Willow Leaf Ficus

[JoeR]

I received this tree Friday, after traveling from Puerto Rico in the mail for four days. It stands at about 9" tall from the pot, and the base is 6" or so across (Komono is more appropriate than shohin correct, @Adair M ?). It came with this tokoname flower pot, which has some hard water build up on it that I will need to remove.

This is the first ficus I've worked with, so I'm excited to finally have one.

The roots are gnarly, somewhat attractive as they are in my opinion, but in the near future I will likely be working them to a more politically correct state.

Tomorrow I am going to unwire the branches (they're beginning to bite in) and take more pictures. Overall the branching is good, but has been grown to make a full silhouette image as opposed to a clean organized branch structure.

 

[vp999]

Nice little ficus...Dis you get it from Ebay or some other website ? I like what they're selling.

 

[Carol 83]

I'm glad it arrived safely, nice!

 

[pweifan]

@JoeR ficus can take severe root pruning. I think this tree would look better if it were lower in the pot.

 

[JoeR]

Nice little ficus...Dis you get it from Ebay or some other website ? I like what they're selling.

I got this on one of the Facebook auction pages.

@JoeR ficus can take severe root pruning. I think this tree would look better if it were lower in the pot.

Thanks, I just received the tree but once its settled in I will begin root work. Big climate difference from PR to NC, I imagine.


Took the wires off today, some had bit in far more than my liking. Unfortunately the tree also has a chop scar that I hadn't seen in the pictures.

 

[Marren]

Good looking tree..I agree, I’d also remove the roots circling around the pot. Great nebari.

 

[JoeR]

Repot and defoliation, desperately needed some fresh soil. Growth had been stalled for a while due to being root bound, and now that it was about to push new growth again I went ahead and got the work done. Maybe a little later in the season than I'd like, but I'm not sure how it would have fared over winter if I hadn't.

To the tropical experts: do you place them back into full sun, or part shade after this work? Read a bunch of AdamAskWhy blogs about willows but didn't see anything about sun placement after this kind of work. @markyscott I know you have a few nice ones, whatcha think?

Also thanks @El Duderino for pointing out my trees face, that I will never unsee now haha!

 

[El Duderino]

Repot and defoliation, desperately needed some fresh soil. Growth had been stalled for a while due to being root bound, and now that it was about to push new growth again I went ahead and got the work done. Maybe a little later in the season than I'd like, but I'm not sure how it would have fared over winter if I hadn't.

To the tropical experts: do you place them back into full sun, or part shade after this work? Read a bunch of AdamAskWhy blogs about willows but didn't see anything about sun placement after this kind of work. @markyscott I know you have a few nice ones, whatcha think?

Also thanks @El Duderino for pointing out my trees face, that I will never unsee now haha!

Thanks for letting me help with the defoliation. Very cool tree with a lot of personality .

 

[markyscott]

Repot and defoliation, desperately needed some fresh soil. Growth had been stalled for a while due to being root bound, and now that it was about to push new growth again I went ahead and got the work done. Maybe a little later in the season than I'd like, but I'm not sure how it would have fared over winter if I hadn't.

To the tropical experts: do you place them back into full sun, or part shade after this work? Read a bunch of AdamAskWhy blogs about willows but didn't see anything about sun placement after this kind of work. @markyscott I know you have a few nice ones, whatcha think?

Also thanks @El Duderino for pointing out my trees face, that I will never unsee now haha!

I put mine right back into the full sun after repot. And since you asked my opinion, I’ll also offer my 2cents about defoliation - I think you’ll find your tree will develop more quickly if you avoid defoliating so much and focus on branch development instead. Later, when your tree is in refinement, an outer canopy defoliation will become much more important for building twiggy growth at the branch ends.

- S

 

[Paradox]

Nice little tree.

I agree with others that it needs to have those circling roots taken care of

 

[JoeR]

I put mine right back into the full sun after repot. And since you asked my opinion, I’ll also offer my 2cents about defoliation - I think you’ll find your tree will develop more quickly if you avoid defoliating so much and focus on branch development instead. Later, when your tree is in refinement, an outer canopy defoliation will become much more important for building twiggy growth at the branch ends.

- S

Thanks Scott! Yeah I was waffling about the defoliation too, so thank you for the input there. This is my only ficus, and it's the one species I own that I don't fully understand yet. As long as what I did wasn't detrimental to the trees health I'm fine, live and learn. The original considerations for defoliation here were wiring and a slight scale problem, and I was hoping the direct sun as well as neem would eradicate them before they became a problem

 

[JoeR]

Nice little tree.

I agree with others that it needs to have those circling roots taken care of

The last picture in post #7 you can see I did take care of the circling roots. But I'm open to opinions on any further work you'd suggest. Stuck them in perlite and bark, hopefully I can get a few cuttings to root

 

[markyscott]

Thanks Scott! Yeah I was waffling about the defoliation too, so thank you for the input there. This is my only ficus, and it's the one species I own that I don't fully understand yet. As long as what I did wasn't detrimental to the trees health I'm fine, live and learn. The original considerations for defoliation here were wiring and a slight scale problem, and I was hoping the direct sun as well as neem would eradicate them before they became a problem

Best solution for scale that I’ve found involves a q tip, rubbing alcohol, a six pack, and a football game. Preseason game might work the best.

s

 

[coh]

I don't resort to chemicals very often but for scale, I'll use a systemic, usually imidacloprid. When I bring my willow leafs in for the winter I spray them with water a few times a day to knock off mites and loose scale/crawlers, then usually hit them with an oil spray and the systemic. Seems to work very well. I've done the q-tip and alcohol thing before, but that got old in a hurry.