Obviously a Clump?

Hey everyone,



Just thought I'd get your opinions on whether or not this tree is screaming to be a clump. It's about 2 feet tall with a 5 inch trunk. It's got 4 branches coming off the trunk and jutting up into the air. Each branch only has foliage at the top of the canopy. My plans are to chop the branches back and re-work them to introduce taper and get some backbudding. What do you all think? Clump? Sumo? Anything?

(Sorry for the busy pictures!)

I think it will make a better three trunk. I'd remove the "middle" one that seems to go straight up.

A fig, right? If so, make short stumps out f the remaining three and see what develops. Not ideal material, but there may be something there.

JimLewis wrote:I think it will make a better three trunk.  I'd remove the "middle" one that seems to go straight up.  

A fig, right?  If so, make short stumps out f the remaining three and see what develops.  Not ideal material, but there may be something there.

Thanks Jim, that was my thinking as well. It's a Willow Leaf Ficus, so my current plan is to let it grow and get healthy, then wack it way back.

All the trunks lack taper and movement, boring. Cut one back to about two inches and cut the others off completely. No shortage of new shoots will follow. It could make a beautiful sumo....

Colin Lewis wrote:All the trunks lack taper and movement, boring. Cut one back to about two inches and cut the others off completely. No shortage of new shoots will follow. It could make a beautiful sumo....

That was exactly my thinking, it's got a large base for sumo. There just isn't one trunk that is in a great position to create a new future leader, and that's problematic.

You might need to tilt the tree back a little, and some sympathetic carving will be needed. But this should be easy enough.

Colin Lewis wrote:You might need to tilt the tree back a little, and some sympathetic carving will be needed. But this should be easy enough.

Wow, thank you for this Colin! I like the concept, but I'd like to avoid carving as best as possible. I don't trust exposed wood on Ficus.

'Those trunks represent a lot of time. Can the front be rotated so that all four trunks show? If grown for health as you plan, some work to promote back-budding could give you some new branching that in the long run will allow you to cut the trunks at varying lengths from say 2-4 inches and go with a sumo style.

Regards, David

if you go sumo, go with odd # of trunks... in this case 1 or 3 or wait for a 5th to pop...

i'm no traditionalist, but i do like when numbers make sense...

In Japan, an odd number. In China, even. In Wisconsin, I'm sorry shouldn't 4 be a sign of perfection?

Precarious wrote:'Those trunks represent a lot of time.  

Not really, they grow rapidly in the nurseries in Florida and those trunks are probably only five years old. They can be regarded as sacrifice trunks used to build that magnificent base.

Can we see pictures of the other three sides? There may be other options worth considering.

Precarious wrote:In Japan,  an odd number.  In China, even.  In Wisconsin, I'm sorry shouldn't 4 be a sign of perfection?

i'm no football fan, but in wisconsin the number 4 represents a great football player, but a lousy human being...
(apart from what everyone has seen on the news, i have heard some 1st hand accounts of some scum-baggery involving brent, chimura and others in the north woods )

but we digress...

yes, lets see some more sides of the tree... cool to see colin "engaged"
(man, i hate that word now)

Colin Lewis wrote:
Can we see pictures of the other three sides? There may be other options worth considering.

This is really the only other usable side. It's the "front" turned to the left a little. It only shows two trunks, and when chopped down, I could get some decent buds in this area.

I would go with Colin...carving figs is not a problem since they heal so well. You can leave the right most trunk a bit longer as future apex.

I think I'd go with me too This is a better front, you could just superimpose my earlier virtual.

Will do, I'm just waiting on some growth before I whack 'em back.

I actually think this is a better front...

Exposed a bit more trunk from under the soil: