A few months ago I posted (here) about the two ficus microcarpa plants I picked up at the local Walmart. I have been pontificating the direction this one needs to take. After the initial repotting I chopped the top off (and successfully rooted it), but otherwise have just been letting it grow out. It looks pretty healthy and I figured it was time to work on it a bit more.

Recently I was thinking that I would put some sphagnum moss around the base of the trunk and try to encourage some aerial roots as I had just done with my willow leaf ficus. It already had a couple thick aerial roots at the base that I had left initially, since there were hardly any roots whatsoever on the plant so I figured why not.

I pulled it out of the pot to check the root system and it had grown tremendously. Don’t need the aerial roots to support the tree now.

I had forgotten about the wide base flair when I initially repotted it. That sealed the deal about cutting back those aerials.

So the aerial roots were pruned off and the roots were given a slight trim before repotting. I also cut back the top a bit in order to simulate some backbudding.

This tree is a conundrum. I would like to reduce it further to eliminate the remainder of the generic S shape, but I’m not sure of how short I should take it.

The red and yellow lines are a couple thoughts. Opinions and advice are welcome! 🙂