trees on our south facing deck and full sun is most of the day unless I move a tree to our table under the umbrella. The ficus loves the sun!

This last winter the tree kept its leaves until January sometime, began dropping them and I noticed spider mites, damn! Ok treated the mites, that was easy enough but the tree seemed to decline. Lost all leaves so I watered less, a lot less. February came and the shoots were drying up, brittle and dead at their ends. I honestly thought the tree was a goner. I dug around the roots, didn’t unpot it but the roots looked fine, the base of the tree was still firm and not dead. I babied this thing until it was warm enough to spend days outside. I then cut away all of the dead shoot ends. When it finally started showing buds I was pretty excited and it has grown well but the leaf size? Have any of you with Willow leaf ficus experienced this tiny growth? Each leaf is an inch or less in length as opposed to the much longer leaves it usually has.

 

[PattyB]

I have a Willow Leaf Ficus that was very slow to wake up this spring, seems that was a common issue with others here as well. I’ve searched threads looking for anyone else with these tiny leaves as this is not normal, in the past for my tree. It was late June, early July before any buds began to open. The tree is growing very well as far as amount of growth, just tiny leaves. Kinda cute actually!

I've had this tree since October of 2019, purchased from Wigerts as a Shohin clump style. The tree did pretty well inside under t5 ho lights in a south facing window all winter. It kept a lot of its leaves until I moved it outside in April of 2020 then slowly dropped the old leaves and grew a fresh new set. I did however repot the tree in April into a much shallower pot using Bonsai Jacks organic mix. At that time, I trimed the roots quite a bit and did not trim any leaves as it was dropping the older leaves already. The tree didn’t suffer any setbacks through the season after repotting although it was not quite as full as the previous year’s growth had been. Maryland is a bit ummm different than Florida for tropicals. I grow my trees on our south facing deck and full sun is most of the day unless I move a tree to our table under the umbrella. The ficus loves the sun!

This last winter the tree kept its leaves until January sometime, began dropping them and I noticed spider mites, damn! Ok treated the mites, that was easy enough but the tree seemed to decline. Lost all leaves so I watered less, a lot less. February came and the shoots were drying up, brittle and dead at their ends. I honestly thought the tree was a goner. I dug around the roots, didn’t unpot it but the roots looked fine, the base of the tree was still firm and not dead. I babied this thing until it was warm enough to spend days outside. I then cut away all of the dead shoot ends. When it finally started showing buds I was pretty excited and it has grown well but the leaf size? Have any of you with Willow leaf ficus experienced this tiny growth? Each leaf is an inch or less in length as opposed to the much longer leaves it usually has.

As it was in 2019

 

[coh]

Honestly, those leaves look to be about the same size as the ones on my willow leaf ficuses (referring to photo 1). The leaves in photo 2 look larger than normal, at least based on my trees.

 

[PattyB]

View attachment 388998As it was in 2019

And now

 

[PattyB]

Honestly, those leaves look to be about the same size as the ones on my willow leaf ficuses (referring to photo 1). The leaves in photo 2 look larger than normal, at least based on my trees.

Thank you for your reply! I only have the one Willow leaf and I felt these leaves were very small, certainly smaller than they had been in the past. I suppose this is the new normal for this tree and that’s ok, I like it and it seems healthy.

Sorry for the GIANT picture

 

[Apex37]

I have a Willow Leaf Ficus that was very slow to wake up this spring, seems that was a common issue with others here as well. I’ve searched threads looking for anyone else with these tiny leaves as this is not normal, in the past for my tree. It was late June, early July before any buds began to open. The tree is growing very well as far as amount of growth, just tiny leaves. Kinda cute actually!

I've had this tree since October of 2019, purchased from Wigerts as a Shohin clump style. The tree did pretty well inside under t5 ho lights in a south facing window all winter. It kept a lot of its leaves until I moved it outside in April of 2020 then slowly dropped the old leaves and grew a fresh new set. I did however repot the tree in April into a much shallower pot using Bonsai Jacks organic mix. At that time, I trimed the roots quite a bit and did not trim any leaves as it was dropping the older leaves already. The tree didn’t suffer any setbacks through the season after repotting although it was not quite as full as the previous year’s growth had been. Maryland is a bit ummm different than Florida for tropicals. I grow my trees on our south facing deck and full sun is most of the day unless I move a tree to our table under the umbrella. The ficus loves the sun!

This last winter the tree kept its leaves until January sometime, began dropping them and I noticed spider mites, damn! Ok treated the mites, that was easy enough but the tree seemed to decline. Lost all leaves so I watered less, a lot less. February came and the shoots were drying up, brittle and dead at their ends. I honestly thought the tree was a goner. I dug around the roots, didn’t unpot it but the roots looked fine, the base of the tree was still firm and not dead. I babied this thing until it was warm enough to spend days outside. I then cut away all of the dead shoot ends. When it finally started showing buds I was pretty excited and it has grown well but the leaf size? Have any of you with Willow leaf ficus experienced this tiny growth? Each leaf is an inch or less in length as opposed to the much longer leaves it usually has.

Possibly due to it losing all it's leaves, it in a way was essentially defoliated, which can encourage smaller leaf size.

 

[Mikecheck123]

Disclaimer: I don't own any ficuses.

But lots of deciduous trees have larger leaves during periods of rapid growth. Japanese maples and American elms both do this.

Then the next season they are smaller.

But I agree with the other poster that this was probably a defoliation effect.

 

[penumbra]

Ficus leaves in Florida, where this plant came from, are likely to be larger.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Am I understanding you to say you keep your ficus outside all year (in Maryland)? If so, that's pretty crazy! I bring my ficus indoors from mid-Dec to mid-Mar... and I'm in Central NC!

 

[PattyB]

Possibly due to it losing all it's leaves, it in a way was essentially defoliated, which can encourage smaller leaf size.

Thanks Apex, I have to agree to some extent as it was defoliated though I understand Willow leaf is known to drop leaves while growing indoors and regrowing new in the spring. I guess I never noticed from other posts here that their trees new growth was so small. This didn’t occur the previous spring/summer but it had retained some of it older leaves that season. Possibly my chopping encouraged this some too. I appreciate your input!

 

[PattyB]

Disclaimer: I don't own any ficuses.

But lots of deciduous trees have larger leaves during periods of rapid growth. Japanese maples and American elms both do this.

Then the next season they are smaller.

But I agree with the other poster that this was probably a defoliation effect.

I’m inclined to agree myself thank you. It did not grow leaves this small in the spring of 2020 so I was a bit confused. It doesn’t take much

 

[PattyB]

Ficus leaves in Florida, where this plant came from, are likely to be larger.

It’s funny you say that and I agree with you there but this tree was said to have “tiny leaves” when I purchased it. Compared to the growth it is currently sporting, that’s almost laughable. I believe there is a Willow leaf 89? that has larger leaves? Anyway, at least I don’t feel this little one is in trouble as it is growing well and enjoying the sun when it isn’t raining. Thank you for your reply!

 

[PattyB]

Am I understanding you to say you keep your ficus outside all year (in Maryland)? If so, that's pretty crazy! I bring my ficus indoors from mid-Dec to mid-Mar... and I'm in Central NC!

I’m sorry for any confusion, must be catching…no, I keep the ficus and a handful of other tropicals indoors in early fall, winter and spring. If temps are below 50ish, they stay inside in a southern window with t5 ho lights to help with those cloudy gloomy days. If we have a few warmer sunny days, I’ll run trees out to the deck for a afternoon. Our deck is off of the second floor of our home so wind can be a real issue especially in winter. With our winters in Maryland I garage my other trees. Tropicals in the house Sorry I wasn’t clear in my post

 

[Forsoothe!]

Removing all the "dead" looking dormant buds forced the tree to activate secondary and tertiary buds, which takes time. Those "dead" buds were probably not dead. That response includes activating more buds that were less ready, so the energy reserves that would have been distributed between the normal amount of buds was subdivided between more buds, hence the same available leaf surface area subdivided between more leaves = smaller leaves. We do that on purpose to reduce leaf size, but we only do it to very healthy trees. There are other ways to do the same thing, too.

You put the tree out pretty early by Michigan standards, but I don't know the specifics of your spring. The rule of thumb is bring indoors when overnight temps go below 50°F and back out in spring when nighttime temps stay above 50°F. The trees can probably take ~35°F, but they won't be happy and might even look like what you saw.

 

[amcoffeegirl]

I cut mine back this summer and have lots of smaller leaves too. It sounds like a normal reaction to an explosion of growth.
water and fertilize. They may drop leaves again when you go inside- or not.
In lower light the leaves grow back larger. In higher light they grow back smaller.
An older shot- still one of my favorites.

 

[PattyB]

Removing all the "dead" looking dormant buds forced the tree to activate secondary and tertiary buds, which takes time. Those "dead" buds were probably not dead. That response includes activating more buds that were less ready, so the energy reserves that would have been distributed between the normal amount of buds was subdivided between more buds, hence the same available leaf surface area subdivided between more leaves = smaller leaves. We do that on purpose to reduce leaf size, but we only do it to very healthy trees. There are other ways to do the same thing, too.

You put the tree out pretty early by Michigan standards, but I don't know the specifics of your spring. The rule of thumb is bring indoors when overnight temps go below 50°F and back out in spring when nighttime temps stay above 50°F. The trees can probably take ~35°F, but they won't be happy and might even look like what you saw.

Forsoothe!, Thank you for your reply, I am aware that figs are a favorite of yours and you have some beautiful trees. Your explanation seems very likely except those shoots were dry and brittle, actually broke off in my fingers without much pressure on them. Regardless, I did cut them back below the dry ends and into live tissue and they had the white sap as would be expected. So again I believe you have helped me to understand what has caused this change.

The temps here in April can vary daily and I only take tropicals outside when it is warm enough in the afternoons. We keep our home at 68 and I do not want to surprise my trees with 40 or even 50 degrees even if it is sunny. I do the little dance with them in the spring as I have so few that are wintered in our home under lights. I can’t imagine 35! Thank you.

 

[PattyB]

I cut mine back this summer and have lots of smaller leaves too. It sounds like a normal reaction to an explosion of growth.
water and fertilize. They may drop leaves again when you go inside- or not.
In lower light the leaves grow back larger. In higher light they grow back smaller.
An older shot- still one of my favorites.View attachment 389037

Denise, thanks for replying! I enjoy your threads with your many willow leafs, they are awesome trees and you really have a nice collection of them. I was concerned earlier in spring when this plant didn’t seem to want to wake up and then these tiny leaves really had me wondering. Apparently my chopping has caused this leaf size and I’m ok with that. I would have hated to have killed the tree and I do like the small leaves, it was just so unexpected. I kept think they would continue to grow into the larger size they originally were. Still learning. Thanks again, appreciate it

 

[coh]

Thank you for your reply! I only have the one Willow leaf and I felt these leaves were very small, certainly smaller than they had been in the past. I suppose this is the new normal for this tree and that’s ok, I like it and it seems healthy.

Sorry for the GIANT picture

I do defoliate my willow leafs when I put them outside each year (the old leaves are usually getting pretty ratty by that time), so maybe that contributes to the leaf size being smallish. Also have a fair amount of ramification so the "energy" is well spread out.

 

[PattyB]

I do defoliate my willow leafs when I put them outside each year (the old leaves are usually getting pretty ratty by that time), so maybe that contributes to the leaf size being smallish. Also have a fair amount of ramification so the "energy" is well spread out.

I did not defoliate the first spring I had this tree and it had kept half or more of its original leaves through the winter. It lost those old leaves on its own once I moved it outside to stay for summer and the new growth was large like it had originally been so ya, I completely defoliated THIS spring even though it had no leaves (due to mites?) and I cut it back pretty hard. Live and learn… this tree could use some ramification. Hopefully it continues to grow and stay healthy.

I’ve seen many threads here with Willow leafs defoliated, I assumed their new smaller leaves would eventually grow larger. Until you experience it for yourself you simply do not know. I’ve waited weeks for these leaves to get to their previously normal size lol!

 

[Michael P]

My willow leaf ficus grow small leaves like your first photo after thinning in late spring or early summer, then being grown in full sun with lots of water and fertilizer. I associate this with vigorous summer growth. When temperatures are cooler and light less intense, the trees produce the larger leaves as in your second photo. Your tree looks good to me.