how do you reduce ficus benjamina

[peterb]

thanks mate
yep i'm used to being asked what the hell i did that for, i went and looked at the tree this morning and i was rather pleased with the shape , so we will just shape it as informal upright. will inform on the progress
regards
peterb

[FigKiller]

A bit late! I hope not too late. I was told many moons ago that you cannot prune benjamina right back but must always leave at least one shoot. Otherwise you get dieback.
I've had one die when I did not take this advice. True, this doesn't prove the rule. I have lopped the whole trunk off one but left one small branch with a single shoot. The cut down trunk is covered in new shoots.

[maryo]

Dont think of 5 years work down the drain, think of it as 5 years experience you have gained. I hope you have not cut back your tree too hard. I as a little concerned that the tree will not survive, do your best to keep dry and warm until you do get a shoot.

[Jamie]

gday,

I have worked with benji for a fairly long time now and have been able to cut back to bare trunks with a heap of success. the only one I havent had success with is the one with the wavy type leaves, cant think of the name right now but it has a very prominent wavy type leaf, which this one has not.

I will get one of mine out and take a pic that I cut back to a bare trunk leaving no new shoots to show the development i have had over the past year from a bare trunk. it has been a massive strong grower.

taking chances sometimes is what is needed to grow good trees.


jamie

[peterb]

thanks for all the advice guys, i did cut it back very hard but left 3 small shoots with leaves but then dumped it outside ,so will bring it back inside. when would be a good time to cut the roots back hard because they are long now, i planted it in a biggish flower pot with a very gritty sandy soil to try and develop some fibrous roots close to the trunk.
regards
peterb