Hey Everyone. I am curious when it is a good time for me to defoliate my ficus retusa. I would like to get smaller more dense leaf growth as well as an aerial root system. My trees are growing quickly right now, but I would like to wire and train it so that it can be more realistic as a bonsai. Any advice?
Rich
The two or three things you want to do are all mutually exclusive, you don't want to do them all at once, not even in the same season. Without seeing the tree, it's hard to say which would be better done first. Encouraging aerial roots can be difficuly, even in trees that are prone to growing them, and sometimes maturity is just the only thing you can do, allow the tree to do it on its own. You can encourage aerial roots in an unnatural way by wrapping the desired areas in moist sphagnum moss and keeping it moist, though. Sometimes this will work, sometimes not. Training the branches, wiring, etc., all are done during high growth rate periods and require you allowing the tree to grow out. Snipping every single leaf off of the tree (or even half of them) is counterproductive towards achieving this type of growth. Plus the stress on the tree can be tremendous and defoliation should only be performed, at most, once every two years, and only on mature and healthy trees. I think my first step would be to allow for growth and shaping, achieving the desired shape and size first, and only then worrying about the leaf size.
