Beginner Gardening: How do you prune a schefflera (umbrella plant)?, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
Not trying to dodge any effort, I think the course you need to take is pretty well outlined above, starting with my posts on 9/14/10. I think timing is a little off though. A fell repotting would have been better for you from mid-Jun to early Aug. Have the plants been kept outdoors? How much time do you have until night temps start regularly dipping below 50*? If you do a repot now, would you be willing to move them in and outdoors as temperatures allow until temperatures no longer allow?

It might be better to wait, if you think the plants are in no immediate jeopardy of dying, until next Jun, & then jump right on it. That would give you plenty of time to gather the ingredients to make (if you're up for it) a good soil and go about things in a leisurely yet still organized way.

You could also cut the bottom 1/3 of the roots off with a pruning saw & score the sides of the root mass with a utility knife, then return the plant to the same (or even better - a slightly larger) pot, making up for lost roots and soil with a fresh soil similar to what they're in now. This will give them what appears to be a 'boost', but what will actually be the result of you easing the limiting effect that tight roots have on growth and vitality somewhat, and allowing the plant to grow at something a little closer to its genetic potential.

We can never make plants grow at anything greater than the genetic potential with which they are programmed. All we can do is try to minimize the effects of the cultural limitations that pull the plant up short of this potential. Poor soils, poor light, poor nutritional supplementation, plus a host of other cultural influences need to be made as close to perfect as possible if we are to expect our plants to perform at anywhere near their potential.

This last wasn't necessarily aimed at you or anyone in particular. I added it simply because I had the opportunity, and because it's a good thing to understand that when we simply 'pot up', the improved growth and vitality we see soon after isn't a growth spurt. We've simply partially reduced the limiting effects of tight roots so the plant is able to temporarily grow a little closer to it's potential. Had we been diligent in properly repotting the plant on a regular basis, it would have already been growing at or near its potential (within the limits of other potentially limiting cultural factors) all along and the change in growth rate/vitality at repot time would be less apparent.

Al