AusBonsai

Hi everyone, yesterday I defoliated and chopped back my Ficus rubiginosa and face a problem.
It's the bar branch created by the third branch up and it's partner behind - it's really irritating me and has done so for a while now.
It seems that if I eliminate either one I'm left with a big gaping hole that needs to be filled.

Here is a virtual with the rear branch eliminated
It looks fine in the picture but in reality it will lose almost all it's depth.
So what to do? I'm open to all suggestions/critiques.

Fire away.

I would have the upper tree foliage grown together like in nature forming a canopy of leaves, kind of like how a big ficus tree is when growing in a park. So your bar branch will be covered over with leaves.

But it's still there and a lot more prominent than it appears in the picture. I'm worried about it causing reverse taper regardless of whether it's covered by leaves (which it will be).

It doesn't look too bad in the photos ...... But it's annoying you just cut it off, something else will pop up in it's place. It's a ficus it'll regrow to cover any mistake!

I woud remove and you will get another in a better location to replace it soon.

Ken

To me it looks fine and being a back branch will not be noticed. Now as far as reverse taper goes, it looks as though you ar happy with the thickness of the branch as it is, because you have removed the growing tip. In doing this you have almost stopped any more thickening of this branch any way. Yes it will thicken a little as the tree grows but so will the trunk. Just remember to keep the new smaller branches in check and you should avoid any drastic thickening and reverse taper.

chris

I'd be inclined to remove branches 2 and 3 as they are getting a little thick and out of proportion to the trunk, grow a couple of new ones, ofcourse that brings new issues, food for thought

To my eye you have a great tree. Those branches don't bother me at all. My personal feeling is that the admonition on bar branches is quite wrong.
Bar branches are only a visual distraction when they occur in the lower half of the tree. Some of the most wonderful bonsai even have branches in the lower half of the tree!!
I think you could easily use some wire to move that branch slightly if its exact position offends your eye.
Just my opinion.
Jerry

Jerry Meislik wrote:Some of the most wonderful bonsai even have branches in the lower half of the tree!!

I agree here Jerry and have always questioned the bar branching debate. Bar branching only looks ridiculous on a immature tree where there is no trunk or maturity. Trawling through the Kokofu books there are many cases of bar branching that enhance a tree. When you are wanting more branching sometimes you have no choice. A little manipulation with good wiring technique goes a long way in alleviating the problem. Nice fig by the way.

Thanks everyone who responded, I've been staring at the tree this morning contemplating your thoughts.

Craig wrote:I'd be inclined to remove branches 2 and 3 as they are getting a little thick and out of proportion to the trunk, grow a couple of new ones, ofcourse that brings new issues, food for thought

Thank's Craig, I'm inclined to agree with you. However I think the problem is that the two branches are too thick for too long and hence lack taper of their own. I think I can fix this by cutting them back harder to the first or second secondary branch, creating immediate taper, eliminating a straight branch section and maybe even increasing ramification. This is also the case with the first branch. Thankyou for making me aware of it.

But knowing me, I'll probably just stare at it contemplating for a couple of months losing valuable fixin' time.

O.K here's a solution. Take the offending branch back more so it disappears behind the tree and cultivate a secondary off the branch to replace the negative space. You can wire the secondary a little higher so it balances the tree more.

Cheers Bodhi, what can be seen in the photo is a secondary branch, I pretty much did what you said and the secondary branch comes out the right hand side of it. I can't get a better picture at the moment because I lent out my camera. For now I've decided to leave it and concentrate on ramification. I will surely get more options, afterall, it is a Fig so I'll just play it as it comes.

Bodhi's got it for my money. If the offending branch can be placed almost directly backwards, and all that you see is the edge of the foliage in that space, all problems solved. There's something in the space, but no strong line of branch to distract the eye. I don't think its a major problem - it's a fine and graceful trunk. Good luck.

Gavin

For my I'd remove branch 3 which appears to be inside the curve of the trunk and coming out toward the current front. As it thickens it is likely to make the trunk thicken on the inside of that bend and appear straighter.The branch above on the left will fill the space if its lowered a little and encouraged to ramify.
With branch 3 out of the way you also have the opportunity to bring the front a little to the left - though its hard to tell how the trunk curves will look from that angle from the pics.

shibui wrote:With branch 3 out of the way you also have the opportunity to bring the front a little to the left - though its hard to tell how the trunk curves will look from that angle from the pics.

G'day Shibui, that is where I origionally intended the front to be but moved it because of the offending forward branch. If a bud appears directly behind branch 3 (which Murphy's law dictates won't happen) then I will grow it on in it's place and have that option.