Pruning ficus b. after July 9 Repotting. Pic Heavy!

11 years ago

Hello to all and a big thanks for all the things written and discussed here, members writing about their problems and successes along the way, the collective experience of the fora, and particularly to Al who's generous spirit really lights up this forum in a special way.

So, true story - I moved to a 3rd fl apt July '11 shortly after which I picked up an orphaned 8' Ficus Benjamina which was being discarded on the sidewalk during a neighbor's move. It's shape suggests it was against a wall for some period, rather bushy on one side while flat on the other.

Being a novice, I brought 'Gladys' home in the back of a trusty Corolla and drug her up 3 flights of stairs to the new place and put her in a South window. After a period of extended protest, I finally found a watering schedule that suited the plant and the hard soil it was in (every 5 days). This forum was instrumental in clueing me in on the watering issue. So all is good till late winter / early spring '12 when I notice how sticky the floors and couches are. About this time I also notice the tiny spider mites jumping about every time I water. I bide my time.

Trips in May and June disrupt the watering schedule and the plant reacts with a small, but distinct drought response. I bring Gladys outside in Mid June, repotted July 9. Although I did cut off a good 2 inches of root from the bottom and cleaned out as much old soil as I could, I did not do a lot of major corrective root pruning (next year perhaps). Got supplies for Al's Gritty Mix, applied Bonide systematic Houseplant Insect Control to deal with spider mites, and got repotting done. This was July 9, 2012. Applied Neem oil at same time and again July 26. (50% H2O, 50% Alcohol, 1 tsp Neem Oil, a couple drops Dawn = quart).

Ficus looks pretty good as of July 31, 2012 - still a few leaves with major sticky - What Is This? Thought it was scales and Neem would take care of it. Otherwise most leaves feel pretty clean to touch. Watering every other day w/ addition of Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro.

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Which brings me to the big issue of top pruning. I've tried to read a lot on the concept behind pruning and the idea of energy reserves and although I think I'm getting close, I'm still a little dim when trying to put it all together. It's getting late in the season, I did not go into repotting with full energy, and the plant is a weird shape!

Here we are Aug 1, plant looks pretty good to my untrained eye. Do I wait for next year to do hard branch pruning or do I say meh, and grab shears pronto while summer is still about? I don't have a clear idea of what this Ficus wants or what I should do. I know Al says one can be pretty aggressive when pruning it's just I'm concerned about timing.

My pics are on a shallow 3rd fl balcony ( apologies) so the best I can do is offer close shots at various angles, while turning the plant. The ficus is 8' tall while apartment ceilings are 9' in height. I am in Boston, the ficus is currently on outside balcony facing East, Northeast (direct light till noon) and south facing living room during winter.

First pic of ficus after repotting about 3 weeks back, then a series of pics taken yesterday showing current state of affairs. Plant rotated counter clockwise to hopefully give an idea of shape and the like. Knife blade on top of pot hopefully gives a sense of orientation - 4PM, 1PM, 10 AM, 7AM. Many thanks again! Sorry for so many pics:-)

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Comments (7)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm going to go look at what's in the Bonide and see why it didn't knock out the severe scale infestation on your tree. In the meantime, maybe you can tell me what goal you intend the pruning to serve?

You can never have too many pictures when you're asking for pruning advice. Good job in that regard!

Al
Randy_
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Al and thanks for the quick reply. I'm new to this and as such my untrained eye doesn't readily see the possibilities and or limitations.

I would like to work towards better overall balance especially with regard the tree's lopsidedness. Height needs to be reduced as it will be at the ceiling before too long. Hopefully this will encourage growth lower down the tree.

It seems there is a lot of work to do to clean things up - lot of branches just going here and there. I'm not sure how to approach this, frankly. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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Let's use your second picture, the closeup, for this discussion. The larger branch that sticks up from the dominant trunk has to go, so cut it off flush with the trunk with a fine saw, then paint the wound carefully with waterproof wood glue. The glue seals the wood, prevents it from drying, prevents a large scar that takes a long time to heal, and helps the callus tissue that forms at the edge of the wound to roll over the wound without resistance. As you follow the trunk line up, you come to another branch that sticks up, then has a branch that moves off to the right. That stays, but the little stub that sticks up gets the same treatment I described for the first upright branch off the trunk. The branch underneath the higher branch that moves to the right and looks like a continuation of the main trunk line and appears parallel to the upper branch should be removed. Your trunk will move to the right, then move upward a short distance, then continue to the right. That little 'crook in the trunk line adds interest. The reason the lower branch should be moved is, it competes with your eye as the apex. Even though the trunk line your keeping is higher than the branch, it still confuses your eye. All the branches on the subordinate trunk should move to the right, but no branch should be directly above another. The lowest branch should move right and toward you. The next should move right and be in line with the trunk, the third branch should move right and toward the back. There should be no branches on the dominant trunk that move to the right. Coming off the dominant trunk, you should have 3-4 branches arranged alternately that move to the left. These should be longer branches to offer visual balance (so the tree doesn't look like it's going to fall over to the right). There is a branch that is growing off the really short stub that sticks up where the dominant trunk line makes a jog. It appears to be growing to the left. That is a key branch. Train it so it grows toward the front and moves left. No branches should grow directly toward the front of the composition, so they look like they want to poke you in the eye. Did you get all that? FWIW, I'm a bonsai judge, and 30 years of practice at bonsai allows me to see the tree in the tree. It also allows me to see problems and offer plans that allow the grower to work around the problems or in some cases turn them into a feature. Comments? Al
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Hi, Jocelyn. I'm happy to see you came back to share the progress and offer the kind words. Your tree has changed quite a bit from the first images you posted - strong work! "...... now branches A and B are growing a lot faster than the others bc they are closer to the sunlight which is a skylight. Branch D is moderate grower, E and F are toward the wall and not growing much - I think A and B may be shading them. Branch C has no leaves anymore. It used to have a couple but they fell off. That branch is totally shaded. My question is how many branches should I prune? All of them or only A and B, the big growers? Do I prune all the way down to two leaves again? Also, when I prune, is there a direction or exact placement of the cut I should do to encourage branching in one direction vs another? Just trying to figure out how to prevent shading of other branches...but maybe that’s due to the sunlight direction? And would you just cut off Branch C since there are no leaves, and if so, where do I make the cut? I'll try to go through and answer in the order your questions were asked, though I'm sure I'll get overzealous about one question and in expanding on it I'll likely answer other of your questions. I guess that's why the phrase "see above" was coined. As far as how many branches should be pruned, I think all that are growing strongly need pruning to force energy to the weaker branches. The branches growing moderately should be at least pinched (tip pruned to stop extension and force hack-budding. I would prune everything back in bounds.To establish where the boundary is, imagine a giant soup bowl, upside down, and settled over the trunk. Anything sticking out beyond that outline should be cut back to the outline, more specifically, to the leaf that is closest TO the outline w/o extending beyond it. This should produce back-budding in at least the 2 leaves closest to the cut. If the distal leaf heads in the wrong direction, which would be the direction where it will receive less light, you can cut back to the next proximal leaf (1 leaf closer to the trunk). If it was my tree, I would have no problem doing the following: Prune back to the outline as described above, then tip-prune every branch you didn't need to prune to keep it in bounds. Then, remove every leaf on the tree except the last (most distal) leaf on each branch and move the tree outdoors as soon as temps allow. Give it a week in dappled or open shade, then move it where it receives sun for a half day for a week before moving into full sun. This strategy will force lots of back-budding - just be careful not to over-water because transpirational water loss (due to reduction of the canopy) will decrease significantly. If you aren't using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 regularly, the plant will show its appreciation if you do. If we didn't discuss that previously, we can do that. Oh - keep after the pinching, too. You can see by now, I would guess, how much difference pinching can make. Al
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I had a long reply written out when I stopped to watch the Olympics for a few. When I returned my attention to your thread, I deleted the whole darned thing! I hate it when I do something stupid like that! ;-)

OK - priority #1 is make the plant rid of the scale infestation. I've used granular applications of imidicloprid (similar to your Bonide) in the form of Dragon and Marathon without much luck on the insects, and some notable (negative) impact on root health. I almost lost a few plants a few years ago because of the Marathon (ficus & schefflera being treated for scale). The alcohol and neem mix will be effective on the crawlers, but progress on the adults will be minimal at first. The neem works slowly to cause feeding problems and stop the adults from reproducing, but if you are diligent about applying it at 2 week intervals, it WILL eventually work. There are better choices if you're looking for a fast knockdown. I can't email you with suggestions because the 'contact me' feature isn't activated on your user page, so send me any old quick note & I'll reply, if you have interest.

Pruning: Is there a mass of foliage on the plant now that you could envision as being the top of the tree if other foliage that you think spoils the look of the plant was removed? It's really hard to get a perspective on what we're dealing with in 2D photos, so perhaps that's a good starting point.

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Yikes, that is one terrible infestation of scale insects! Good luck with that.
stewartsjon
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Ficuses like being pruned - official advice is that you should only prune in a certain amount and certain way, but in 14 years of doing it commercially I've _never_ known pruning hurt one. We even cut a lollipop Ficus off at the trunk once to see what happened and it bounced right back.

My only tip would be to cut a mix of little tips to shape it and big branches to rejuvenate it each time you prune.

I'd be far more worried about the scale infestation!
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Pruning a tree isn't like getting a haircut. Of course pruning a tree 'hurts' it - it has to; after all, you're removing a portion of its ability to make food, which is why consideration should be given to timing and the state of the tree's health, two factors that determine how fast a tree bounces back, and in some ill-considered cases, whether or not the tree can even tolerate the stress.

Bonsai artists regularly chop large trees off only inches above the soil line as a matter of course. Not all trees and not all species of ficus can be counted on to 'bounce back' from that treatment. Healthy specimens of benjamina in the southernmost states or the tropics are likely candidates for the treatment, but recently repotted trees sited in Boston aren't, and likely would not survive the treatment. More information on getting benjamina to break back on old wood (essentially what's required for survival of the plant after chopping its head off) can be found in Rina's recent thread about how to get leaves to grow on larger branches.

Al
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Randy

I have very similar tree, even lopsided like yours. The tree was getting too tall to keep inside, but luckily was not infested. I was looking for info how to prune it & that is how I found this forum.

I have followed Al's recommendations to a letter (and I have never even read about root pruning/proper repotting):
1. 'inspection' of roots/flushing thoroughly/proper watering & fertilizing - all few months ahead of proper repotting;
2. then at proper time (July), root pruning (the root ball was a mess)-repotting into brand new soil mix (5-1-1);
3. continue proper watering/fertilizing as recommended
4. pruning branches approx. month later

I am very satisfied with results, the tree looks much better and has lots of new leaves growing. An it is few inches shorter (more pruning next year).

It took some effort, but if you really want your plant to grow well, it is worth it. I am following similar routine with all my potted plants - it will take some time since I have 'few', but by same time next year all of them will be in new soil mix, root pruned/repotted/branches pruned and I am sure growing much healtier.

The info you'll find on this forum is very helpful. Al has many extremely informative threads, and I have save them for reference. Much easier for me to get infor-he does all the hard work of writing it all...
Many other members have very good posts and photos too - sorry I can't think of all the names right now.
Good luck with your tree.

Rina

Pruning ficus b. after July 9 Repotting. Pic Heavy!

Comments (7)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

Randy_
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Pruning ficus b. after July 9 Repotting. Pic Heavy!

Comments (7)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

Randy_Original Author

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Randy_
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