AusBonsai

Hi everyone,



Thought I'd share another one of my figs with my Aussie friends. This one is a small Willow Leaf Ficus. I defoliated it last night to get a better look at the branch structure.


Here's the tree in leaf: And here's the tree after being defoliated last night:
The first picture is a few months old, oops


Any comments are welcome.

Is now a good time to defoliate ficus? I need to do some major branch chopping and reduction on the lower branches as well as the crown of my tree. Being a beginner i am stuck between the thought that this should be done after the spring growth, however if i do it now won't the spring growth period assist to get much more back budding etc? Or will this result mainly in much longer internodes than if i wait for spring growth to finish, energy to go back into the roots for a few weeks then do the work in summer?

Odd, there were three replies to this thread, and one was about a llama....hmmmm

k2bonsai wrote:Is now a good time to defoliate ficus? I need to do some major branch chopping and reduction on the lower branches as well as the crown of my tree. Being a beginner i am stuck between the thought that this should be done after the spring growth, however if i do it now won't the spring growth period assist to get much more back budding etc? Or will this result mainly in much longer internodes than if i wait for spring growth to finish, energy to go back into the roots for a few weeks then do the work in summer?

Not sure how you guys are weather-wise, but here in the U.S. we're entering Fall, so it probably wasn't the best time for me to do this. However, I grow all my trees indoors under lights, so I can usually defoliate and repot whenever I feel necessary. I haven't had much luck getting backbud as a result of defoliation, so I can't really comment on that.

I don't know other people's experience but I get better back bud results with trimming the branches.. Taking ends off...

I posted "I want a Llama" - apparently this is spam.

The Ficus Guy wrote: Any comments are welcome.

Anyway, great tree. Looks to have a good future mate.

-Mo

Hahh Funny I think Mo

TFG wht are the 2 Sticks standing up on to right hand side? They quite weird and aout of place.

To get back budding I believe you will have to cut back the ends of the branches. I doubt just a defoliate will caus backbudding itself

Ken

Thanks Mo, I agree with Ken

kcpoole wrote:Hahh Funny I think Mo

TFG wht are the 2 Sticks standing up on to right hand side? They quite weird and aout of place.

To get back budding I believe you will have to cut back the ends of the branches. I doubt just a defoliate will caus backbudding itself

Ken

Something more like this?

haha cheers guys.

And yes that virt looks excellent.

-Mo

Repotted this guy today. Still have those branches there, as I'm trying to decide what I want to do with them. Hmmmm.

Here's this tree tonight:

Developing nicely:-)
What will the next plan be?

Ken

Good stuff TFG.

Looking good mate.
Maybe time for a pot?

Thanks Gentlemen. I went to put it into a pot, but realized the rootball was too big for the shallow pot I had picked out, so into a training pot this one goes:

Looks better again...

Did you start to reduce a little further when you changed pots?
Cause this may have provided an opportunity would it not?

What pot did / do you have in mind?

Boics wrote:Looks better again...

Did you start to reduce a little further when you changed pots?
Cause this may have provided an opportunity would it not?

What pot did / do you have in mind?

I did remove a fair amount of the rootball. I had planned on this pot, but it'll have to wait: