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Willow Leaf Ficus Question

16 years ago

I've had a nice little willow leaf ficus for three years or so & though I have pinched it back from time to time to keep a regular shape, the branches have gotten a bit spindly -- long & thin, with leaves mostly at the ends. Does anyone have experience with cutting this species back into old wood? How far back can I cut the limbs & still get new growth? And when is the best time of year to do it, if it's possible?

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Comments (3)

lucy
16 years ago
Now would be a great time to do it. Have you also repotted and checked for spider mites, and to see if it's rootbound? Is it getting lots of light all day?
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
16 years ago
I think it's irresponsible to suggest that now is a good time to do such radical work on the tree w/o knowing more about it. Any time you defoliate a tree or branch, it severely weakens it, so if the tree is not growing with excellent vitality now, it's simply dangerous, even though the plant is genetically very vigorous. For instance: If the tree is being kept indoors & not under excellent lighting, it's almost surely not a candidate for the radical reduction. If the tree is outdoors and you don't have excellent supplemental lighting to bring the tree into in Sep, I'd still forgo the radical reduction.

I would first remove branches that spoil the tree's form or are not being left for other than aesthetic reasons (sacrifice branches eg). I would then thin the tree by first going through & eliminating those areas where there are several branches emanating from the same point (very common in this Ficus). After that, I would shorten branches so that a leaf or two and possibly some new buds remain on the branch. All this will allow more light and air circulation to stimulate back-budding on the interior of the tree.

This procedure isn't dangerous & you can allow the tree to recover until next June - a better time to undertake what you propose. By then, back-budding will have produced lots of new growth, presenting plenty of new opportunities to shorten branches. If you cut the tree back hard now in zone 4, you have only about a month for the tree to make enough mature foliage so the canopy is an energy producer instead of an energy sink. If a plant is not producing more energy than it's using, it's dying.

In short - how far you can cut this tree back depends on how much stored energy the tree has now, but you also need to consider the weakening effects and the fact that you may be putting the tree at a severe energy disadvantage (unable to defend against insect/disease) over a long winter.

Al
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VERY NICE - what a great little start - especially the root flare, which is technically about the only important thing at this point. The first thing you should do is thin the top and shorten branches so the tree doesn't develop reverse taper. Do this by cutting out the heavier branches in the top third of the tree and cutting them all back to 1-2 leaves. You want the lowest branch to be the heaviest and for branching to be finer as you view the tree from bottom to top. Restraining the top while the bottom develops is a part of developing a nice tree. Wire or pull the bottom branches to a more horizontal orientation, too. I don't know how long into bonsai you are, but experienced artists would look at the tree with an eye that gravitated toward shortening it considerably, but if you're new to bonsai, I don't think anyone is going to be too critical if you start developing the tree at the height it is now. Good score. Al
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Yes the trunks are wrapped (tied). I just looked at them again and there are more uprights growing from the nebari and some long low branches. I may have to re-wrap them and incorporate some of the new growth into rest of the trunks. I'll wait about a week and take a closer look. Will the trunks meld sooner if I keep it growing with out trimming.
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Oh jeez - mine is still at the very beginning of its journey to becoming a bonsai. I only showed the picture because of the similarities between the 2 trees. Here's a pic I took just a few minutes ago, of a tree really needing some pruning & thinning before it comes in to it's home under lights for the winter. It really looks much better in life than in 2D - especially when it's been pruned. Most bonsai growers understand that your trees don't (and probably shouldn't, if you're watching out for the tree's health) look good every day or even every month of the year. I need to remove the left-leaning top and train a branch that moves to the right instead of the left so it doesn't flow against the movement of the tree as the new top. The tree is so apically dominant I should be able to quickly develop a top as I start working a little more seriously on branch refinement. It's 25" tall from the pot rim and has a 9" root spread at the soil line. I acquired it as a much smaller tree in a Dale Cochoy workshop in Ann Arbor in '02. It's in a Sarah Raynor pot now that's much too deep for the plant, but it had a very poor root structure that I've been reducing as much as possible each year so I can get it into increasingly shallower pots. Al
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Comments (8)
Almost ..... If those branches are bar branches (last picture in your first series), and it looks like they are, the extra chop would be on a plane between just above the slightly higher branch to just above the lower branch - almost a horizontal chop. The slightly higher branch is then trained upward & the slightly lower branch becomes the tree's first branch. As it is now, the branches occur at nearly the same level. The reason I mentioned that is because I judged the Detroit area bonsai show last year and remember there was a F nerifolia that probably would have rec'd recognition if it wasn't for the fact that the lowest 2 branches were bar branches. Just a side note: I find it absolutely amazing that I can't put a face to a name worth a darn, but I remember all sorts of seemingly unimportant information about plants. I can also look a tree over briefly in the course of my travels, & then remember whose it is/was several years later when I next run across it, and even see what work (even if it was substantial) was done to it in the interim period. ;-) Al
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duemer
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for these responses. The tree spends summer outdoors & winter in a southern window & it has seemed healthy the last three years under these conditions. I repotted it last year. I think I will do some modest trimming back at this point, then a more radical restructuring next summer.

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