As a bonsai judge, I know a little about what to do to bring out the potential in the tree's shape. Technically, the bifurcations (forks) appear too high on the trunk for the tree to be an ideal multi-trunk specimen, which means you would need to reduce the tree to a single trunkline to get the best from the tree. No big deal if that's not something you want to do because you're not looking for a prize, just a more presentable tree. You might have made an error if you pruned out the center of the tree, which it looks like you did in the picture. The stem closest to the center, determined by an imaginary vertical line upward from where the trunk enters the soil, would be the logical leader. At this point, you should decide if you want it to be a single trunk (you'd need to remove 3 trunks) or a multi-trunked plant. As an option, you could fairly easily air layer off the top of the tree just below where the trunks all split. If you're going to leave it all tied up until the trunks are set in place, you need to reduce the ht of all the trunks to different hts. Generally, trees look better with 1, 2, 3, 5, or 7 trunks. 4 is not usually used, so I would remove 1 trunk, then shorten the other 3 so the thickest trunk is tallest, the thinnest trunk is 1/2 the ht of the tallest, and the trunk with medium thickness is 2/3 the ht of the tallest. What do you think? Al

WOW ! your tree looks great... I too have a too tall fiddle fig leaf.. and i'm curious about how you trimmed it all the way down two years ago. I think I want to do that with mine. All have the leaves have fallen off except for the top foot of the tree.. so the rest of the 6 feet look barren. I've trimmed the top before with success, and have created little baby figs from my clippings -- I followed these instructions-- http://joeandcheryl.com/my-new-baby-fiddle-leaf-fig-tree/ But now I want to start over because my tree is grazing the ceiling. I plan on cutting off the tops of the braches and making more fig plants from them. My question is.. did you just trim yours all the way down to the dirt basically? How much of the stem did you leave?Thank you!

Hey guys, first of all, thanks to everyone that's helping. I've learned so much in the past two days. Specially Dave and Al...thank you teachers! :) So sorry about in the instrusion, I'm another one with fiddle leaf problems. I think I was sold a sick FLF...the guys just told me that it was in direct light all day long, so I thought the brown spots were justified. Until I got home and realized the soil was really compact...really....compact and soggy...and loads of rocks on top, which probably wouldn't help. So what I've did pretty fast, I went into despair...I've tried to repot it...and..of course I the roots just broke in half, and they were almost black and quite smelly... I didn't have anything around other than regular soil with perlite, so I just moved the lyrata and the now shorter roots too a new dry vase with some brick pieces at the bottom and that soil...the soil it's very loose and didn't compressed whatsoever. Didn't watered since, two days now. So after reading all of your kind info, Tomorrow I'm going too: 1. Clean the remaining roots as well as I can without damaging it more.. 2 .Repot, with 5:1:1 mix...Pine bark, Turf (should I?), Perlite; and some brick pieces in the bottom. 3. Water the lyrata once like flushing, right? And then again.. 4. The bottom leaves are very very rigid almost like they are about to break, I've read one Al's comment about "the end of life" process of these leaves...Should I cut the last leave and put the trunk deeper so it forms new healthy roots? (if this makes any sense at all) 5. Pruning, I was thinking about cutting the top (last picture), but as the bottom leaves are so stiff, maybe they aren't able to produce that much "food" and I should keep the top one for now? (I'm I thinking stupid??) 6. The only I had to cover the pot was sawdust, with which I have been lucky in protecting my plants from pests and mould. Again...in a despair act..should I maintain this? Can you help me please?? I'm based in Sintra,Portugal; very warm and humid location, actually humidity is a problem around here. Any advice is most welcome! thanks!

hi there, I'm no expert, I've read these forums tons though and here's what I would say: Are the roots congested? Might need repot and root prune. At that time you would also see if you can easily separate the two. I disagree though that the two together are harming each other. What type of soil is it in? And what would you use of you repot? You want something aerated and well draining. About watering, my FLF only ever looks so sad when it is really thirsty. I wouldn't water on a schedule, especially during the summer. Use a tell to figure out if the soil is dry. Also 3 cups sounds a bit arbitrary. After it dries out, you want to soak the whole pot and then remove as much perched water as you can (tip the pot 45 deg). I would definitely prune the tall one, eiither where you show or even back to where you only leave just two leaves. The little one is quite scraggly. not sure what to do with that one, hopefully someone else comments. Lastly... I think it needs more light. Are you able to put it outside for the summer? Good luck!! Elena