what is your plan with this thing.. will it be going on mother earth.. or remain potted forever???

as you can see here.. they are not small plants for pots: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Podocarpus+Gracilior&iax=images&ia=images

the potential lifespan for this conifer.. is counted in decades ... i suspect you have some instant gratification issues with wanting to prune it.. to shape it ... whats the hurry ...

lets figure out why it lost its leaves previously ... how you can do better ... and lets leave the pruning shears in the house for a year or two ... and best of all ... lets figure out how to plant it in mother earth.. or how to properly get you set up with it living in a pot long term ...

more facts please

ken

That's just the way that they grow - they are rather weedy. If you plant it in the ground it will soon be so thick that you won't see the trunk. You can hack these back pretty aggressively - they are often used for hedging. I've also seen them grown in large pots, albeit much larger than the one that it is in now.

Thanks for the replies.

I am planning to keep the plants in pots. I have five of them, only this one grew like this. Others have tall vertical tree shape.

And only this one had leaves fallen out. The leaves turned brown but the branches were green, so according to what I read, I purchased Calcium, Magnesium, And Iron Plant Supplement and it seemed to have worked. That was in August. No leaves have turned brown after some use, but also very slow and sparse new growth to fill the void, which is what worries me.

I am hoping to:

1. fill the void with new leaves.

2. keep this tree growing vertically and not horizontally

Is there anything I can do now, or just wait for Spring time? Thanks!