artisanoo
Senior Member
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:53 am

best time to defoliate a ficus?

I have read that defoliation is safest when a tree is actively growing, perhaps in spring/summer. But in the interest of short internodes, it seems that defoliation during a slow growing phase would be beneficial.

Does anyone have any experience they can share?

I have a ficus that I have just wired up, but not defoliated because I wasn't sure if it was a good time. However if I was wrong, I would love to go ahead and do it and see the branch silhouette that I made ( and see if its nice or an eyesore ) and get a headstart on some ramification

Rosaelyn
Senior Member
Posts: 244
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:40 am
Location: Brighton, Michigan

Ficus have to be in a very happy, healthy, stress-free state before being defoliated. Having just wired it, your ficus is recovering from some stress. I would wait until spring, once it is growing strong again.

If you defoliate your ficus while it is stressed, it may not recover, or it may not grow all its leaves back or may even lose entire branches.

Jerry Meislik has a lot of information specifically on ficus. Here is an article regarding defoliating:

https://www.bonsaihunk.us/ficusforum/Defoliatingfigs.html

Hope this helps. :)

artisanoo
Senior Member
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:53 am

Thanks for the info, I actually have his book as well.

I guess I was asking because I have seen many progressions on the web where people take material, repot/prune/wire at one time and was wondering when that is ok and when it isnt.



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