Since Ficus trees are tropical trees they need warmth from winter cold. I am in zone 6b so they definitely need warmth. I have a greenhouse that I plan to house all my tropical trees in. Do Ficus have a "dormancy period" (so to speak) even though they are tropical? When I had them in my basement (67°F) under many high-powered florescent lights they seemed to slow down growth. They will be in a greenhouse this winter not the basement.

I plan to keep the greenhouse warm (heated). Should I feed fertilizer and water as if nothing changes?

I am a first time greenhouse grower. I know basically nothing on greenhouses now. I am a horticulture student and soon I may learn some great info on greenhouse management. But until then I need some advice.

Thank you,
Gardener Guy

It makes very good sense to link your nutritional supplementation to your watering frequency. If you were fertilizing at a low dose every 3rd or 4th time you watered, your soil drains well, and you're watering so at least 10-15% of the total volume of water applied exits the drain every time you water, you can probably continue that regimen, or lighten up on it just a little. The reason is, plants will use less water when they are not growing robustly, so you will actually be applying fertilizer less frequently, which means they will be getting less.

OTOH, if you were fertilizing on a schedule, say once every 2 weeks, it's probably not appropriate to adhere to the same regimen. The reason, of course, is you will be supplying the same amount of fertilizer as when the plant was growing robustly, while the plant gets watered less and uses less [fertilizer]. In this case, the strength of the dose would need to be reduced, or the interval between applications increased, to be as close as possible to ideal fertility levels.

Light levels and temperatures always play significant roles in determining what sort of fertility levels are appropriate.

Al

Thank you Al. I am using regular bonsai soil. My hopes are to have the trunks thicken considerably; thicken enough so that they fuse at the base. The greenhouse is going to be heated hopefully in a way to keep day time temps under 90°f and night time temps above 55°f. Here is a Picture of the Ficus tree:

Pic:

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Style last seen in first week of September.

Style is new and hope is to get a nice apex to form.
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Gardener Guy

The orientation of the trunks (that you pulled down) in the second picture doesn't look natural to me. You have the trunks doing a branch's job, and have (in appearance) sort of trumped the plants normal negative geotropism. I'm pretty sure you did that because you lacked branches and felt you needed to fill in the space - yes?

I think a better way to approach what you're trying to achieve is leave the trunks more upright - like in the first picture, get the plant into full sun in late May/early Jun to build energy reserves (do you have lights indoors?), then cut the planting back hard in late Jun/early Jul. This will undoubtedly produce branching where it's needed as the trees back-bud. You can then use branches for the branch's job.

Just my take - YMMV. ;o)

Al

I am going to cut this guy back hard. I wanted to spread out the trunks so once it is cut back the trunks are not in a tight mass because I plan thicken them up. I know it looks kinds of awkward now but if you could picture it later after a large trunk chop and new growth it will look really great.

Here is just a quick mock-up of what the trunk chop might look like:

Thanks Al. All of your advice helps me out big time.

Thanks again,

Gardener Guy