Chop! Most definitely. But the timing is a bit iffy although you probably still have a month before you need to bring it indoors?

As to where to cut, would you mind taking another photo from the side?

Pagan

Me too, off with its head, and arms! It should force dormant buds to sprout from the old leaf scars. That will in a short while make it more bushy and balanced so make sure you leave some of those when you decide where to cut. It could also induce it to flower. Some more pix from different angles as requested by Pagan will determine the best places to cut.

Gill

Thanks already! Here are a couple more photos...I've been putting this off partially because it branched so early from the base. If I were to cut those, the scars would be forever obvious, right?

I don't ever take them indoors here - I'll bring them in on freezing nights, but other than that they stay out. They don't really grow from December-February though, and most years lose all their leaves.

A suggestion you may want to try -- I live in India so we have intense sun and the branches bend quite often.

What i do is rotate the pot....ie it will always bend towards the sun, so rotatw the pot to move the bent branches away from the sun and it will try and grow straight on its own in few days.....

If they are vey long and there is a chance they might break, give a bit of support and push th pot so that the leaves on the branch face away from the sun...works for me

Also, everything I read suggests rotating adenium regularly. After chopping, maybe rotating weekly would help the plant re-grow in a more balanced manner.

Personally I don't think it will recover enough with any amount of rotating unless the current branches are severely pruned. Just my opinion.

I would go for it. Also I agree with where to do the cutting, with the 'greens' as Pagan says, and the regular rotating, afterwards of course.

Gill

Yes - that is what I meant. Probably too far gone to just rotate.

Thanks all - I did prune it, not quite as severely as suggested, but it's a whole lot smaller! The branches sprung back to near vertical once the extra weight was removed, so with a little tug on the root ball and shake of the pot it is pointed upwards again.

Glad that the branches came up, Daniel. Should be a nice tree once filled out.

Definitely makes a difference if it gets sun from 360 degrees to keep it balanced all around. If not not, once a week 180 degree turn helps.

Recently visited a gentleman's home in Maui and he used to sell Adeniums. He had some exquisite older specimens at least 4' tall with thick trunks. Saw one in the ground very much the same.

Rick

I have buds forming just below all of the cuts. Do y'all pinch any of these off, or let them all form branches? I have several on each branch tip...some have >10.

On all my plants, I usually only leave a bifurcation (two branches at any intersection). I'd pick the two that are biggest or in the best position and remove the others, personally.

It all depends on what kind of look you are trying to achieve when the plant has developed even more. Ten plus at one branch tip does sound a lot...but it also depends on how they're placed. Could you post a few pix of the plant and the buds too?

Gill

train her to become cascade, since its going down on its own the stems are already trained to bent.