Not what I'd call ideal material (F. benjamina "Wiandi")

[luvinthemountains]

It's me again, flooding the tropicals forum. Last one for today - I promise.

When I purchased this tree, it was a small, wild little bush. I am not sure why I bought it, other than intrigue with the contorted branches that break whenever you look at them wrong. It is not ideal material, with its slow, coarse growth and large leaves. But I decided to make a go of it, pruning off several large sub-trunks last summer and attempting to make an informal upright style tree out of it. Callousing of those wounds has actually happened much fast than I thought, particularly considering that I cannot seem to get myself to stop pruning. Most recently, I have decided on a plan that involves allowing wild growth at the very top, balanced by sacrifice branches lower on the trunk that I constantly have to prune off to avoid worsening the scarring problem. By doing this, I hope to grow the tree taller and fatter, but preserve some of what taper is there. The base is currently only about thumb-thick. I am aiming to end up with a tree with about 1.5" caliper and maybe 12" high. Plans have a way of evolving, but we will see...

 

[Cadillactaste]

Leave the tree to grow. Grow a sacrifice from a branch you intend to keep down low. Keeps the trunk with less scars. Thickens the lower trunk and branch. Win/win. But...don't cut the grow tips. When you do that you slow growth of the length of the branch.

I see potential. Just need to put time/patience into it.

Above all...enjoy your journey.

 

[luvinthemountains]

Grow a sacrifice from a branch you intend to keep down low. Keeps the trunk with less scars. Thickens the lower trunk and branch. Win/win.

Very good suggestion, but it seems like the growth habit of wiandi - or at least of this particular one - favors horizontal growth over vertical. So when I have allowed branches to run, they have quickly grown overly-heavy. If you look at the first branch in the first photo, you can see a large pruning scar right at its base. That resulted from pruning off a branch that I had planned to keep as a first branch, but which grew from just a small sprout to pencil thickness within a few months, even with regularly pruning back the branch leader!

 

[Cadillactaste]

You could use wire like guy wire to keep them up. Be creative.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Very good suggestion, but it seems like the growth habit of wiandi - or at least of this particular one - favors horizontal growth over vertical. So when I have allowed branches to run, they have quickly grown overly-heavy. If you look at the first branch in the first photo, you can see a large pruning scar right at its base. That resulted from pruning off a branch that I had planned to keep as a first branch, but which grew from just a small sprout to pencil thickness within a few months, even with regularly pruning back the branch leader!

If you are having trouble directing growth on a ficus, simply defoliate the branches you wish to weaken (during the growing season). For example, I have a ficus cascade, and if I did not defoliate the upper portion of the tree, the cascading branch would weaken and eventually die off. I usually defoliate the top in the spring (leaving the cascading branch alone) just to make the cascading branch really strong, and then defoliate the entire tree in mid-summer to reduce leaf size and stimulate back-budding.

 

[luvinthemountains]

If you are having trouble directing growth on a ficus, simply defoliate the branches you wish to weaken (during the growing season).

Well, I could have thought of that! It does make sense that removing foliage would naturally weaken the branch and slow down thickening, without having to remove the branch. I will try it.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Well, I could have thought of that! It does make sense that removing foliage would naturally weaken the branch and slow down thickening, without having to remove the branch. I will try it.

If you don't want to fully defoliate, you can cut leaves in half on the branches you want to slow down and achieve a similar result, though not as strong/dramatic.

 

[luvinthemountains]

A quick update. I have seen some good trunk development on this one in the past two years. There is now a solid first branch with decent movement and ramification. The difficulty that I am running into is getting it to backbud in the right places. So I am letting a shoot elongate from the first branch that will be grafted higher up to place a second branch. The next branches will have to come from the top shoot, which was inelegantly chopped back to fit under lights.

 

[luvinthemountains]

@Hartinez after seeing your post on your beautiful wiandi, I thought I would pull mine out of the tent for a quick snapshot. It's pretty bushy and still not much to look at, but it is coming a long. I am attempting an approach graft to get a second branch. Once I trim the shoots in the crown, the graft should thicken faster.

 

[Deleted member 47471]

It's me again, flooding the tropicals forum. Last one for today - I promise.

When I purchased this tree, it was a small, wild little bush. I am not sure why I bought it, other than intrigue with the contorted branches that break whenever you look at them wrong. It is not ideal material, with its slow, coarse growth and large leaves. But I decided to make a go of it, pruning off several large sub-trunks last summer and attempting to make an informal upright style tree out of it. Callousing of those wounds has actually happened much fast than I thought, particularly considering that I cannot seem to get myself to stop pruning. Most recently, I have decided on a plan that involves allowing wild growth at the very top, balanced by sacrifice branches lower on the trunk that I constantly have to prune off to avoid worsening the scarring problem. By doing this, I hope to grow the tree taller and fatter, but preserve some of what taper is there. The base is currently only about thumb-thick. I am aiming to end up with a tree with about 1.5" caliper and maybe 12" high. Plans have a way of evolving, but we will see...

View attachment 351296

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I like it. How is it going with the tree now? Did you put it in the ground or a plantar pot for more development?

 

[luvinthemountains]

I like it. How is it going with the tree now? Did you put it in the ground or a plantar pot for more development?

It has been growing pretty strongly and gaining a lot of ramification. My biggest struggle at the moment is getting it to backbud where I need - thus the approach graft.

I cannot grow tropicals in-ground during the cold months, so I don't bother planting them out in the growing season. I know some do and have great things to say.

This will probably go in a terra cotta "bulb pot" or similar soon. Maybe an "air pot" but I'm not sure I want such a deep container, if for no other reason than I would have to reconfigure my grow lights to accommodate the height.

 

[Deleted member 47471]

It has been growing pretty strongly and gaining a lot of ramification. My biggest struggle at the moment is getting it to backbud where I need - thus the approach graft.

I cannot grow tropicals in-ground during the cold months, so I don't bother planting them out in the growing season. I know some do and have great things to say.

This will probably go in a terra cotta "bulb pot" or similar soon. Maybe an "air pot" but I'm not sure I want such a deep container, if for no other reason than I would have to reconfigure my grow lights to accommodate the height.

I’m glad to hear the tree is growing and ramifying!

You mentioned graft. Does that mean you grafted (or will graft) in a branch that has back-budding? Or you will graft in a branch with buds closer to the trunk and conducive for back-budding?

I feel asleep watching a documentary last night and it featured Mr. Kimura who drilled a hole into a bonsai tree trunk, placed a branch into it, then fixed it in place a screw. The tree apparently grew over/healed without issue.

 

[luvinthemountains]

I’m glad to hear the tree is growing and ramifying!

You mentioned graft. Does that mean you grafted (or will graft) in a branch that has back-budding? Or you will graft in a branch with buds closer to the trunk and conducive for back-budding?

I feel asleep watching a documentary last night and it featured Mr. Kimura who drilled a hole into a bonsai tree trunk, placed a branch into it, then fixed it in place a screw. The tree apparently grew over/healed without issue.

The type of graft that you are referring to is a thread graft. It is not something that I would attempt on this tree for two reasons - (1) f. benjamina can sometimes kill branches when all of the leaves are cut off, which is necessary to that technique, and (2) this specific cultivar has notoriously brittle branches and maneuvering a shoot into and through a hole in the trunk would risk snapping the donor branch.

What I am doing here is called an approach graft, where you cut a groove in the trunk cambium and place a small shoot or branch there, leaving it attached at its origin and allow it to grow until it merges with the trunk at the graft site. I grew a long sub-branch from the first branch on the left specifically to use for this graft. You can see this in post #8, above. I was able to gently move the branch into place to avoid breaking it. With most other ficus species/cultivars, and really most broadleaf species I am aware of, branches are more flexible and you can use a long shoot from anyplace on the tree - or cuttings if you want to - and just bend or loop it into the position where you need it. See here for a blurry, cropped view of the graft location on my tree:

 

[luvinthemountains]

you grafted (or will graft) in a branch that has back-budding? Or you will graft in a branch with buds closer to the trunk and conducive for back-budding?

Looking back at your post, I realized I missed answering this question. In this case, I have been struggling to get adventitious buds on the trunk to sprout ("backbud") in the right locations. The ones you see in the photo in post #9 all over the lower trunk are mostly crap (although as I look at it the first branch on the right might not be in a bad spot for a low branch...it would just have to grow a lot to surpass the current first branch in girth). But I digress. I wanted a second branch up higher, but it has proven impossible to get backbudding on the top half of the trunk so this is my hail Mary.

Your instinct is right, though, that grafting a branch with good density close to the trunk is a good technique for future backbudding on a branch.

 

[Hartinez]

@Hartinez after seeing your post on your beautiful wiandi, I thought I would pull mine out of the tent for a quick snapshot. It's pretty bushy and still not much to look at, but it is coming a long. I am attempting an approach graft to get a second branch. Once I trim the shoots in the crown, the graft should thicken faster.

View attachment 484336

I’ve tried to approach graft roots on wiandi with no success. Not saying it can’t be done, but it didn’t work for me. If you can get that one to take it should help massive. My only advice though is to embrace the branching where you get it. Even if it’s not ideal. It should ramify for you prettty well