branch development on ficus

holycow

hi peoples,

sorry, but don't have a pic. live in sydney, still warm, but winter should be coming around in next month or so. am keeping the soil warm and exposing the tree to a lamp at night.

have developed the trunk on a shohin ficus rubiginosa, and am now working on branch development. have recently reduced branches to two close nodes on the first, and second branch, and to one node on the third branch. new growth is already evident, but the internodes on the first two branches seem somewhat long!
some questions.

should i wait for the growth on first two branches to harden again before trimming back to the shorter nodes and try again for close internodes or should i wait?
secondly, re the leaves that are already close to the trunk on the the existing nodes, should i remove them, or should i allow them to remain, removing them later? the nodes that i have already cut back to are the right the thinkness (i think).
from the back budding that occurs from trimming, should i remove those buds that appear on the those nodes close to the trunk?

thanks in advance,
ty

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ficusfanatic

i think we're in the same boat ty. i just trunk chopped three of my lanky ficus, i call them my three blind mice now... but what i'm doing is pinching back the growth to back bud. after 2 or three(whichever is in the right direction) new leaves appear i pinch the tip off causing ramification and backbudding. you can always pick which to keep later. the only budding i might remove would be where the branch meets the trunk or where three or more diverge from one point. this usually causes swelling and taper problems.

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-chris-