You can cut it right back, depending on how small you want it. Indoors they tend to get leggy/spindly due to low light. Also light from one side will cause more growth in that direction. Extra light will help, as will regularly turning to promote growth all around to keep it a more balanced plant.

....... what Dave said.

A picture story:

A guy wrote to me from NY or Boston, I forget, distraught because he had killed his GF's scheff while she was out of town, and asked if it could be resurrected. I ended up sending him the tree just before she returned. The image immediately above is her with the tree, which has back-budded prolifically.

I've never had difficulty getting scheffs to back-bud or fill out.

Al

Thank you everyone for the tips! I really appreciate all of them

Just coming back to provide an update in case anyone else finds this post useful. I trimmed my plant back as suggested and it worked wonders. I cut quite a lot off to get it back to a more rounded shape and very quickly I could start to see lots of new growth. I also moved it across the room to wear it gets more sunlight. It's been 7 months now and it's very healthy and growing all the time.

Thanks again for the great advice!

Thanks for the update.

tj

Deb - As you can see, regular pruning works to keep your plant full and compact, but the best time to prune is just before the end of spring (according to the calendar - not Mother Nature's whims). IOW - just before the summer solstice. This is ideal for 2 reasons. 1) Pruning in late spring allows you to remove ALL leggy growth that occurred over winter. With the lanky growth gone, you're assured the tree will be as full and compact as possible, within limits imposed by cultural conditions. As things are now, you're probably going to keep the lanky growth that occurred over-winter/ the last 7 months. Yes? 2) Your scheff will respond to heavy pruning with far more enthusiasm if you prune hard when the plant has a lot of reserve energy and it's current photosynthesizing ability is about to peak, which occurs when days are longest and light most intense, which is at the summer solstice.

The plant then, would be to retain all growth that occurs in the summer months,and you would remove the following year what the tree puts on, say, after the end of Sep (it depends on where you live). Keep in mind that short internodes (space between leaf attachment points) affects the density/ ramification of leaf/branch density forever when it comes to back-budding.

This strategy really is essential to anyone working toward a tree that's all it can be, and works great for other trees we commonly grow indoors.

I'm glad you got your tree turned around. It bet it makes you feel like a better nurturer, too.

Al