Ficus tree potting

[djay]

I was looking at ficus trees today. At a local nursery they have 4ft trees in 3 gal planters. I plan on having the tree indoors and obviously need to repot it. Should I pot to the same size or larger? If larger, how much larger?

BTW the nursery wants $21.99 for the trees. I've seen them at a big box store for nearly double that price. Do you think that $21.99 is reasonable? I guess that is kind of a relative question. I live on the central coast of California.

Thanks,

Djay

[David Ross]

I suggest you start small and let the tree grow into the container and its location. Ficus can be very fussy, both indoors and outdoors. They will even drop their leaves and start to "play dead" if you move them into a better location. Rather than spend a lot of money on a plant that won't survive, start small and cheap.

I have four weeping Chinese banyans (Ficus benjamina) together in a

14-inch pot on my front porch. I bought them growing together in a 1-gallon can. While I don't like the way it looks when these are braided together -- it looks freaky -- I did braid the lower portions of the trunks to keep them upright. I then hid the braid by allowing foliage to grow almost to the soil surface.

After 10 years, my trees are now about 8 feet tall. The effect is as if I had one very bushy tree rather than four.

This spring, a hummingbird built a nest where a leaf was attached to a branch. I could look down into the nest from a second-floor window. By the time the eggs hatched and the young grew enough to leave the nest, there was a real mess on the ficus and the porch.

[Frank Logullo]

My 15 year old indoor ficus is about 6 foot tall from floor and is in a pot that size. I grew it from a cutting from a coworkers plant. They are easy to propagate from cuttings and I've grown some for my kids. I don't give a lot of water, add some lawn fertilizer occasionally and take outside for a month or 2 in the summer to let the rain flush out the soil. I keep indoors in moderate light and it looks good. Frank