How to tame a Ficus Benjamini

[rnavis]

I bought a 10' Ficus Benjamini for my yard that I'd like to tame to ensure that it will not grow more than 20' in size. I'd like to plant the tree in a large underground steel drum to contain the roots, and prune the tree regularly. Does anyone beleive this will work, or does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[treeseer]

Click the Rainbow sponsor link above and ask them if their product Cambistat has been tested on Ficus.

 

[Kate Butler]

ficus tree

What you are proposing would essentially be bonsai on a grand scale; or footbinding for trees. Or maybe even tree torture. What is the upside of a project that is going to require continued and near-continuous work AND is so very contrary to the essential nature of this particular species of tree? I'm not against bonsai (the Montreal Botanical Garden has a superb collection), but would like to understand your reasoning for so restricting the trees' natural, normal growth.

 

[Ekka]

I'd like to plant the tree in a large underground steel drum to contain the roots, and prune the tree regularly. Does anyone beleive this will work, or does anyone have any suggestions?

Ficus benjamina, weeping fig ... tch tch tch.

You have taken the initial step of making a rod for your own back.

These are notoriously vigourus in both foliage and roots.

They also have buttress, surface and aerial roots. Your container wont restrain it, and even if it does it will get root bound or simply have surface roots go over the top.

If you want a 20' high tree why not just buy a species like that?

My suggestion would be to sell it again or kill it.

There's much better species out there for sure.

Have a look at this video of the ones we just cut down.

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?p=436729#post436729

 

[rnavis]

Re: How to tame a Ficus

Thanks for your replies.. I have a couple of reasons for wanting to do this..
Firstly, My wife and I really like the leave color and fullness of Bonzai'd benjiminis, that's why we bought this one. Unfortunately, we did not realize how large they would get. Silly me, did my research AFTER I bought the tree. Now we are trying to figure out how to keep the tree, and keep it small.

Also, we have an immediate need for a privacy tree, and buying something that will take years to get 15'-20' feet high is not very desireable to us. I know that people plant Ficus in Pots and bonzai them for indoor use that way, so I thought I might be able to plant this one in a pot in the ground (My steel drum idea) and keep it bonzai'd that way.

i guess my options are to

1. Try out the Steel drum in the ground idea, and monitor the root system
2. Plant the ficus in an above ground pot, and use it that way
3. Cut the ficus up and get rid of it
4. Sell it.

If I decide on 3 or 4, anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement tree?

 

[Kate Butler]

ficus as bonsai

Thanks for your replies.. I have a couple of reasons for wanting to do this..
Firstly, My wife and I really like the leave color and fullness of Bonzai'd benjiminis, that's why we bought this one. Unfortunately, we did not realize how large they would get. Silly me, did my research AFTER I bought the tree. Now we are trying to figure out how to keep the tree, and keep it small.

Also, we have an immediate need for a privacy tree, and buying something that will take years to get 15'-20' feet high is not very desireable to us. I know that people plant Ficus in Pots and bonzai them for indoor use that way, so I thought I might be able to plant this one in a pot in the ground (My steel drum idea) and keep it bonzai'd that way.

i guess my options are to

1. Try out the Steel drum in the ground idea, and monitor the root system
2. Plant the ficus in an above ground pot, and use it that way
3. Cut the ficus up and get rid of it
4. Sell it.

If I decide on 3 or 4, anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement tree?

If you opt for # 1, you will have no easy way to do the NECESSARY root pruning to maintain the sort of look that you desire.

If you go with # 2, you will be able to do the root pruning ... but why would you want to have to heave such a large specimen around to perform the necessary maintenance?

# 3 seems a waste. If planting it and letting it be it's own tree doesn't work for you. # 4 seems like a plan.

 

[Ekka]

I tried years ago to contain a ficus in a large terracotta pot.

They get root bound and the leaves start to go yellow and fall off, the canopy gets very sparse. To fix it up we had to slide it out of the pot, and I literally got a handsaw and cut the root ball up then shoved it back in, with soil of course.

It would then be good for another year or so and you'd do the same again.

In our parks we have a lot of these for the shade and they're great for that. One park in particular (Southbank) has an avenue of large ficus. They are healthy and contained in huge cement garden things. But they're way bigger than 20' too.

So the problem is if you build a good in ground container slightly elevated say 2' above ground too you will have a lot of pruning and canopy work. Now these sucker up at cuts even if you make good target cuts. It will indeed be a challenge and a lot of work but possible.

Eventually the branches will get larger in dia and those cuts will end up large and ugly, you'll end up with some bonzaid looking totem pole sort of thing, big fat branches and little foliage.

Over here LillyPillys (syzigium) are often used instead, be careful though coz there's about 50 varieties of them and some are just as bad. The leaf is near identical but they aren't as wild to control.

Anyway, I attached a pic of what you might want to do.

 

[Ekka]

Here's a pic of some ficus tree down the road and their root system.