Today is the day I prune my large Golden Gate Ficus specimen. Yesterday, I decided to work on my medium cutting but the focus shifts to the large specimen. The pruning process is exactly the same. The only difference is the tree. This tree is huge and has a lot of leaves that could be pruned off.
Current Condition
My large Golden Gate Ficus bonsai has been putting out new sets of leaves every few weeks. Some of these leaves have grown in and far exceeded the size of the neighboring leaves. Another portion of these leaves grew in in awkward positions that don’t fit the design of the tree. These are the leaves that I will be focusing on removing. I am in the process of letting this tree grow freely so that the branches and trunk thicken up. Because of this, I want to prune as little as possible. However, these leaves must be removed since they disrupt the beauty of this bonsai.
How to Prune a Large Golden Gate Ficus
Just like yesterday, I pulled out my turntable, pruning shears, and bonsai tree. After placing the tree on the turntable, I rotated the tree in circles a few times and identified leaves that I wanted to prune off. Then, I started to snip off leaves one by one slowly going around the tree. I removed quite a few leaves and finally decided to be done. This process is completely up to personal preference and there are no right or wrong answers. There are many styling guides and suggestions online that give recommendations on what to do. However, at the end of the day, you can do anything you want with your bonsai tree. Check out the video below to see me prune my large Golden Gate Ficus.
It’s important to note, when pruning any ficus tree there is a danger of poisonous sap. A white sap will emerge from where ever you cut the tree. This sap will cover the wound site acting like a scab. Be very careful not do get this sap into your eyes or mouth. Additionally, be extremely careful that no pets or animals ingest this sap. This sap is poisonous and should be handled with caution. That being said, it is very easy to avoid getting any sap on your skin or clothes when you use cutting shears. This is just something you should keep in the back of your head.
Final Results
From a distance, you can’t even tell that anything was pruned off this tree. Only when you get really close to the tree can you notice that anything was pruned. This is partially because the canopy is very dense and partially because I only removed a small number of leaves. Going into the fall and winter months, this trees growth starts to slow down. I prefer to do heavy pruning in the spring because it grows new sets of leaves extremely quickly. I did a light pruning of only the over-sized and awkwardly placed leaves to allow the plant to continue to grow freely.
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