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Hi everyone,

I would like to seek some advise on how to prune and re-shape this ficus. Long story short, I got this ficus from a house I was working on last week, it had been sold and the builder was demolishing the whole backyard to develop. This tree was sitting outside in a garden bed on the ground and was overgrown up to about 1m, with a tap root in the ground. I had cut the tap root off and pruned just over half the growth. It's starting to lose some of its leaves now due to the change of the environments it's in but I would like to know if I should re pot it first and then prune it or cut more off and the re pot it later in the year. I would like to achieve a round mushroom like shape canopy, so I was thinking to wire the branches outwards but I may have trouble as they are pretty thick, almost 1cm. I'm pretty sure its a ficus ginseng. Any advice would be much appreciated to get this guy back into good shape and health.

Kurt,

Yes, it could become a bonsai, but it is going to take time. The main branches are too leggy to be of any use, and you should chop the whole tree down to the first branching and start all over again.
It's not difficult with a ficus, but it takes time. Years, in fact.

Why do you think it needs to be repotted? It's gone through enough trauma. I would just leave it where it is and let it adjust.

I agree with Clicio - the trunks are far too long. Do some internet searching on bonsai proportions and study photos online (focus on ones that look very impressive).

You should also reduce the number of main branches from three to two (you want branches to divide into 2). I would remove the one on the right in your photos, but a different angle might change my decision on that..

Since it's recently removed from the yard, I would repot without delay. I would just remove what appears to be nursery mix and plant into pure Akadama or DE or other similar course granular substrate. And then I would chop all the way down to here roughly (see photo.) I dont see a need to chop it to a single trunk or even just two for that matter. I can see this as a banyan style tree, which is the natural growth habit for many ficus. Also, the two trunks on left originate from same location and the one on the left slightly lower. So you already meeting "rules of two," if you want to adhere to rules; and because of their location you ahould not get abnormal swelling or inverse taper at their locations. Just water as the new soil dries out and place in a fairly sunny location. It will morw than likely back bud all over the place. You will have the mushroom foilage you desire after some time. Cheers and good luck with your bonsai!

Not really much of a sketch artist, but it was fun to do and it kind of gives you an idea of where I was going. You could add aerial roots, and still go shorter on top and wider on both sides, or push the asymmetry further to either side.