Ficus Bonsai help

[djnelly]

Hi all,
I have a few ficus bonsais. I have had them for quite a number of years. When I first got them as gifts, they looked great. But the last few years with the birth of my first child, I have neglected them. I cannot remember the last time I did any leaf pruning. At the moment, all three of them seem to have no leaves at the bottom of the branches. All the growth is at the end of each branch. As a result, they look quite bare, and have lost their originally spectacular appearance. How can I get the growth back? I was thinking of cutting off most of the leaves that are on the end of the branches, and see if that then promotes growth along more of the branch? Is this the answer? Or do I need to actually cut back the branches themselves? Is now a good/bad time of year to do this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love bonsai, but I'm honestly not too good at it!
Thanks in advance.

[Brian]

The good news about ficus is that you can cut the branches right back to stubs and it will re bud everywhere.

Make sure you add a pinch of garden lime to the soil every now and then.

[siddhar]

The good news about ficus is that you can cut the branches right back to stubs and it will re bud everywhere.

Prune back all of the branches hard. The tree will reshoot everywhere. Just wire all of the branches if needed or wait and see what a new flush of growth looks like on the tree.

[djnelly]

Thanks for the advice. Is it the right time of year to hard prune the branches? I don't want the tree to die over winter.

[djnelly]

Also when you say "prune back all of the branches hard", will it matter if by doing this, there are no leaves left on the tree?

[Naimul]

Also when you say "prune back all of the branches hard", will it matter if by doing this, there are no leaves left on the tree?

no, as a result of having no leaves, the tree will start pushing out new growth using stored energy. ideally you would want to do this during summer (consisten warm weather) in the case of ficus species, but i think it should still be ok to do it now, i wouldnt expect very fast results though

[shibui]

Cut back branches to wherever you want new shoots to grow. Ficus will shoot from anywhere after pruning and they do not care if you cut back and leave no leaves on the tree.
Remember that the new shoots that grow will all grow longer so cut back far enough to allow the new shoots to grow out to the size you want. Feed them well to help the new shoots grow.

[k2bonsai]

Before attempting the above suggestions which are great, we are missing one very crucial piece of info.... what species of ficus is it? If it is a Ficus benjimina then i would suggest taking other more careful actions.

[Boics]

Funny you say this k2.
I thought some other Fig varieties than benji didn't like the chop to bare trunk.
I've had one of mine MBF? Twin trunks decide to just abandon a trunk rather than throw new buds?