Ficus Benjamina heavy pruning and transitioning to overwintering

[DonielDoom]

I have roughly 8-10 weeks before my temperatures are low enough to overwinter my slew of Benjaminas inside. I have a rack setup with lights, airflow, etc and have successfully overwintered the last two years. They continue to grow all winter, but it's leggy and not always the strongest. They do slow down, no doubt. I tend to need at least one trim on them in the winter to keep them from overgrowing their space on the rack.

I've been focusing on building health and vigor, while correcting some of my beginner errors. I'm most guilty of overworking and have kept my grubby mitts off the scissors. They've mostly been left to grow, fertilized, and some repotted (not in that order). I want to manage the growth a bit more actively due to the growth habit and backbudding reliability of the Benjamina. I'm at the point where I'll likely be doing some fairly major reduction to remove unwanted growth to prevent overthickening and minimize wound/scar size, among other things. I typically cut back hard when things come inside to overwinter as this helps me treat for pests and eases the limited space inside.

Here's the question - Should I wait another 8-10 weeks to do a large prune when I overwinter? Would a hard prune now followed by an as-needed trim for overwintering be more ideal? Or even a medium prune now and another medium for overwintering?

I get it's a ficus and will very likely keep trucking with all of these options. I'm trying to find some of that middle-ground between my overzealous trimming and free growth. I'll see about grabbing some pictures so there's a bit more chance to get effective support. Thanks in advance!

 

[DonielDoom]

 

[DonielDoom]

My thoughts lean towards large cuts being made now(ish) while growth is at peak. If some new growth gets clipped in 8-10 weeks when they move to overwinter inside it's okay and potentially better when compared to large cuts made at that time and the following regrowth being put out in a less ideal environment. I see the best chance for backbudding and healthy regrowth if major cuts are done now vs waiting for my overwintering prep.

I'd love to hear about anyone else that overwinters tropicals and if they run into this kind of timing challenge, or if it's less of a point. Most of what I reference with ficus I have a hard time determining whether they're outdoors all year or overwintered and for what length of time. I'm also figuring out this whole foresight thing...

 

[Shibui]

Ficus benjamina is one of the Ficus sp that do not always shoot well after pruning. Many Ficus can be pruned to bare wood and respond with masses of new shoots. Benjis don't always respond as well to pruning so best to leave some green leaves when pruning to be sure of the branches surviving.
I'd go harder now to allow best conditions for new shoots. As you say, best chance of getting good response while they are active. Then lighter trimming before and through winter to fit into your wintering area.
Everyone has different conditions, outdoors and indoors, so responses can also differ. We all need to watch how our trees respond under our specific conditions and manage growth as it happens

 

[Masi]

My thinking is that everything that grows indoors over winter will have to be removed. The internodes are just too long. So I think your idea of pruning now while you still have some "quality" growth left of the summer is good. I just pruned one of mine with the same intention, so that there is atleast some new good growth before going indoors.

Prune now, and coming spring prune back the leggy growth of winter

 

[penumbra]

From my own experience, so take it for what its worth. I did most of my hard ficus cuts from mid June to mid July. (zone 6) I am still doing cuts, but not as drastic as I was earlier on. I have many types and sizes of ficus including many benjamina cultivars. None of mine are as leggy as yours is and if I was in your climate, I would cut it hard now. It is true that benjamini do take longer to bud back than many other ficus. One of my group plantings of three "Dutch Treat", a benjamini cultivar, was cut hard about a month ago. The center and largest tree was cut very hard leaving no leaves at all. It is bursting out with clusters of leaves everywhere even down low where it has been bare for years. It took about a month but the rewards are there.

 

[DonielDoom]

Ficus benjamina is one of the Ficus sp that do not always shoot well after pruning. Many Ficus can be pruned to bare wood and respond with masses of new shoots. Benjis don't always respond as well to pruning so best to leave some green leaves when pruning to be sure of the branches surviving.
I'd go harder now to allow best conditions for new shoots. As you say, best chance of getting good response while they are active. Then lighter trimming before and through winter to fit into your wintering area.
Everyone has different conditions, outdoors and indoors, so responses can also differ. We all need to watch how our trees respond under our specific conditions and manage growth as it happens

Thank you for this thoughtful answer. I recognize I didn't do the greatest job at providing good information when asking this question. Learning to manage the unpredictable back-budding is of interest. So far so good, I think. I'm not quite at the point of knowing though. Seems like some folks with the experience and/or knowledge take ficus trees from cutting to semi-refined in ~3 years. I guess climate/region is a big part of that, too.

My thinking is that everything that grows indoors over winter will have to be removed.

This is something that makes a lot of sense when presented. I suspect I'm at a point where a few things are convening - young material, history of leggy growth/suboptimal conditions, and lack of meaningful maintenance/growth management. I didn't prune when I brought things outdoors for the growing season. All of that leggy growth is now getting built on with heavier healthier growth. I'll need more observation on how my material behaves over time.

From my own experience, so take it for what its worth. I did most of my hard ficus cuts from mid June to mid July. (zone 6) I am still doing cuts, but not as drastic as I was earlier on. I have many types and sizes of ficus including many benjamina cultivars. None of mine are as leggy as yours is and if I was in your climate, I would cut it hard now. It is true that benjamini do take longer to bud back than many other ficus. One of my group plantings of three "Dutch Treat", a benjamini cultivar, was cut hard about a month ago. The center and largest tree was cut very hard leaving no leaves at all. It is bursting out with clusters of leaves everywhere even down low where it has been bare for years. It took about a month but the rewards are there.

Valuable experience, thank you! Also, the timing seems logical, for what that's worth. Appreciate you sharing.


It sounds like I'm going to get to work today pulling things back into shape and setting some structure. I'm mostly growing trunks, so I imagine I'll have some decent reductions to make. Also, here's one clear benefit of propagation and/or having more than one tree of a species to work on; I have a lot of padding on the corners to learn.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

I don’t like doing work right when I bring the trees inside. I would do a hard cutback now and then as needed trimming before you bring them in.

Now if you have enough light/wattage and maybe an aquarium heater in some water to keep temperatures up near the plants, they may like it indoors just as well as outdoors, and you can be a bit more adventuresome.

 

[Shibui]

Seems like some folks with the experience and/or knowledge take ficus trees from cutting to semi-refined in ~3 years.

Again, need to be aware there are many different Ficus species. I grow mostly Ficus rubiginosa - one of our natives - and they grow very fast, respond very well to pruning and bud on bare wood. can be root pruned close to 90% root reduction. I've seen difficult to collect trunks sawed off and struck successfully as giant cuttings. Almost bomb proof. I can take a seedling through to showable shohin sized tree in a few years.
My experience with F. benjamina is very different. Much slower to develop (so add several years to development timelines). More difficult to build ramification. More likely to die from over zealous root pruning and reluctant to back bud, etc, etc. I still have a couple of benjis in the glass house but would not bother getting any more.
Just one person's opinion but you definitely need to be comparing apples with apples rather than F. benjamina with all other Ficus when looking at how quickly and how well they develop.

 

[MHBonsai]

Good advice above. If you are looking for more branches and twiggy back budding then cut hard now.

If you are looking to build nebari and trunk thickness, then I would let them run as long as you can with as much leaf as possible. More leaf surface = quicker trunk building.

 

[DonielDoom]

 

[DonielDoom]

 

[DonielDoom]

Again, need to be aware there are many different Ficus species. I grow mostly Ficus rubiginosa - one of our natives - and they grow very fast, respond very well to pruning and bud on bare wood. can be root pruned close to 90% root reduction. I've seen difficult to collect trunks sawed off and struck successfully as giant cuttings. Almost bomb proof. I can take a seedling through to showable shohin sized tree in a few years.
My experience with F. benjamina is very different. Much slower to develop (so add several years to development timelines). More difficult to build ramification. More likely to die from over zealous root pruning and reluctant to back bud, etc, etc. I still have a couple of benjis in the glass house but would not bother getting any more.
Just one person's opinion but you definitely need to be comparing apples with apples rather than F. benjamina with all other Ficus when looking at how quickly and how well they develop.

Thank you for your insight! Great points. I value the opinion and experiences shared.

I think I'm sitting with the effects of a sunk cost fallacy from my entry to the hobby years back. I've been slowly acquiring some species that are able to live in my climate year-round and trying to thin the tropicals, etc. I mainly have a slew of F. benjamina, as they propagate extremely easily and were easily accessible to a novice; accessible to purchase and less accessible to enter the bonsai practice, to clarify.

That's all to say, I enjoy my time with my benjamina projects, but I'm likely to see more success in my practice and better results in my art elsewhere. Additionally, this material is my starting material, so it will naturally be ridden with mistakes and oversights. A lot of the ol' !@#$ around and find out.

Thanks again!