Ficus Trees

AZBermudaman – posted 22 May 2007 09:35

Yeah yeah – I know – a little off topic – but there are a lot of knowledgable people in here so I want to get their input.

I live in Scottsdale AZ – this past winter we had a bad cold snap which may have killed my 4 large Ficus trees.

They’re stil brown. One has some sprouts about 6″ off the ground and that’s it. I’ve deep watered them and threw down some triple 15 just to try to help them recover. Nadda…..

Scraping the branches reveals no green underneath right down to the main trunk – and these things are about 8 – 10″ across…

Before I rip them out – have I given them enough time? Anything else I should try?

They’re nice trees – I hate to remove them if there’s still a chance to get them back…

tommy – posted 28 May 2007 21:05

I have never seen ficus killed completely from cold, but that was one mean cold snap, so I guess its possible. The things you have done are good, and I would also hire a tree crew to prune them correctly……and they will also be able to tell you if the tree’s have a chance for survival.

jr – posted 30 May 2007 19:05

Give them time, but don’t be doing silly things like fertilizing or pruning them. If they are alive but still dormant, then they aren’t picking up that fertilizer anyway and you wasted it. As for pruning, that is a wasted effort until you see whether they are alive or not and can determine to what extent, if any, that die back has occurred in the limbs. The most important thing is making sure they get plenty of water when they have suffered severe stress like that. But do not hire some “tree crew” and have them go hacking at the trees. Hire an ISA certified arborist, like myself, to look at them. He or she can determine whether its alive or not, and what specifically you should be doing.