... if I want it to be in a tree shape I need to separate the three stalks, is that even possible or do you think it is one root mass? If it is possible, I will probably leave two as a bush, as it is now, and prune one to be a tree, in case that goes horribly wrong! I do love this plant and would rather not try to separate the three stalks if that is a death sentence for it. It looks quite nice as it is. So, if it is possible, how would you recommend doing the pruning to make it branch?
There are 3 cuttings started in a single planting. Sometimes the plants can be easily separated, but often the roots of ficus actually become fused together. This doesn't mean the plants are no longer separable, only that to do so requires the cutting of some fused roots.
You should probably forgo any serious work on the roots until next summer; though, if the plant is very root bound, you can pot up after removing the bottom few inches of roots off the root mass and cutting some vertical slits in the root ball. More on that later if you decide on that as an option.
It's sometimes hard to give up what the grower wants for what's best for or easiest on the plant. A mid-late June repot would ensure the fastest recovery and best results, and that requires that you put yourself on tree time instead of people time. IOW, be patient. ;-)
You're options for ending up with a single specimen from what you have are 2. 1) Separate the trees, or 2) lop off the two trees you value least at the soil line so they die ..... or you could start an air layer now that you should be able to separate next summer ...... so that's sort of 3 options, I suppose. ;-)
If you want the trees to 'branch', you need only remove the growing tip of the stem or branch. This will force back-budding and branches will occur in leaf axils behind the pruning cut. You can get best back-budding response by pruning healthy trees in early August, when energy reserves should be higher than at any other point in the growth cycle, but you need to decide what path you want your trees on and you might need to get a look at the roots at repot time to help with that decision. You'll need to do a little contemplating on what path you want to choose, then I can guide you better.
The second question is, ... it seems quite likely my large plant is root bound and needs the roots trimmed and to be re-potted (perhaps in better soil, I'm not sure this soil drains that well). Obviously if I am going to try to separate the plants, I should do this at the same time - am I right in thinking that August, when it is warm, is the right time to do all this or should I wait to do something so dramatic?
You're likely to get lots of opinions on what you CAN do, and you CAN do whatever you wish, because it's your plant. I can tell you what you SHOULD do, base on what's best for the plant, you can decide if your time table is flexible enough to work WITH the plant's energy flow instead of against it.
The best months for your plant to build energy and recover from serious work are Jun, Jul, Aug. May and Sep are 'eh' months. The rest of the time the plant will be largely coasting or even declining slightly and are poor choices during which to do serious work, like full-repots with root pruning or hard pruning of the top.
If you JUST repotted now, you would probably be sort of ok, and your tree would probably do fairly well over the winter and wake up raring to go in late May, but I would still suggest a mid-Jun repotting and any hard pruning just before mid-Jul of next summer.
FWIW, I've been helping quite a few growers learn to manage their (ficus and other) trees here on the forums, and even more by email or phone, and I think everyone is pretty pleased with the results, not only as how the information relates to their trees, but probably more importantly just because of the realization that there IS such a thing as utilizing a plan that allows you to use timing in a way that actually has you working WITH your plants and how they WANT to respond, instead of ignoring the timing and going at things in a way that leaves the likelihood of the most favorable outcome to chance instead of planning.
In either case, I can help you get the best results from working with your schedule if that's how you'd like to move ahead, or you can start putting together a plan that has you doing the bulk of the work at the beginning of next summer. What say you, Clare?
Al
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