Cascade style: development/defoliation on my tiger bark ficus question...

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Bought this as a pre bonsai last August so I'm coming up on a year very shortly. I have a lot of branches at the moment, too many, I know. I wanted to keep as many as I could, to have options when I decide which way I want to go with the tree. Figured I grow it out a little and see which parts I like and want to develop further and which parts to chop off.

Being a nursery grown pre bonsai, all the branches were directly on top of the trunk shooting straight up, so it wasnt easy trying to wire them down. All in all, I'm excited for the future. I feel like it has a lot of potential (For a TBF) lol.

Few questions...

To develop back budding on branches further back towards the trunk, should I defoliate?
I did a lot of research and was literally about to start doing it, but then I thought, there's so many small leaves and I'm really starting to ramify in certain spots, I'd hate to screw shit up by stripping leaves and it actually sets the tree back. I'm pretty sure it's healthy. It's been growing non stop since last Aug, (Winter it was indoors in grow tent under 650W LED) but the color is my next concern.

The leaves are not that green. Has a light green/yellow green color to the leaves, especially the new shoots. Do you think the color is showing signs of mineral deficiency? I have been fertilizing it, not heavily, but about once every 3 to 4 weeks since March.

Last thing, if I'm going to cut back to try and push everything in tighter, can I cut the 2 or 3 branches off the end of one of the primaries leaving no leaves? Will TBF grow new branches or leaves if I leave just a stick?

1st pic is the only one I could find of when I first got the tree. I already had thinned out a lot of branches in this pic.

Other pics were taken yesterday, June 13th.

Still have a long way to go. Next styling I need to figure out an apex!

If you're still with me, I appreciate it! Thank you for any insight you can give. Any info will greatly help.

 

[TimIAm]

To develop back budding on branches further back towards the trunk, should I defoliate?

If you defoliate and remove the growth tips, you may get growth back towards the trunk. It depends on how healthy the tree is, how much chopping you've done recently and availability of buds. It also depends on how far in you cut back. If you just remove the leaves you're most likely to get growth mainly from the buds at the base of the leaves.

Defoliating (including removing the growth tips) on a typical ficus will help reduce leaf size and improve ramification. It's best to do it on a tree that you haven't been constantly clipping off new growth and do it during the growing season when there are a bunch of green buds already showing. Your question about if you should do it.... is a good one: First, there's no rule that say you have to defoliate the entire tree. Also, I don't suggest doing it for the sake of it, you should always have an expected response and think about how that will play out with the future of the tree.

My guess is your goal is to try and improve taper and bring growth in closer. The picture below is 3 options for cutting back. I'm quite conservative, and although a lot of people say 'cut back to red' on a ficus, it isn't 100% guarantee that it will bud below the red cut. Personally, I only cut back to red when I have a ficus which has been growing unchecked for a couple of years and is primed for a heavy cut-back, then I heavy prune all over for a big response. The blue and purple lines represent less risky options but also less chance of budding internally. 4th option is defoliating and cutting the growth tips.

As mentioned above, the further out you cut back the further out the response is likely to be.

Will TBF grow new branches or leaves if I leave just a stick?

To simplify above: It should, but best if you haven't been constantly pruning / shaping /nibbling away at new growth. Best if you leave it unchecked for a season then cut back hard during warmer months. And... as with anything in bonsai it's not 100% guaranteed.






With the color, I suggest you get a good slow release fertiliser that has additional trace elements. We get a lot of rain and sun here, so I replace every 3 months. I also use fish/seawed liquid once a fortnight.


Nice tree, it's got some good movement in the trunk and growing well. Will only keep getting better

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

As mentioned above, the further out you cut back the further out the response is likely to be.

I appreciate the advice. Thanks a lot. Yea, based on the above statement, I have another tree that was a double trunk, it got hit with a ball while playing with my nephew outside, and became a single trunk. Because the whole second half of the tree got wiped out, about 3 to 4 weeks later I had buds growing out from the trunk from base to apex. It was when I was so new into owning plants in general that I didn't want to cut any of the new growth! Haha.

One last question if you don't mind. You mention clipping new growth vs leaving it for a season and then making more drastic cut backs. Constantly pruning, shaping and not even letting the latest 3 to 4 nodes harden off is exactly what I've put this tree through the past year. Is this a perfectly fine approach to training trees? Or should i back off and let new growth harden off for a season and cut back heavy once a year type of thing? Or does it not really matter, to each their own sorta thing? I mean, she definitely seems healthy, but regardless, I've decided not to defoliate it right now.

 

[TimIAm]

You will get a feel for how much repeated pruning your tree can take. Ficus can take a lot of regular clipping, but there is a limit to where the tree can continually keep putting out new growth, if you are continually cutting the growth tips off over the whole tree.

The process of continually pruning to bring about finer branching and denser smaller leaves sounds straight forward, but if you just keep cutting and cutting your tree can stall. That's why it can be helpful to wait a period of time for the tree to regain some vigor for a bigger response.

Something else you want to put in your plans is which branches you want to be thicker. Constant pruning to build ramification will slow down the process of branch thickening. You want to let your growth tips extend. You can still "clip and grow" to build thicker branches, but you need to remember the grow part.

Also on this point, if you don't aim to have some thicker branches and you keep regular clipping you can end up with something that looks more like topiary than something resembling an old tree.

I think the above two points is part of the "to each their own". Regular pruning, pruning for taper and ramification, etc. etc. all bring about certain responses in the tree. We all have our own ideas on timing and frequency, but it's important to do things with an idea of what response the tree is likely to have and how that fits into our plans.

I look forward to seeing some future updates.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Again, apologies for the delayed response. I hate social media but I need to get used to it. I'm grateful for all the info you've provided. It has been an interesting month! BACKBUDDING!! Well, lemme clarify.

When I first posted, asking about defoliating the cascade, I changed my mind and decided on trying it out on my informal upright instead. All the lower branches started to show buds further back, some really close to the trunk and even a few ON the trunk. Might not be too crazy about a couple of the locations, but oh well. I'm just pumped to get backbudding period. First time ever defoliating and I wanna do it again! Lol.

Nah but seriously, I have realized that I need to thicken up branches. That's the next step. Enough pruning and I need to start looking more at the big picture. Well, I did maybe prune one last time on the cascade haha. She grew so vigorously in just a few weeks, due to the really hot and humid month we've had in NJ. Wanted to thin her out a lil bit. Last haircut I swear.

Updates on the cascade below. Also, I'm posting pics of my other fav tiger bark. I bought both from Wigerts last August. Wanted to show you the defoliation and all the new buds!!! Hope you can make it out. Sorry about the night pics. Was gettin a lil weird with the lighting ha.