Developing a large Willow Leaf Ficus

[Haoleboy]

Great thread.

 

[thomas22]

Whats your opinion about defoliating after main branches are in place and you want ramification and smaller leaf size?

 

[coh]

The question about whether to ever defoliate has come up before. For most trees I rarely, if ever, defoliate. I practice partial outer canopy defoliation. For Willow Leaf ficus, I don’t have a problem with full defoliation, especially if you’re getting ready for a show or after the main branch structure is in place. The point here is that I see a lot of young ficus trees in development on this site and the first thing everyone wants to do is defoliate them. In my opinion that’s very counterproductive for a tree in development and I wanted to share one of my experiences that led to that opinion. Full defoliation is a refinement technique and many would be better served by NOT defoliating and focusing on growth and the wiring/pruning techniques combined with partial outer canopy defoliation I talked about here.

Scott

Nice work Scott! Regarding defoliation - I have two willow leaf ficuses that I routinely defoliate when I put them outside each spring. The main reason I do it is that the leaves look crappy after a winter indoors, and they are mostly falling off on their own. So I speed up the process to ensure I get a good growth flush. Our summers are short and relatively cool so it is not easy to develop these trees. I've got some of the same issues you had with straight branches but for me to cut back and then develop a new tapering segment with movement would take a decade probably. So I'll most likely just enjoy them for what they are and eventually move them to someone else (preferably in a warmer climate) to do that next stage of work.

 

[Michael P]

Great thread--I've picked up several very helpful techniques.

Re defoliation, the same thing happens to me as coh reports, the trees almost always defoliate themselves over the winter. In the past I have used this as an opportunity to do some pruning and general cut-back. Do you think this is a bad practice? In other words, should I avoid pruning the self-defoliated trees until they have gone back outside and are growing strongly again?

 

[markyscott]

Whats your opinion about defoliating after main branches are in place and you want ramification and smaller leaf size?

I make a distinction between complete defoliation and partial outer canopy defoliation.

I prune for ramification, perform partial outer canopy defoliation as part of development and refinement to keep inner growth healthy, and perform complete defoliation for leaf reduction before I show the tree.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

...Re defoliation, the same thing happens to me as coh reports, the trees almost always defoliate themselves over the winter...

It’s my climate, most likely, because lots of people from northern climates report leaf drop on these trees. I’ve never had that problem here, but I think that would make it more difficult to develop these trees.

...should I avoid pruning the self-defoliated trees until they have gone back outside and are growing strongly again?

I think I’d wait and prune when it’s healthy. But I’d also consider the winter growing conditions. I don’t think it’s inevitable that this will happen. Perhaps it’s the drop in light levels going indoors? Can you augment the lighting?

Scott

 

[Michael P]

Thanks! Winter growing condition are definitely a factor--I don't have a greenhouse and rely on sunny windows for light. But other hobbyists in the area who have greenhouses report the same defoliation. Can you leave your trees out all winter?

Despite the problems I have one forest and one clump-style I am pretty happy with.

 

[markyscott]

Can you leave your trees out all winter?

No. We’ll generally get a couple freezes and a week or two in the 30s. I wait until the first freeze (generally December) and move them into the greenhouse. They stay there until the frost danger is over - about March.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Finished light thinning - it’s ready for the greenhouse if it ever gets cold this winter.

 

[Nybonsai12]

You make great threads.

 

[markyscott]

You make great threads.

Thank you NY!

S

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Nice tree and a nice article, and the answers to a lot of questions that I had. I hope to try some of this on my forest next year.

John

 

[markyscott]

Nice tree and a nice article, and the answers to a lot of questions that I had. I hope to try some of this on my forest next year.

John

Yes! I’m working on one of those too!


It’s actually a raft, but close enough.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Looks great, here's mine:

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/i-likus-the-ficus-part-ii.19612/#post-268307

 

[Bonsaihead]

Awesome tree! Super awesome thread! Thanks for sharing your wisdom! will apply said knowledge to mine.

 

[Timbo]

Forgot to mention - there was a potential shoot to cut back to in this image. See here?

View attachment 166722

If this was summer and since this is a Willow Leaf ficus, I would have cut back to that interior bud without hesitation. On other species I might wait until that shoot gets a bit stronger. Cutting back to that point, however, gives you better movement/taper and produces a more compact outline. Cutting back there will also produce better back budding. But this tree will go into my greenhouse as soon as we get our first freeze, so I’ll wait until next spring.

S

Nice simple instruction. Peeks my interest cause i'm working on a small one.
One question though, isn't the internode on the first secondary branch kinda long? You wouldn't just want to cut that that to a older leaf instead,
or would you do that later when the new growth harden off?
Maybe my scale is wrong.

 

[markyscott]

Nice simple instruction. Peeks my interest cause i'm working on a small one.
One question though, isn't the internode on the first secondary branch kinda long? You wouldn't just want to cut that that to a older leaf instead,
or would you do that later when the new growth harden off?
Maybe my scale is wrong.

Although these trees bud back where you cut them, resist the urge. If you do that too often, the branch won’t thicken and will eventually get weak. Instead, let it grow long to thicken. Backbuds will emerge along the shoot. When they’re strong enough, I cut back to the growing back buds.

So you’re right that this is too long for the eventual design. But I’m using it to thicken the branch. Eventually, I’ll cut back to two shoots further back and develop tertiary ramification.

S

 

[Ingvill]

Very informative thread!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this, I'll definetly be using your advice for my recently purchased, young Benjamina

 

[treebeard55]

informed effort[/B] ...
Scott

There's a lot to that phrase: "informed effort."

And the tree looks very good, too.

 

[treebeard55]

(Oops - guess I mangled the internal notation for that quote.)