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| so i see there are several different views on how to take care of this plant and was wondering how some of you would do it. i would like to make the plant more up right would you put wire on it to shape it or is that bad? also pruning i have no ideas how to select the leaves and i am very scared i will clip the wrong one. another is i saw on a website that you have to clean the roots off and comb them every 4 months??? i am kinda lost and there is very little info on the web or in the introductory books on my specific plant. Please help i love my plant. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by gnome_in_pa Zone 6 (My Page) on Sat, Feb 17, 07 at 16:09
| "i saw on a website that you have to clean the roots off and comb them every 4 months???" I would not consider re-potting anywhere near this often. For now simply concentrate on keeping it healthy. This plant requires unusual pruning techniques in order to promote ramification which can be difficult to achieve with this species. It has a strong tendency to simply grow upright with little or no branching. "also pruning i have no ideas how to select the leaves and i am very scared i will clip the wrong one." Are you aware that that this plant has compound leaves? Meaning that what might be mistaken as a leaf is actually only part of the true leaf. The entire cluster is actually one leaf. If the plant is healthy you can promote ramification by removing the leaves by cutting through the stem, leaving the stub in place. The terminal bud must then be removed. Norm |
Here is a link that might be useful: Schefflera
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| Combing refers to removing a plant from its nursery pot, and if the roots have become tangled, you comb them out with your fingers (or a root hook) very carefully as you loosen and remove the old soil. It often refers to a much larger and more established plant than what I believe you have, and you would not really need to comb out those roots, but very carefully separate them out to repot them as laterally and evenly around the trunk (vs all on one side) as possible without tearing or breaking them by forcing them. It's all done gradually, over time. There's no such thing as clipping the wrong leaf - YOU decide what style you want, and make it happen. However, from your description, the stems have not even hardened into wood yet (why they're not upright) so you have a long way to go before even thinking about bonsai-ing it. |
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- Posted by hawaiianumbrella (My Page) on Sat, Feb 17, 07 at 22:03
| oh thankyou for repling to me. well its a 5 year old tree and the main branch or trunk of the plant is very diagonal like about a 45 degree angle and was hoping to maybe make it curve. i am sorry if i sound like i don't know much i am very new to this all and have no idea how to go about this plant. I was wondering what kind of unusual pruning techniques this plant requires. thanks so much again |
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| No tree 'requires' unusual (?) pruning techniques, but if you want to make a straight trunk or branch curve, the most common method is to wrap annealed copper wire or aluminum wire of the appropriate gauge. This is not something you want to do yet, as your plant's not ready for it, and you need to do some reading and experimenting on branches of plants you don't care about before doing it to your tree. In other words there are right ways and wrong ones. Most books on bonsai will have graphics to show you how it's done, though some explain it better than others (of course). |
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