Pruning a Bonsai ficus is a must-do for all homeowners in order to ensure that their plant looks resplendent and evolves the way you want it to.
Indeed, if when we spoke of prune a ficus in general, you were told it was an optional step if you didn't want to or just didn't feel like doing it, things are different here.
A Bonsai ficus needs to be pruned at the risk of scattering and therefore inevitably giving an average best result. This is what sets this plant apart from others.
Suddenly, if you bought this type of ficus, you will not be able to miss the maintenance and therefore the pruning. But luckily, we'll help you figure it out before you get started.
Ficus Bonsai - General information
There are a whole bunch of different ficus trees on the market, each with characteristics that will look better on some people than on others. But here it is Bonsai ficus that we will talk about in more detail.
The principles to know before pruning a ficus Bonsai
First of all, before we talk about pruning a ficus Bonsai, you have to understand how it works and why if you leave the situation as it is, you will never have a result like the ones you have seen.
Indeed, a Bonsai ficus is a tree, until then, you follow us. Well, physiologically the trees are going to tend to push upwards to catch as much light as possible.
This is a completely normal reflex in the context of survival in competition with other trees. Except that here, it is not our case and on the contrary we want it to expand laterally as well.
Therefore, it is for this reason that it is necessary to prune a ficus Bonsai, it is to avoid that it thickens in height, but never in width. He does not need it under our conditions and so we will help him.
How to prune a ficus Bonsai?
Therefore, as we have just seen, the goal is to prevent your ficus from growing only in height. Therefore, this will inevitably influence the way you prune a ficus Bonsai every day.
As you can imagine, when we go to prune it, we will obviously focus on the upper part of the plant. The goal will then be to cut anything that is too high for you.
Be careful, here we are talking about small branches. For larger branches, things are different and we will also have the opportunity to talk about it later in this article. So start by cutting all the small branches and leaves.
Take your time for this operation. Use good scissors that cut well and prune a Bonsai ficus slowly until it has a shape you like. You can then do the finishing on the side.
Indeed, if we are going to concentrate mainly on the top of the plant, nothing prevents you from giving a little pruning on the side to erase defects that you would not like.
Keep in mind, however, that the goal is not to prune deeply in a part where you naturally have difficulty seeing leaves as we explained to you at the beginning of this article.
Our advice for pruning your ficus Bonsai
Pruning is an important stage in the life of your plant. It is not that complicated if you have the right technique but also the right tools.
Do not hesitate to cut large branches
Okay, now let's go over a big chunk when you want to prune a Bonsai ficus, the big branches. Indeed, pruning large branches is not something to be abused, far from it.
This leaves scars and in addition, it greatly tires the plant which must heal. Therefore, if you have to prune a Bonsai ficus and remove large branches, do so sparingly to avoid accidents.
The worst that could happen to you is to weaken the plant too much, which will then lose its leaves and could even in the worst case completely die. So be careful what you do.
Moreover, if you have to do this operation, what will generally be recommended is to use a concave forceps which will have the effect of making healing easier and faster.
But why cut a big branch when you want to prune a ficus Bonsai you will say? Well quite simply because sometimes, it happens that these branches do not grow properly and that they have to be removed to have the desired shape.
Hide the scars of Bonsai
As we have said, cutting off the large branches of your ficus Bonsai tree will leave a scar which is quite unsightly. However, when you generally want your ficus Bonsai to be aesthetic, necessarily, that swears.
Therefore, know that there is on the market a whole bunch of special ficus Bonsai mastic which will have the role of masking this scar or at least attenuating it when you look at your plant in general. For more advice, we leave you with this video.
