Any Restyling Ideas On This Ficus Passed On To Me?

Happy Gilmore

OK, this ficus has grown shoots on the main branches that are some 8" long at least! Been too busy with work to prune back hard.........is it OK to do that now? AND, is this a good time to stick the pruned pieces in soils to root cuttings? Lastly, I had wanted to repot this into a smaller pot easier to keep indoors this winter (present pot is too big for most anywhere indoors except the garage, and I want to keep it in/warmer for more growth this winter)...can I do that now? Shouldn't involve much if any root reduction.

Thanks!

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Happy Gilmore

OK, barring different advice I'm proceeding with the hard prune back but wouldn't mind a comment on repotting/timing before I go ahead with that....

thanks

BonsaiMon

Happy .. what kind of indoor setup do you have ?
Tropicals are hard prunned and rootwork done when they are going into their growth cycle.. the summer .. unless you are suplying summerlike environ for this ficus you may kill it if hard prunned.

__________________
peace,
tom stoute

http://bonsaiinsights.spaces.live.com/

CD one

Ross you're going to have to keep it inside during the winter, they won't hold-up well in our neck of the woods. How root bound is it? Can you get it into a more managable pot without disturbing the roots? I put my figs under grow lights last winter and they thrived (north facing windowsill with florescent tube above), as well I used pebble trays to provide a little more humidity. I wouldn't prune hard but you should be able to tidy it up a bit, don't remove any branches just cut them back a bit. If you got 8" of growth cut back to 4" shouldn't stress the tree too much.

Colin

Happy Gilmore

Thanks guys, yeah, I had it inside last winter, took it outside a bit early (March, neighbour that gifted it just about died when he found that out upon returning from his winter away in May...but it made it-just purple leaves for a few months.

Inside environment isn't tropical, cool room/reasonable humidity south facing with lots of windows (but lots of overcast/rain here in Vancouver). It grew a little last year thru winter but not much as I had it in a low light area and didn't feed it much either.

Can't be rootbound at all, early summer I exposed many roots just exploring nebari for pics higher up in this thread....I could repot without cutting any roots/just minor rearranging....neighbour had convinced me to buy a huge/oversize/pricey pot for this originally which creates indoor havoc as it's just too tall/too long etc to fit reasonably on any shelf and it's twice the weight it needs to be.

BTW, this ficus has huge leaves IMO, can't really see in my mind how this particular plant could be bonsai......it was in partial shade all spring/summer on my deck, in full sun will the leaves really be that much smaller? I like them the first 1-2 weeks......then too large. I've contemplated getting some indoor lights but haven't done any research on cost benefit etc of various methods. I don't have many indoor plants.

BonsaiMon

Ross .. I'll have to differ with Colin on the pruning on the Benjamina. From the looks of the last pic there isn't much foliage on it as is. Benj. do not like hard pruning in your neck of the woods at this time of year. Tip pruning .. in the conditions stated will shock it also. If it were mine .. I'd leave it unpruned til spring/summer.
Getting it into a smaller pot will be stress enough. If you do more it to another container it would be good to keep the root mass with the help of a heat pad between 60-70F. How cool does your room get?
The Benj does have larger leaves but in time and lots of light .. full sun.. they will reduce somewhat .. half their current size...
A 4' shop light a few inches over the trees with a warmwhite tube and a coolight will help with the light and not be that expensive.
The work you have done so far has brought it into a workable state to become a nice tree. Given some time and root heat this winter will help this Benj. become the tree it wants to be..

__________________
peace,
tom stoute

http://bonsaiinsights.spaces.live.com/

Forest Reef

I'm beginning, too, so stick with the more experienced people's advice on timing. You mentioned the leaves being too big for your taste - I'd agree - F. benji does have big leaves. Here's some info to encourage you not to give up on it just 'cause of that.... About 1-1/2yr ago, I needed something for the local class on forests (early spring at the time)....the only stuff I could find was the 'late season rejects' (Ficus benjamina 'Dutch Treat') they sold at Home Depot - you know, 4 or 5 'pencils' to a 4" pot so you can braid your own. (Gimme a break - I was just starting!) I bought several of those & made a forest. (Not bad, for a 1st try.....) I noticed some of the trees lost leaves & came back these very small leaves (in other words, I leaf pruned a couple by accident...then a few on purpose ) I took it back this spring for a checkup during our 'forest' class, and Teacher said I could continue to snip a percentage of the bigger leaves off (would be replaced by smaller), wait awhile, repeat...until I was happy with the size. AFTER I let my forest grow up a bit taller & fill in the canopy some more. (Leaf pruning for size is the last thing you want to finish off....) Not to get carried away too soon....Anyway, those ugly big leaves grow your trunk & branches. Keep 'em. You can adjust leaf size....later. My forest is, ahem, a 'cute' mixture of nice little and out-of-scale big-ugly leaves. Until it grows up. Good luck, and enjoy your tree!

CD one

I'm just going by my own experience here in the Pacific Northwest. I've never had any problems with tip prunning my Benjaminas year round although I grow mine under lights in the winter so I do get a fair amount of growth year round. In the winter with the 8 to 10 hours of sunshine (liquid or otherwise) we get, ficus tend to get quite leggy unless you tip prune. I think that if Happy can get the tree into a more manageable pot and get it under lights for the winter he'll see a vast improvement. Ross go to Home Depot and pick-up a couple of grow light stick, the ones that are pre wired all you have to do is plug them in, they're fairly cheap $10-15, last a couple of years and work wonders in the winter time.

Colin