Its my understanding that if its upright groth on the central leader or one of the leaders depending on what system you are after then it is wanted growth and acceptable but if its just coming out of branches it is unwanted growth as, again from my limited understanding of pruining, you don't want any growth coming off straight up from the top of branches or straight down from the bottoms. If i understand it properly you only want growth coming off the branches, Imagining the branch as the center of a dial clock and 12 being straight up, between 1 to 3 and 9 to 11 ... again just my understanding, please correct me if i am wrong.

Forsythias are blooming right now and they are everywhere. Most of them seem to be planted randomly in too much shade, too crowded, and pruned poorly (if at all). Stems that hit the ground root, and then you have errant shoots popping up. What a bunch of scraggly ugly shrubs. Forsythia grows well in full sun with plenty of space all the way around. When mature, they can become 8-12 foot diameter shrubs, with thick arching stems. Stunning in bloom and form when they have reached their full potential. But the vast majority don't look like that. As for Barberry, well I don't understand the appeal of those stumpy, prickly shrubs in flourescent colors.

What method do you use to water? Hand water, if it's automatic, bubbler head, sprayer, or drip irrigation? The reason I ask is because that type of fertilizer needs to be watered in to work well, and every time you water until it's used up, usually in about 4-8 weeks.(you'll need to check the label as to when to reapply. I don't remember.) So unless the whole area you spread the fertilizer is watered each time you irrigate, it won't be as effective. If it's on a dry area it won't dissolve. Don't get me wrong, it's great citrus food, you just have to be sure it's getting applied correctly. When my trees feeding gets away from me and they get a little yellow, I use a liquid food for a couple times, to quickly green them, especially in the cooler temps of winter/spring. The dry organic ferts like EB Stone Citrus food, work best in the warm soils of summer/fall. I agree with the others too, it's not a root-stock sucker, and the "water sprout" look will go away after a season or two, and it will looks like all the other branches. If it's giving you fruit, I also would leave it alone.

Hi, Gilbert. The best way to get branches to form is: make sure the roots are healthy - get the plant outdoors where light is very bright and there is plenty of air movement ...... but there are other ways, too like judiciously defoliating (more on that below) or notching. Dividing your Ficus isn't all that traumatic for the plant. In fact, you can actually "divide" large ficus with an axe if necessary, not that I'm recommending that practice; but, you can actually hack the plants apart so each half has an appropriate volume of roots attached, dividing them is no more dangerous than repotting. How about sharing a few pictures of your tree from different angles. Often, if there are ACTUALLY 2 or more individual plants in a pot, you can actually separate them by pulling them apart after removing most of the soil with little force. Your tree produces a growth regulator (hormone) called auxin in all it's dynamic tissues. One of its functions is suppression of lateral growth, which would be new branches. Most auxin is produced in apical meristems, which are the active growth regions near branch tips, but auxin is also produced in leaves. Removing leaves reduces the polar flow of auxin - "polar" because it only moves downward. This means there may not be enough auxin flowing downward to inhibit growth from latent (like dormant) buds, which allows another growth regulator (cytokinin) to activate buds proximal (closer to the roots) to the leaves removed. The result of the newly activated bud is a new branch. In many cases, the outcome is very predictable, in other cases, the result is quite predictable, but the pattern random. IOW, given any healthy ficus with a branch that has 100 leaves on it, all of which are removed in summer, you can bet as much as you like on the fact that significant back-budding will occur on that branch as it pushes a new flush of growth, and the number of leaves that emerge after defoliation will be much higher than the 100 you started with. It's also very likely there will be additional back-budding on other branches close to the trunk or off the trunk itself below the defoliated branch. I'm not sure where you live, but the month of June in the N hemisphere is a very good time to do any serious work on your trees. Potting up isn't serious work, but repotting is. Repotting (includes root pruning and a change of soil) ensures your plant will not be limited by root congestion until about the time the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact. Potting up ensures the limitations imposed by root congestion and soil compaction will continue until the plant dies or the grower intervenes and eliminates the congestion by repotting. You might find value in the info this link will take you to. If you like that thread, I can link you to another that discusses caring for trees in containers for the long term. It goes into considerable detail about root work and other tips to keep trees happy in containers. There is no reason a well-tended tree in a container can't outlive both of us and be kept healthy and compact, with proper care. Trees in pots have far more potential to outlive their counterparts growing in situ (where they naturally occur). Al