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Fattening up a Benjamine Fig

18 years ago

Hello all!

I was just given a gift of a younger ficus(s) and I need some advice (never had an indoor bonsai before, just outdoor). First of all it looks like someone dumped a handful of seeds into the middle of the pot and never bothered to thin the plant. After inspection I have concluded that most would not be easily seperated without damnaging the plant to much (a few I may be able to thin or cut back). Is it inconcievable to grow a ficus as a clump style? I have only ever seen then as single specimens (often with spectacular roots).

Also I was thinking of pruning back the upper stems in order to encourage greater branch growth lower on the plant to force the main trucks to fatten up, is this effective on ficus or should I just give up on it as bonsai and dump it in a big pot to grow for the next 10 years? :-) The person who bought it for me didnt realize that the best bonsai come from the ugliest, oldest plants in the nursary and I just don't know if this plant will grow fast enough to be a good bonsai candiate. It has really nice leaves thou.

Any adice? Thankyou!

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Comments (3)

mganga_mulapali
18 years ago
Sounds like you were given a black plastic pot of ficus saplings. I frequently buy one or two of these pots filled with ficus, and in spring, seperate them. You may damage a few in the process, but can usually get some roots on all of the trees. Then find a nice stone slab or an oval tray and plant a forest. It is easy to get a variety of trunk thickness and prune to appropriate heights. In a few years you will have a nice forest, and when the roots have grown together, rather easy to take from the slab/pot and root prune and re-pot.
mrgreengenes
18 years ago
You should be able to seperate most if not all of these as mentioned previously. However your pruning method you mentioned for fattening up the trunk is a bit of a waste of time. Pruning a tree slows it's growth, it can actually stop growth for a period all together. The only effective way to fatten up a trunk of a tree is to allow the tree to grow.

If you are looking to cause it to back bud and grow branches further down on the trunk that is another story all together but even still it will cause the growth to slow. Just a natural part of the tree's physiology.

Being that this tree is tropical you may want to choose your timing carefully for doing anything too drastic. Good luck to you and your trees. -G
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Krys
18 years ago
Read Jerry Meislik's book on Ficus. He shows there how you can bind together a whole bunch of little Ficus saplings like that, making sure they are good and tight so that their trunks can fuse.
I'd also add that you should keep at least one branch on each. In time (a year or two) you should have a nice trunk made up of fused little guys.
Krys

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