Post some pictures, that would be a big help

Will post photos tonight.

Photos —

Roots

There’s a big contrast between one trunk and the other two. I don’t know if it’s healthy either.

It's possible all 3 stems are actually branches that emanate from the same propagule (cutting). IOW - there might be a single stem that divides into 3 .......... or they could be 3 different propagules. Either way, they can be divided. If you're fairly new to growing, or inexperienced, it would be a good idea to examining what's below the soil line before you decide. If the stems all arise from the same propagule, it would be best to make sure there would be rootage attached to the base of each propagule after you separate. This isn't a requirement, by any means, but it helps to ensure success. f there are 3 propagules, you're golden, and can bare-root/ separate, and repot. An important consideration is the fact that an appropriate medium/soil makes things sooo much easier - and helps you help your plant to realize much more of its potential than lesser media.

1, 2, or 3 trunks in the same pot all look good. Generally speaking, an odd number (other than 2) of trunks looks best. Your choice.

If you choose 3 trunks:

Cut the thickest trunk back to about 2/3 of the ht you'd eventually like the planting to be. The medium thickness trunk should be cut back to a ht about 2/3 that of the thickest. The thinnest should be cut back to about 1/2 the ht of the thickest or 2/3 the ht of the trunk with medium thickness.

If you choose 2 trunks, keep the largest and smallest, and cut back the smaller trunk so it's about 1/2 - 2/3 the ht of the other.

If you choose a single tree per pot (1 stem), you can chop it back to any ht you'd like, or just let it grow. I wouldn't remove any low leaves yet. They strengthen/thicken the trunk and give it strength. If you decide they're too messy looking and want to remove them, no problem, but keep in mind there's a price to pay for the instant gratification of trying to make your tree look good at all times. You can always remove branches/leaves later, when the trunks are heavy enough to support the weight of the canopy.

When you settle on what type of arrangement you want (1, 2, or 3 trunks), don't act immediately. There are some instructions/tips I can share, specific to the composition you choose, that will make it easier to achieve your goals.

Since I practice bonsai, I generally prune and wire my trees before I do the rootwork because it's not good to jostle a tree about immediately after a repot. So, you can prune now, repot in 2-3 weeks, or repot in 2-3 weeks and prune as soon as you see growth has resumed. The tree will stop conspicuous top growth for a 2-3 week period after the repot; but, the significant surge in vitality that accompanies repotting is more than enough to ensure the plant will be much larger/healthier at summer's end than it would be had you not repotted. No matter how healthy a tree/plant looks, tight roots will rob from it massive amounts of potential ......... and for clarity, 'massive' isn't an exaggeration.

Al

Al, thank you so so much. This explanation is very clear and thoughtful!! I’ll think about how I see the plant in the future (lol like the beginning of a painting) and see how I want to go about it and you described all the options I have is wonderful!!

Just one follow up question and as I understand it — pruning and notching could be arranged in the same time / action period right?

I mean not any extensive pruning or notching. Just like a few pruning and 1-2 notching.

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere N of the 25th parallel, you're coming into the ideal part of the growth cycle for heavy work like repotting and hard pruning, so, if you're going to dramatically change the path your tree is on, now's the time to be thinking about it.

If you want the most enthusiastic response for your efforts and can move the tree outdoors, do that as soon as night temps are reliably above 55*. You can even force your tree to replace its worn foliage with a new flush of growth. Ask how to do it if you're feeling bold. It works better than notching.

Notching works best on larger branches or stems. Most notching fails because the grower isn't aggressive enough in creating the notch. It needs to be wider than the petioles footprint, i.e., wider than the area covered by the leaf stems attachment point by 1/8-1/4", with 1/4" being preferred. Make 2 cuts, the lowest just above where any visible buds occur. You don't want to destroy the buds with the low cut. Make the second cut 1/8-3/16" above the lower cut, and remove the bark all the way down to the sapwood. Do not leave the vascular cambium, which will look like a whitish, very thin layer of tissue that should be scraped of with the blade of a knife or the very sharp tool you used to make the notch.

The growth regulator, auxin, is what forces buds to remain dormant. Auxin's flow is polar, it flows only downward. Notching is like dropping a large boulder into the middle of a shallow stream. Like the water flows around the boulder and continues on its way, auxin flows around the notch and continues its downward movement. The lack of auxin effectively makes auxin's antagonist, cytokinin, dominant. Cytokinin stimulates bud activity. Once the new branch starts growing in a leaf axil, you should remove the mature leaf in the axil of which the new branch is growing. This tidy's up your tree and helps to keep internodes short and your tree compact. The image below is a ficus cutting with new branches growing in mature leaf axils, As soon as the leaf starts to open, I'll remove the 2 large leaves.

Also, if you want a branch to grow above an existing leaf, in addition to notching, it helps to cut about 2/3 of the leaf off across venation (veins). The lions share of auxin is produced in branch apices (growing tips), but some is produced in leaves and other living tissue.

BTW - you really can't "over-notch" a tree. You can cut notches above every leaf and every leaf/bundle scar on the tree if you've the desire to, but the best way to force prolific back-budding is a hard pruning. This is something I do without even thinking about it because the results are so reliable and predictable.

Ficus picture stories:

That's at least 98% of top mass taken off this Ficus retusa in June.

Same tree in August ^^^

After pruning/styling. ^^^ In a couple of years, it will deserve something other than a beat up old training pot.

Ficus benjamina ^^^

Ficus benjamina defoliated ^^^ so I can see branch structure and get at the branches to style the tree.

Restyled ^^^

I think the most important thing people following the thread should take away from the images is, if your tree is healthy, it will tolerate what you probably consider practices so severe as to be lethal. Obviously, I do it as a matter of course, which illustrates the only thing keeping you from doing it, with perhaps a little less severity for safety's sake, is the experience that serves as reassurance it's not likely you're going to kill the tree. Let me temper that by saying you need to be at least skilled enough to keep your trees healthy. If you can do that, any of the simpler techniques I use would be a valuable addition to your skill set.

Enough time spent talking about doing. Time to go out and practice what I preach.

Al

Al, absolutely love your walk through on this. It’s awesome to see the life and growth of your bonsai too! I’ll definitely gradually try things out! First of all, repotting it and pruning it as you talked about in your previous answer.

A billion thanks to you!

Hi Al -

Just reading this thread. I'm quoting you below about forcing a new flush of growth. Is that accomplished by the hard pruning you showed in your photos above or is there something else you're talking about?

"If you want the most enthusiastic response for your efforts and can move the tree outdoors, do that as soon as night temps are reliably above 55*. You can even force your tree to replace its worn foliage with a new flush of growth. Ask how to do it if you're feeling bold. It works better than notching."

Starting with a healthy tree, it's achieved by way of timing, heavy fertilizing, hard pruning and/or full or partial defoliation (depending on species and geography), lots of sun, and warm temps. This isn't a plan one would use to bring a tree back from the brink, it's a strategy you can use to almost immediately enhance the appearance of healthy trees.

There is nothing different or unusual about a bonsai tree other than the fact small pots and soil volumes put the bonsai grower at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to being able to keep trees healthy over the long term. With that in mind, it should follow that trees not growing under bonsai culture would actually be much easier to work with, if they're healthy, than trees subject to the connatural stress of bonsai culture.

Al

I have a FLF that is in desperate need of that. It's healthy and puts out new growth but most of the leaves are old and leathery because I have pruned it and what remains is the lower level with older leaves.

I'm assuming the time is right given the date/season. I'm using Foliage Pro per your recommendation. I see that there are several dosages on the package but anything I would do would be a guess. How much would you recommend per gallon to water this and how often would I apply? Thank you in advance!

I fertilize when mean temps are between 60-85*F. When temps are higher, almost everything I grow stops growing and goes into something of a quiescent state during which fertilizing is counter-productive. At temps below 60* I don't fertilize because ammonium toxicity is a problem, especially if your fertilizer obtains it's N from urea or other organic sources (feather/ horn/ blood/ fish/ cotton seed/ or a variety of other potential meals).

If someone tells you you should fertilizer every week, 2 weeks, month, or or at any other interval, whether or not it's a set interval, w/o a good understanding of what kind of soil you're growing in and your watering habits, be careful about accepting the advice. It makes no sense at all to suggest an appropriate interval based on the calendar. Consider the person growing in a water retentive medium and watering every 3 weeks. If it's suggested that grower fertilize every 2 weeks at recommended solution strength, he would almost undoubtedly be over-watering and over-fertilizing. On the other hand, someone like me who waters every other day or every 3rd day and flushing the soil when I water in the summer, I would be under-fertilizing. Assuming you're flushing the soil when you water, your fertilizing intervals should be based on your watering intervals and how thoroughly you flush the soil. During summer, I try to fertilize every weekend when temps are favorable at 2 tsp of 9-3-6 per gallon of water. That's about twice the recommended strength, and it causes no issues as long as it's not too hot.

If you haven't been flushing the soil of your tree, do it before you start fertilizing. Also, trees that are severely root bound will not back-bud with the abandon seen in trees that have room for roots to run.

Al

Would love some shaping advice. I would like this tree shaped with a barer trunk eventually.

Spring has just started here, I attempted notching 3 places and it did not work. I tried again deeper in same spots and no result. I left it for winter but I pinched the top, it’s gotten about 4-6 new leaves over winter. There is a branch at top now. It looks like I am going to have to cut it right off and create another tree, hopefully it will branch out. Advice, thoughts please Al.

We reported our plant with 5/1/1 (with coconut moss) and it hadn’t been doing well (also it was around October so probably the temperature played a big part) the leaves stared falling etc... and now it looks like this. I water it once a week when the water meter indicates it’s a level 3 moisture (out of 10). Last week after I watered this trunk started shrinking and the leaves droopy and now I think this trunk is dead... we are hoping to see what happens next spring/summer without making any changes to the surroundings but any insights could be helpful!

There are some new leaves from late summer and they look fine but the taller part is not ok....

Where do you live?

Is there a drain hole in the pot?

Water meters are unreliable. It's best to use a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water. More re using a tell below.

Please describe the repotting procedure, how you water (are you flushing the soil as you water?).

After pruning, how large was the root mass in relation to the size of the pot/volume of soil?

It looks like over-watering or a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, but let's see what you have to say before I offer anything else for your consideration .....

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al

Al

what do you do if you water a plant and it stays dry below the surface but drains out the bottom even with your special soil?

This doesn't occur when using the gritty mix unless it's been kept habitually too wet and the surface is covered with algae, which can/does become hydrophobic (water repellent) when it dries down. The 5:1:1 mix will become hydrophobic whenever it's been allowed to drop below about 15% water retention. 15% is approximately the point where the soil appears dry to the eye and touch. When the soil becomes dry to the point where it repels water, it also usually shrinks inward on itself, which leaves a gap between the pot wall and the soil mass, allowing water to flow over the top of the soil (because it's being repelled by the dry soil, and run down through the gap at the walls of the pot.

Increasing the % of water in soil particles is the remedy. To achieve that end, you can soak the planting in a tub that's at least as deep as the height of the soil column. Put the plant in the tub and fill it to about 3/4 of the ht of the soil column and wait for a half hour before filling the pot to about 1/2" below the ht of the soil column and waiting another 15 minutes or so; then, remove the pot and allow it to drain. You can also mist the top of the soil thoroughly at intervals short enough that the top of the soil doesn't dry out, or set the pot under a water source/faucet and let it drip on the top of the soil for an hour or so.

I only have to confront this issue when using a completely dry 5:1:1 mix when establishing a new planting. To fix tendency toward hydrophobicity in new plantings when the soil is dry, Fill a container with 1/3 of the volume of soil you think you'll ultimately use, then stir in enough water to make it mucky. The last step is to combine enough dry soil with the mucky mix to yield whatever volume of soil you'll need to establish the new planting, mix well, and let it rest for at least 1/2 hr. There will be enough water in the mix to break the hydrophobic tendency of the entire volume.

To prevent recurrence in established plantings, water more often or mist the top of the soil well (only the soil) about halfway through whatever the normal watering interval might be. When you mist, the idea is only to moisten the upper part of the soil that has gone dry. You don't want to add enough water to increase the ht of any perched water column that might already exist in the soil. The misting will increase the length of your watering intervals, so keep that in mind. Checking the soil with a tell would be the best bet until you get a good sense of what the new appropriate interval is.

You might also keep in mind that perched water tables are easily and very effectively dealt with by using ballast. A clean Cool Whip container (or something similar) turned upside down and resting on the bottom of the pot is as effective as a brick - probably more so if it is only slightly smaller in diameter than the inside OD of the pot. Let me know if you don't understand how ballast works; or, if you'd like more info on using a "tell".

Al

Hi Al,

Thanks again for the guidance on watering and a tell.

We live in Brooklyn, NY. And yes the pot does have a drainage hole at the bottom. Usually when i only water 500ml the water flows out from the bottom - the pot is filled up 2/3 with 1/3 being empty pots upside down at the bottom because the root system has shrunk a lot the second time i repotted with the 5/1/1 mix. I think it got overwatered the first time i repotted with regular soil (off the shelf with only a small amount of barks.

currently the room is usually on the dry end (30-40% humidity)

Best,

Siqi

Stephen Babcock

Hi again Al:

Great! Thanks for answering my question; appreciate it. I do use your 5:1:1 mix and now it all makes more sense.

You guessed it! I don't understand how ballast works ... in your own time, thanks!

See the 5th post above this for info re using a "tell".

Al

Hi Al!

It is a ballast that has me confused?

So sorry. I meant to stop back here to provide more info on using ballast. It's an incredibly effective strategy, and can allow growers to use soils that w/o the use of ballast would be considered unusable by most.

More re ballast if you click me.

If after reading it you still have ?s, you can ask here or there.

Al

Al,

Wow! All of what you explain is fascinating! I followed all the links you posted. I really appreciate you sharing the knowledge you have and the effectiveness of your information. It makes sense. Thanks too for continuing with diligence to educate the rest of us!

Hi Al,

Back to the dead trunk... I should cut it all off right and the top section of another trunk is also dying (shrinking). Should I cut it off too?