Is all that foliage coming from one of the remaining live trunks?

For starters, next repot I would remove the two dead braids if possible-they are an excellent place for mold/fungi to start growing.

I would start pruning around summer, when the tree has plenty of energy reserves to bounce back from any pruning work done. Hopefully someone else helps you with the actual pruning!

Hi Goldstar.....the foliage is only coming from the 2 remaining trunks. Thanks for the repot advice.

Does anyone else have pruning suggestions/tips?

Thanks

it's impossible to see branches on your photo to advice on pruning.

can you take a shot from the bottom to see how the trunk is branching?

oh! if you never propagated before - just put them in water and tented in plastic in good light, but not in the sun. When you see small roots developing you can tranfer to pure perlite until they root well and start growing. then transfer into a mix.

They'll root even faster with stonger roots in amix like the 5:1:1.

I've had excellent results rooting scheffs that way.

Water roots just aren't the same as soil grown roots.

anyway, back on subject.

Water roots just aren't the same as soil grown roots. - granted.

i just did not know what OP can do or not. But i looked up his other posts - and he rooted a rubber tree and is familiar with 511 too. so no prob there.

i just like to root larger cuttings and putting them in water first lets me keep larger leaf-mass. then quickly into perlite - that gets very good roots. don't know what is it, but plants just love rooting in perlite ;). besides air it's sterile - unlike 5:1:1. helps with some sensitive to mold/fungus delicate plants.

i rooted sev scheffleras. The regular fast growing kind is very robust, roots fast. but variegated dwarf 'Trinette' is quite stubborn - took sev months, may be 3?

i also rooted Sch. 'Dazzle' - that one took 2 months to get get good roots.

Thanks for the advice, sorry for the photos (I asked the darn sun to move out of the way for my pictures and it didn't listen - haha) -- one of the few drawbacks to having a lot of windows that all face in a southern direction!

I have some gritty mix coming in next week -- once I have that I will do some trimming and attempt to root the cuttings.

Ideally, I would want a short braided trunk with a wider canopy....and I understand that to achieve this with 2 trunks, branches on one trunk will have to fan out for half of the canopy, and the other branches from the other trunk will cover the other half.

The only thing I am not clear is is where to cut a stem to encourage branching; do I cut right above where the leaves start to fan out from the center of the stem (where there is a slight bulge?)

I'll attach some photos once I do some pruning....

The problem with these is they won't naturally branch indoors.

A ficus Benjamina would probably do what you want on its own with little pruning.

this, however, you have to force it to make every single branch. It'll just grow straight up. Then you'd need to cut it back. That'll usually make two branches. Then you'd need to prune both of those branches to make them branch as well, as so on.

This type of scheff is commonly grown as a hedge or bush in Florida. That seems to be how they naturally want to grow.

Yours, kind of being forced into a tree, makes it a little awkward.

Perosnally, if chop it down low and put it outside for the summer when temps allow.

oh, they have good old trunks, they'll brunch indoors in southern window. the problem is that on 2 trunks they might brunch into each other - interfering, crossing.

and then they'll need to be removed, as branches should not be crossing. so it's not that straight-forward. that's why i thought of layering them like japanese do with their pines. i'll get a pic for you - this way 2 crowns will not interfere with each other.

the further away 2 cuts are the closer 'the fans' can be together. aesthetically it looks better when they overlap in visual plane, but are separate (like 2 central fans in the pic).

As I said, yes they'll put out probably two branches each if they are chopped back.

we can agree on that.

But what I was saying is, those two branches will also need to be pruned to make branches and so forth.

If you just chop it back back leave it, you'll have two branches that'll grow straight up or off to an angle. But they won't branch off unless force to do so.

agreed.

this is a very vigorous plant in general - so it'll need to be chopped regularly :). and trunks being so close - the branches will constantly cross and will need to be pruned accordingly, etc. But hey, it's fun ;), no? i prune my calamondin trees 3 times a year - i learned a lot about pruning in the process :)))). and scheffs are much easier for sure, more orderly at least.

"do I cut right above where the leaves start to fan out from the center of the stem (where there is a slight bulge?)"

what do you mean?

the leaves fan out at the growing tip. when you cut just a bit at the very growing tip it's called a pinch - it slows down growth usually, but it won't make it branch.

and you need the top 4" cutting for rooting, so don't pinch it yet.

a pic is worth 100 words. give me the pic i'll show you the cut :). but we need to see the main trunk and how the leaves are positioned.

Hi Petrushka....I also have a Calamondin! I already pruned some of its leggy branches and it is starting to grow and branch out nicely.

I'll try and get some better photos of the Schefflera later today.

oh! it's not much better ;(..except for 2nd pic where i can see lower portion of the trunk with 2 baby-branches and the thick branch shooting right.

see, two 'canopies' overlay on pics and it's impossible to say which is which and how the branches are growing and where leaves belong.

let's take it one at a time then + some questions and even drawings?

i isolated a part of the pic and outlined the trunks - what i see of them.

the trunk with 2 baby branches in fornt is easier- let's examine it first.

there is a dead stub at the top? - trim that flat.

then we need to trim that trunk leaning right to 2-3 good strong leaves - which i can't see, so can't draw where to cut. how many leaves are on that branch, how long is it? are there any more branchings on it?

you see that top red single line going off it? - i can't figure out what's there.

is that branching or leaf stem? or does it belong to the 2nd trunk behind it? or it's just bending of the trunk?

....you see why i am having problems :)))

now the 2nd trunk behind it: i see a good branch there. i put dotted lines to indicate that it's behind, not visible. is it a straight branch with sev leaves? how long is it?

it looks good to me, leave it. how does the main trunk continue after that? can't see at all. same q: does it branch more? how many leaves on it? how long is it from the 1st outlined branch? same applies: if it does not branch, we need to trim that trunk to 2-3 good strong leaves - which i can't see, so can't draw where to cut.

actually, it would be much faster if you could make a little drawing of branching trunks with little leaf-petiole-stubs in diff color from sev sides: front, side, top. make it with a diff color for each of the 2 trunks, and 3rd color for leaf-petioles. or make sep drawings - 1 trunk at a time - but then we won't see how branches cross..

sorry, but without this kind of info it's impossible to cut well.

the general guideline you prolly know anyway, since you prune calamondins.

but if you want specifics, you need to give us good data.

one more thought ;). since it would be nice to root the cut-off tips (about 6") from 2 main straight trunks - you can do just that and not worry whether you'll have 2-3 bottom leaves left on the branch - they should sprout regardless.

the main consideration then would be how the 2 cuts relate to each other - same level or not, close to other branches or not.

Good morning.....I did some interior pruning a few days back to free up the canopy and to give the new growth some room. I probably removed about 1/3 of the leaves. The plant is growing vigorously right now. I am going to let it grow for another month and then do some root pruning. I may also do some additional pruning up top to take cuttings and encourage more back budding down the 2 trunks. My understanding is the only way to get a branch to further branch/ramify is to prune the top growth. Is this correct?