AusBonsai

Any ideas, what to do with this 4 year old tree. Given this had been planted in a "saucer" with no holes on the bottom. Okay, badly needs repotting, any ideas you could give me regarding what I should do with improvements. I am a novice, by the way.

No it's Green Island fig. Repot it into a deeper pot and cut back all branches heavily - it is too long and gangly. Join Bimer Bonsai club too

Depends of style you want to achieve!

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dan.fisher92 wrote:Depends of style you want to achieve!

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Dunno what Style might be suitable for a tree with low branching that are long non tapering like this one has
cut back to start to develop taper and ramification in them to make use of the taper already in the trunk.

The first trunk chop already dictates the style and size of the tree already, unless you want to have the next trunk section overly long and out of proportion to the first section.
If you want anything else than a shohin / small chuhin then stick it in the ground for 5 years then revisit it later.

Ken

bougy my green island fig has rounder, less oblong leaves than this(is there more than one type?)--this looks similar to a port jackson to me

It is a sub species commonly referred to as Long Island Fig. No mistake on that. When you cut it back you can take cuttings and get started on having too many plants !

I've taken all your advice on board, I've attached a photo, of chopping branches off, do you think this is the way to go. Anything else you suggest. Thank you.

Are you planning on cutting everything off? Id recomend not doing that, the more growth you have on the tree the faster it will fatten up. You could cut more off later when your happy with trunck thickness and wish to start developing branches, for now just let it grow and feed it lots!

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I would leave the upward one longer (assuming the bend is in a suitable direction. It has nice taper from the trunk base and will make a nice progression up the trunk.

Maybe use the smaller shoot on the back of that as theen new leader?
Cut back to that shoot and then let go mad

Ken

dan.fisher92 wrote:Are you planning on cutting everything off? Id recomend not doing that, the more growth you have on the tree the faster it will fatten up. You could cut more off later when your happy with trunck thickness and wish to start developing branches, for now just let it grow and feed it lots!

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You could leave them on as sacrifices, or you could take them off now to heal the cuts and then grow more later if needed.
sorta depends on what you might have planned in the future for the tree
I think it was Shibui a few days ago suggested we should have a final plan for the tree while we are developing it. Grow to a plan.


Ken

It looks to me like a Ficus Green Mound (Ficus microcarpa var. crassifolia). Doesn't really matter anyway because they're all treated the same.

My first thoughts on seeing this were of a cascading tree.

I thought about this. Do ficus trees make good as a cascade?