Hey All, I recently bought a F. Benjamina variegata, it's about 12-16inches tall, depending on which of the 7 plants I'm looking at in the pot. My question is, is it to late in the year to remove it from its pot and separate these individual plants? I want to take the biggest 2 trunks and place them in separate pots and take the other 5 and try my hand at binding them together to form one larger plant. Would make a good project for this weekend, looking for any advice, tips, etc. I'm in NY, NY if that helps determine if I should do this now or wait til early summer 2012. Thanks!
I think it would depend mostly on how much root growth the individual plants have. If you want to braid the smaller ones together, it should be done while they are young and still very flexible. No doubt some branches will have to be removed, but you need to leave enough to maintain good health. But each stem should have a good healthy root system to start with. Take it out of the pot and try to see if you can tell whether they're all well rooted. You may find the smaller ones have less root, and perhaps should wait for spring. The larger two may be ok to remove now, which would leave more room for root growth on the smaller ones. Assuming good roots, there's no reason you can't separate them now, but don't expect a lot of new growth until spring, when the light levels increase, unless you can put them under grow lights. Another tip, if you plan to braid the trunks. Do it just before you would ordinarily water them, because the stems will be more flexible when dry than they will be freshly full of water.
