Ficus Audrey tree - help!

2 years ago

When I brought home my somewhat mature audrey ficus from the nursery it seemed like there were two trunks and one had been cut. The cut one is now starting to grow roots. How do I care for this?

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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 years ago
It's sort of hard to imagine this was a case of serendipity, for the planting, so I don't think it was broken on purpose or by chance. Initially, there were 2 plants, each with it's own trunk and root system. Where the trunks fused is an example of a process called inosculation. When done purposely, it would be called an approach graft. Here's an example of an approach graft used where a trident maple tree needed a branch where there was none, so I put one there.

I allowed a branch on the tree you see to grow long, and removed most of the leaves along the branch so it would be thin and flexible. I cut a groove in the tree to expose the cambium, then removed bark from the scion so the cambiums lined up. I then stapled the branch in place and covered it with grafting tape. The following spring, the stub was cut flush to the trunk.

This is a Ficus benjamina I started approach grafting about 20 years ago. Ain't she purty? Actually, I know it's very ugly and it's still a work in progress, but here it is after defoliating and wiring it last weekend:

No way to be sure w/o asking the grower, but I'm thinking the root system of one of the trees in your planting became infected with one of the fungi commonly grouped under the umbrella of damping off diseases. When it became evident one of the trees was infected, the grower noted the inosculation and reasoned rightly that the living trunk would support the part of the infected tree distal to (beyond) the point of inosculation, and severed the trunk.

It's not unusual for adventitious roots to form on trunks of Ficus when it's humid. Also, the flow of the growth regulator that stimulates rooting (auxin) is polar, meaning it only flows downward. When it gets to the bottom of the stub, it collects there and becomes a built-in rooting aid.

Though you can't tell, this ^^^ is a root-over-rock schefflera on which one of the mature roots died. The mass you see is what resulted - same thing you're seeing on your tree.

This ^^^ is the view from the opposite side.

You already know the living trunk is fully supporting what is essentially the approach graft or scion. The adventitious roots hanging in the air supply no resources to the graft at all. If your tree was my tree, I'd use a fine bladed saw (hack saw) and cut through the stub at the lowest point of fused tissue. I would then spritz the wound with cold water to stop the latex from oozing, clean up the wound with a razor knife so there are no fine threads of bark or sapwood tissue hanging from the wound site, dry it with paper towels, then paint over the wound with waterproof wood glue, being careful to cover the wound and any exposed cambium at the edge of the bark, but try not yo get any glue on the undamaged bark. I use the snipped off end of a zip tie as a glue spreader and it works like a charm. Painting over the wound decreases the size of the wound by eliminating desiccation and dieback of the bark at the wound site, and promotes rapid healing.

BTW - it would be best for the plant if you were to rid it of the support and the ties that are biting into the bark. They will soon be restricting flow of photosynthate (food) and other bio-compounds to the roots. While I see no visual evidence that the missing trunk was killed by a constriction, you might look things over and see if you think that could have been the cause.

Al
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You have 2 options. You can cut the top back to a leaf that is growing back toward an imaginary line straight up from the center of the pot, or you can cut back harder so you take the crook out of the picture and make the top straight. The grower cut the trunk back and that's how the branch that became the new leader grew. What the grower should have done and you can still do is this: Imagine this as your tree and the leaves are branches. ^^^ When the grower cut the top back ^^^, he cut it back to about where the knot is, and the branch that turned into the new leader (that would be the one just below the knot) grew at the same angle as the leaf stem. What he SHOULD have done is, cut the top back only part way so there was a stub left, then tie the new branch to the stub so it grows straight: **************************************************************************************************** Your idea to prune back to the leaf growing back toward the center is what I described above. It's ok to do that if the distance from the soil line to the first crook in the trunk is longer than the distance from the crook in the trunk to the branch growing back toward the middle. IOW, as your tree zig-zags, the distance between the direction changes has to grow increasingly smaller as your eye moves from bottom to top. This is because (in nature), branches get much closer together near the top of trees, and that's what your eye expects to see. If you DON'T see the sections between turns getting shorter toward the top, it will look odd, even if you can't put your finger on the precise reason why. If the distances are transposed, I'd cut the crook out and do what I illustrated above. Al
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@shaxhome (Frog Rock, Australia 9b) haha I meant to say medium-large for a houseplant, not for a Banyan tree! @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) thank you so much for your response! I actually posted that second photo just as an example of an "open non-lollipop structure", because most people I've consulted just try to guide me in to the usual lollipop. I have to say I do love the lazy-S shape (thanks for the reference name!), so I will try that with a the cuttings that I have. Would you have any advice to shape my current trunk into a harmonious and taller tree? I don't need it to be straight, but I'd like for it to look like a tree (not a bush) and just have an interesting trunk on display. @tropicofcancer (6b SW-PA) Sorry to hear about the Great Bayan Tree :(. Thank you for the advice! I guess @tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a) and you would agree that to make great art be bold or get out hahaha, I am not yet at that level, but will take it into account if someday I muster the courage (I might!). If I do... do I leave that 6-7 inch trunk in the same big pot? How long should it take to grow lower branches? For propagating, should the cuttings be from the green trunks or brown trunks? Can it be done with just the leaves? Would you recommend water or soil? How long should it take? I've seen a lot of contradicting advice on the internet.
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Ficus Audrey tree - help!

Comment (1)

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

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