Hi! My friend has had this tree for 4 years, in the same spot. Lately it has been dropping stems. The leaves are a bit lighter but I doesn't seem like just a natural dropping off. The 'healthy' stems are also a bit droopier than usual. Thanks for your help ( photo / image / picture from catay5's Garden )
If it has been in the same spot then it has probably been in the same soil for the same length of time? It obviously isn't happy at the moment so it could be that changing the soil and perhaps giving it a bigger pot will help it.
It also looks sun/light starved to me. That's a schefflera, isn't it? They are usually pretty bushy. This one looks like a tall lean stranger. He almost looks like he could use a cane. If your friend has a spot with considerably more light, I would repot in fresh soil, hack it back & move it to a sunnier spot.
Agreed, Schefflera, these grow out in the sun in the ground in FL. It looks like this tree may soon be too tall to fit in the house? To be specific, these are compound leaves, consisting of petioles (the stem part) and leaflets. Each petiole with its' leaflets is one leaf. This is a type of tree that could grow side branches, but has not started to yet.
Bluntly, that would be to chop part of it off. The removed part can be propagated. The remaining trunk should then be inspired to grow side branches, though there are no guarantees. I was thinking that too, asking about if it's threatening to hit the ceiling. How long has your plant been in the same soil, Ronni?
Hi Ronni & purpleinopp, I know it is a risk to chop a plant back by about half, but I have always had good luck with it. It is kind of like chopping back your hair when it has become too long and stringy with split ends, etc. It tends to give plants (& hair) a new lease of life. I recently did it with a dracaena. It was 6 feet tall with a tuft of leaves at the tippy top. I cut it back to 3 feet, so I just had a 3 foot stem without benefit of leaves in a pot until the new growth started. It now has a thick bushy top & looks much happier. Giving the plant adequate light is always a good thing.
Just a thought here... Check it for scale insects. Little brown bumps on the leaves, and a sticky feel on leaves. I had one of these once, a big one that was good for years and then all the sudden it had a scale infestation.
I would cut it down a bit too. Schefflera is one plant that seems to do better when disasters follow it. Like getting blown off the porch and almost being flattened when backing over it with a car. Among other things. It always did better afterward. Hard to kill these plants but looks like this one needs more sun.
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply I thought there was any risk to the plant, just that one can't precisely predict plants' response, shape it will take. No Scheff has ever been killed by cutting part of it off, assuming the trunk/stump wasn't ill to begin with. Something will continue to grow from it, in some direction. A Dracaena is 'programmed' to produce foliage only at the ends/tips of the stems/trunks. A Scheff can be a branching thing, shaped more like an apple, oak, maple tree. Ronni, about 2 years is as long as I would let any plant go w/o repotting. Most get it done when they go back outside for spring/summer (after recovering a little vigor from spending winter in less than optimal light if necessary.) Mart, sounds like a forced repotting (and pruning) happened! Kay, Scheffs can definitely get scale, so sorry to hear about your plant! That's a tough pest to battle.
