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Ficus Audrey growing out of control. can i stunt growth of branch now?

korn_at_woodstock_99

3 years ago

I ran out of characters so I sound like a caveman...

I have a Ficus Audrey plant that has absolutely gone bonkers this summer. Last year I had it inside during the summer in my dining room and it did well, grew probably 10 new leaves over the summer. This year I have it on my humid enclosed porch and its just going nuts. It's grown maybe 25-30 new leaves and is now taller than me (im 6'2).

As you can see in the pictures, there is this one branch growing so awkwardly long out of the base that is now starting to get in the way. In the past 2 months alone that branch has grown several inches and like 5-7 new leaves.

Can i stunt the growth of that branch safely during growing season without damaging anything? I wanted to wait until the fall or winter when growing season is over but It's growing so rapidly that I'm afraid to wait. If it grows much more I won't be able to fit it anywhere inside that would look nice.

My second question is... how do you stunt the growth exactly? I've read its as easy as snipping off the little point at the end of a branch (pictured below)... but its so close to other leaves that I don't want to damage anything on the branch.

Help!!!

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Comments (2)

Embothrium
3 years ago
It's showing what it's genetically programmed to do - what about just moving it to a different spot in the house? Because if you cut it back the next thing it will do is try and regain the size it had before being pruned. And will continue to do so throughout the life of the specimen.
korn_at_woodstock_99 thanked Embothrium
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
3 years ago
It's hard to make suggestions re what to do w/o knowing where you live.

If you want to make a plant look stunted, the best way to go about it is by keeping it always in a high state of vitality so it grows a lot, and do your "stunting" manually. Keeping a plant horribly rootbound limits branch extension and forces tighter internodes (less space between leaves), but it also limits vitality and the plant's ability to defend itself against pathogens and insect herbivory.

Growth is measured by an increase in the plant's dry mass. When your tree isn't growing, it's dying, so the closer you get to stagnant growth (when a plant should be growing) the unhealthier the tree becomes. Note the list of how a plant orders its use of energy. It first goes to it's strongest sink, which is respiratory maintenance (maintenance of all its living parts), followed in order by
production of fine roots,
followed by flower/ seed/ fruit production, the primary growth
(extension of both roots and shoots), then secondary growth
(thickening), and finally, the synthesis of defensive chemicals. So stress first affects a plant's ability to defend itself - not the right path to keeping a plant small.

Bonsai live in small pots (relative to plant size) and are kept compact, often for centuries, yet they are some of the healthiest plants in pots. This they owe to their care givers' attention to regular root work and regular/ judicious pruning.

What I'm driving at is you need to prune it; however, where you live has much to do with HOW you prune it; reason being, you want to do a hard prune in late spring to provide a framework to build on. What the tree puts on in terms of growth in summer will be desirable and something to be kept as a part of the end composition. Growth but on late fall through early spring will be long (in internodes) and lanky, so, undesirable. If you live in the N Hemisphere, you should partially prune now and prune back hard in late spring, as measured by the calendar.

Overview of Good Growing Practices

Growing Ficus in Containers

Long Term Care of Trees in Containers

Al
korn_at_woodstock_99 thanked tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
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Your plant will look best if the branches near the top are thinner and shorter than those at the bottom - that's how Mother Nature grows 'em. I can't see where the 2 heavy branches attach to the trunk, but, if there are other branches growing off the trunk above those branches, the 2 heavies should be removed entirely. After that's done, pull the plant out and take 4 images of the plant against a solid background, rotating the tree 90* for each image. It's very difficult to look at 2D images, trying to figure out what the tree looks like in 3D. The tree wants you (visually speaking) to allow lower growth to do what it wants for now, but restrain the upper 1/3 of the tree by regular pruning and the middle 1/3 by moderate pruning. You can grow a top on your tree anytime you like because 2/3 of the energy the tree makes (during photosynthesis) will naturally be devoted to the upper 1/3 of the tree. You can see confirmation of that fact just by looking at your tree - some of the youngest branches at the top are the heaviest - completely out of sync with what we see in nature. Pruning the top regularly disallows that. Thoughts? Al
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