Short answer: anyway you want. I want mine short and bushy (easier picking) so I force branching at about 12". If you want a tree shape, develop the trunk and the force branching at the height you want. Some varieties branch easily, and others only want to grow a single shoot straight up for miles. Since the main crop comes on the new wood, pruning heavily doesn't preclude having fruit.

Good going! (on getting the cuttings started) Your alii is no different than any of the other tropical Ficus in how it responds to pruning. You are doing the right thing by pruning the basal sprouts that form at soil level or just below, if you want a tree with a straight stem. Allow the plants main leader to continue to grow until the plant is about the height you want it, or a straight trunk will be difficult. I wouldn't prune any branches off the main stem that occur higher than an inch or two above the soil. These branches will feed, strengthen, and fatten the trunk as it grows. You will be removing all or some of them later, but scars on your tree should heal quickly, so you can allow them to get at least twice as thick as a pencil before you remove them.

The tree will want to grow vertically for awhile before sending out lateral branches, which is fine. As branching occurs, just keep it pruned to an appropriate length. each time you prune growing branch tips, it will force more branching behind the pruning cuts. Limit your pruning to eliminating potential crossing or inwardly growing branches and just keeping branches from getting too long for the first couple of years until the plants have a strong root system. On good roots, they'll tolerate very hard pruning.

Best time to prune is about the time you move them outdoors (I hope you are going to kick 'em out of the house for the summer) which is likely around mid-May where you are. Whenever nights are reliably above 50-55* F. is fine, unless you want to move them in & out as temps threaten to drop below 55*. In this plant, chill damages the photosynthetic mechanism - even short exposure to chill causes the [plant to use the ability to make food and it may take several days to return to normal.

Your tree will appreciate an occasional dose of fertilizer formulated for tomatoes, if you can find one that's soluble or timed-release. It (the fertilizer) will have a low first # (N) & will help the tree develop shorter internodes, smaller leaves, and stronger branches. It also reduces the weak, succulent growth so attractive to insects. Soil should drain quickly & hold plenty of air. I can help you make a good soil for your plant if you would like something better than "from a bag".

Take care.

Al

PS Try growing some with straight trunks & a couple with some lazy movement in the trunk. I bet you find those with movement much more interesting.

'scuse the typos, please. This part should have read: In this plant, chill damages the photosynthetic mechanism - even short exposure to chill causes the plant to lose the ability to make food and it may take several days to return to normal.

Al

Thanks pitangadiego, I did not think about fruit - I have never seen one of these bearing... but of course it makes sense!....simply never thought about it.

Whoops, I guess I should leave the offshoots alone for a while - I have been clipping them off. Right now each plant looks like a single stem with leaves. Have I handicapped them? And yes Al, I do kick the big tree outside for the summer. Maybe with the right fertilizer now it will step things up a little - thank you! And also I would be VERY interested in your recipe for soil. I mixed my own batch for my gardenias (in pots - this climate I bring them inside in winter)and finally stopped losing them and they grow like crazy. I will take some pics of the ficus babies ... just need to figure out how to post.Thank you both for the great information!.

HELP!!! I have an older Alii that has never been pruned. It is tall and leggy, spends warmer months outside and comes into a sunroom for the winter. Shape is a mess, leaves are thick and leathery. How and when should I start pruning now to make it to look like the ones I see online? When it was given to me, it was a 3 foot trunk with a few short stumps protruding from the top in dead soil, and it looked like it was neglected and in bad shape. I repotted into good soil and now it is about 11 feet tall and rangy - not attractive. I never knew what it was or how it was supposed to look. How can I get the dense foliage and the nice shape? I read tapia's comments and will add tomato fertilizer. We're moving into winter and It's gotten chilled a lot this week but would have to top it to bring it into the house. Sunroom is not insulated, gets into the 40's in the room at night but nothing gets frost damage - protected from the wind.

It's rather out-of-bounds, but not as bad as I expected from your commentary. Something of note - your alii won't go dormant and it won't be able to carry on any notable degree of photosynthesis at the low temps you described in the sunroom. Under conditions like that, the plant will be relying primarily on it's stored energy reserves, which is a finite resource. It's sort of like a light that runs either on electricity or battery power. Eliminate the source of electricity and the light switches to battery power, but in this comparison, there swill be no electricity/photosynthesis for a prolonged period. Should the plant use all its reserve energy, the plant will be unable to maintain viability - the spark of life.

That said, IF you have more than a year's experience over-wintering the plant in a cool spot to add to your level of confidence about doing so, and the plant's vitality level isn't notably lower than in years past years, there's no obligation to act on my advice.

Something else of note - I'm always searching for strategies which will improve my proficiency as a container grower/bonsai practitioner. This thread is 14 years old, so I've learned some things between the point in time when this thread was active and now. One of those things is, the best time to repot ficus or prune it hard (other than the hardy fig Ficus carica) is in June about 2 weeks before the summer solstice. The trees stored energy levels will have recovered from annual lows which occur in early spring (a poor time to repot most houseplants because their stored energy levels are so low), and photosynthesizing/ food-making ability will be peaking when days are longest and light most intense due to the proximity of earth to the sun. The other is, I have discovered Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer, which I use for nearly everything I grow. When I was using Miracle-Gro fertilizers, I was always forced to supplement them with products that filled the nutrient void created by the fact MG fertilizers do not contain all the essential nutrients plants assimilate via the root pathway. There are many other reasons I use it as well, but I won't go into it unless you have interest.

I'm not sure how much effort you want to devote to becoming more proficient at caring for your trees, but these links will provide some very useful information.

Overview of Good Growing Practices

Caring for Ficus in Containers

Long Term Care of Trees in Containers

Al