Any Pruning Advice for Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig)

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

We have a fiddle leaf fig with three branches that we have had for a few years now and it has become leggy and lopsided. There was a time when it wasn't getting alot of light or watered enough so the lower leaves fell off but its in better conditions now. The only thing is that I want to look more tree like with a tall trunk and more condensed bushy top. I'm thinking both branches are too low and wide to get the look i'm going for so I would like to cut them eventually and I also want to create more branches but higher up. So i'm not sure what I should do first cut the sides branches off or try to get branches higher up by cutting the top off or notching it. Any thoughts or advice on the pruning of my tree would be greatly appreciated.

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

3 years ago

If there was a way to cut out the bare parts of the trunk and branches, you'd have something you could work with. While there is a way to do that, it's very involved, time consuming, and probably well beyond what's reasonable on the scale we're discussing here. So the next best thing is to force growth where the bare spots are. That's actually very easy if you're able or willing to work toward elevating the tree's level of vitality (health) in preparation for a hard pruning, which will force back-budding in the areas now barren of branches/foliage.

Ficus in good health easily take hard/severe pruning in stride. Trees in decline and circling the drain are poor subjects for heavy work like full repots and hard pruning, which is why getting your tree in fighting shape is the fastest way to accomplish your objective.

As a bonsai practitioner of nearly 40 years, manipulating trees and bending them to my will is as much a part of the hobby as keeping them in good health. There is little joy or sense of accomplishment (for me) to just watch a tree/shrub grow. My goal is to produce something evocative - something that makes the viewer feel something. While your tree isn't a bonsai, it will respond to bonsai techniques exactly the same way trees grown in bonsai culture respond to the same stimuli.

The first thing to understand is, trees don't work on people time. Manipulating trees requires a great deal of patience, mainly because only healthy trees respond well to manipulation. The very short version of what I would suggest is:

1) Put together a plan that ensures a higher degree of vitality, a plan you can stick to. I can help with that.

2) If you succeed in rebuilding the tree's strength, prune the tree back very hard. Keep both branches and the central leader, but prune all 3 back to 1 single healthy leaf in mid-June (if you live in the N Hemisphere). This will force an abundance of back-budding, and every instance of new buds will result in a new branch.

Picture story:

A Ficus microcarpa ^^^ after a heavy pruning session in June

Same tree in mid-August ^^^. Note the 'explosion' of new branches, already so dense they badly need thinning to allow more light and air movement into the middle of the tree.

After styling the tree ^^^.

3) Put in place a future pruning plan that has you pruning all winter growth from the tree every June, then pinching every new branch after it has grown 2 leaves amd the 3rd leaf is about to unfurl.

A F microcarpa cutting started in a pill bottle. The wood stub at the top is where the cutting was pinched. Removing the apex/apical meristem of the branch eliminated the primary source of a growth regulator (auxin) that suppresses lateral growth (new branches). The result of diminishment of the volume of auxin allowed another growth regulator (cytokinin) to become dominant, which stimulated latent (dormant) buds above each leaf to form a new branch. When each of the nascent branches you see have formed 2 leaves, they will be pinched and the process starts anew. so from the first branch you get 2, from those 2, you get 4, then 8, then 16, 32, 64, 128. Had you been aware of how to pinch your tree, it would look completely different than it does now.

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Comments (7)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
very common topic here

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/query/fiddle-leaf-in-houseplants

look into propagating smaller pieces.. and start with a fresh new plant ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=propagating+fiddle+leaf+fig&t=ffcm&iax=videos&ia=videos

and once you succeed at that.. just throw the old one away ... i bet the media is all used up anyway ...

and then clean the pot.. and save it for when your new babe needs a pot that big ... dont put a babe back in a huge pot ..

ken
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I'm attaching some pictures to get some advice as to what should be our plan of action. Should we snip off the new growth low on the trunk, prune it back and root out cuttings, cut into it to try to force some back budding on the existing branches? The new growth produced by back-budding can be removed at any time. I'd leave it for now because it could eventually become a welcome part of the composition. I would take the opportunity to bring the top of the plant back under control. The plant would look better if the top was more dense and compact. If you decide you want to do that, we can talk about how to go about it so the tree begins progressing toward something that looks attractive and natural - a tree that will attract the eye because it is balanced and looks nice instead of something that jars the eye because the subconscious recognizes something is 'wrong' with the composition. There's no judgment in that statement - just pointing out that having a plan is almost a prerequisite to having an attractive tree. It's better to remove some of the 'growth for growth's sake' growth early on than later when it would take a more radical approach to reclaim the tree's eye appeal. When should we try to repot it. Now or next June, around Father's day. I wouldn't repot it any later than the second week of Aug, and earlier is better. The tree needs summer warmth and long bright days to recover from a repot and put away a little energy for winter. Pot up at any time, though potting up while the tree is in it's winter quiescence isn't the best of plans unless it's to alleviate roots that are REALLY tight, and you only pot up slightly. I only rarely pot up, choosing instead to repot. The occasional up potting I might do would be on a badly root-bound plant that I just couldn't find the time to repot. Even then it's a temporary measure taken to get the plant through until a time where repotting is appropriate. I know the recommended potting mix well from reading on the site. If you limit your soil choice to a soil you can water freely (to beyond complete saturation) at any time of year w/o having to worry about impaired root function or dead roots due to a soil soggy for extended periods, you're golden. Also, is terra cotta a good pot for the fig? Yes - very good. Pots that allow evaporation through pot walls are healthy choices for plants - not always the most attractive or lightest, but plants definitely like them. Al
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Ekor Tupai
3 years ago
Focus sunligh mostly to trunk/area where you want new shoots to grow then cut tip of all 3 branches. Removing the tips will force the tree to grow new shoots, and best spot to grow is where it get most sunligh. When new shoots grow, you can remove all leggy old branches to make the tree look shorter and compact.

..but honestly.. i'm not sure the tree will make it. The trunk is so tiny for broad leaf plant like lyrata, even the 3 branches above i think produced by mother plant since the beginning. Better you propagate those 3 branches as seperate tree, grow it properly, have bigger trunk so it able to support multiple branches.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
3 years ago
"Focus sunligh mostly to trunk/area where you want new shoots to grow then cut tip of all 3 branches. Removing the tips will force the tree to grow new shoots, and best spot to grow is where it get most sunligh." This is not so. Whenever the apical meristem of a branch/stem/trunk is removed the most likely location for new branches to occur, regardless of the trees condition or its light load, is in existing leaf axils immediately proximal to the pinch, or, immediately above leaf/bundle scars that occur immediately proximal to the pinch. IOW, because auxin is also produced in leaves, the more proximal to the pinch or pruning cut a potential growing point is, the less it is affected by the pinch/pruning cut. That's why it's important to prune hard instead of just pinching out the branch/stem apex.

"..but honestly.. i'm not sure the tree will make it." WHY? While the tree shouldn't be considered a paragon of vivacity, neither can it be considered to be circling the drain. It's a middling tree, not yet in steep decline, that can easily be turned around with a little effort toward improving cultural influences. "The trunk is so tiny for broad leaf plant like lyrata, even the 3 branches above i think produced by mother plant since the beginning." I agree, but that is easily fixed by pruning hard, and giving the tree more light. A 1/4" x 4ft wood dowel rod is very flexible. prune it in half, and the half-length is far stiffer in comparison to the uncut version. Pruning does the same. With judicious attention to pinching after pruning, the branches will thicken and become very stout. "Better you propagate those 3 branches as seperate tree, grow it properly, have bigger trunk so it able to support multiple branches." Stressed trees make poor parent material for cuttings, and the worst time of the year to start Ficus cuttings is early spring when reserve energy levels are lowest. If I was planning to propagate this tree, I would do it by air layering, but whether by layers or cuttings, you still end up with 3 small trees. The suggestion to work on the trees level of vitality and then prune hard in June is by far the fastest, easiest, and most foolproof way for Christa to bring what she envisions to fruition.

Al
Ekor Tupai
3 years ago
1. Tree near building which have branch that grow on darkspot under the roof, when we cut the tip, the shoot will grow far back where it still able catching light. Long old stem that remain will eventually abandoned and die, not produce any shoot. Stem of ficus elastica/lyrata can be used as example. On small tree like bonsai, that tree character won't easily recognize.

2. Back budding of lyrata is much more difficult compared with other kind of ficus. Benjamina, retusa, or microcarpa is very easy, even elastica can be considered easy. In container, lyrata only produce few leaves in months. Losing the tip can be a dissaster. Back budding is far from immediate.

In my oppinion, to get bushier look from lyrata, best way is start big with many branches from beginning. Second plant 3 or 4 tree in a pot, that's why propagate can be an option. Its very hard to increase trunk size or create branches of lyrata in container.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
3 years ago
A heavier photo load on a bare section of a stem/branch is not enough to guarantee new laterals in that area, even if accompanied by a significant increase in air movement. To be sure there will be back-budding in that area, pruning back as close to that area as is reasonable is essential, and under some conditions, no consideration need be given to how far back into the bare area the pruning cut is made. I have cut back F lyrata almost to the soil line, without a leaf left on the plant, with no ill effects other than the temporary slowdown due to lack of foliage. While it is fairly certain that, if the tree is moved outdoors into full sun, and all cultural conditions are near perfect, back-budding will likely occur, it is still not assured unless pruned.

Strong back-budding of lyrata requires only that the tree be judiciously pinched. It's heavy tendency toward apical dominance can be almost entirely short-circuited by pinching after branches have 2 fully formed leaves and the 3rd is on the way. I witness this with 100% predictable regularity, so saying it isn't so isn't a convincing argument. Removing the apical meristem from a lyrata branch/trunk is not a disaster - not even a minor inconvenience as it's a regular part of how trees are developed. On this forum alone, dozens have shown after images of their transformed lyratas, owing that transformation to no more than a bit of cultural fine-tuning and a little judicious pruning.

My opinion is, stuffing a pot with multiple plants in order to achieve a full and compact composition is something I'd leave to beginners unfamiliar with how to manipulate the plant. If I want a multi-trunk planting of Ficus, I can achieve that end by chopping back a 1-2 year old healthy plant and rubbing off the buds I don't want after it back-buds.

Lyrata is like most trees in that thickening of the trunk is directly related to the photo-load and leaf surface (photosynthesizing) area. The more leaves and the brighter the light, the thicker the trunk grows. If forced to grow the plant under a photo load less than ideal, the trunk is kept rigid through regular cutting back of the tree to eliminate any tendency toward laying over.

Al
Ekor Tupai
3 years ago
https://youtu.be/dPmUqVbfy4U Normal lyrata produce 3 leaves at once and increase its length so fast so it have tendency to be leggy. If the stem is small, at least it produce 2 leaves at once, not one. Seeing the pic above, if it cut at any location, the possible shoot will occur at the base and only one. It's like beginning from the start. Expect tickening the trunk in small container is almost impossible, even for years. After years if you buy small trunk lyrata and plant it in small container, what you can expect is more plants by propagate them, not bigger trunk. It's sound pesimistic but lyrata is just like that. I have 8 meters tall of this tree in my backyard and many in container with various size. If you see small trunk lyrata look like a tree, crowded with branches and leaves, i bet it was photoshoped only for ads.

Any Pruning Advice for Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig)

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

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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