I bought a pachira aquatica with two trunks twisted around one another. Unfortunately (to increase the foliage, I presume) the two trunks were cut rather abruptly at the top and now there are several shoots that are sort of taking the place of the trunk. I have started to braid them again but I am afraid that once this plant has grown, its trunk will look odd, having been cut off then restarted. Any advice as to what to do? If a picture would help I'll post one, I can't right now but I probably will within the next three days. Thanks PS. I really like this plant and I was curious as to how it could be propagated. I took a couple of leaves and their stems and planted them in the hopes that they'll develop roots but it's too early to check so I'm not sure how well it will work. Any advice is appreciated.
It will take years for any one of the new shoots to blend in enough with the original trunk. You definitely don't want several new trunks taking the place of the one, but might not have an aesthetically pleasing alternative. The reason you have all the new shoots is because the twined trees were getting too tall beyond the twining, so they were cut off for newer growth to attract a buyer. I would probably let it continue to grow as it is, maybe cutting the weakest sprouts so that you only have two or three per original trunk. You could twine them, too, but it may be better to train them to a loose lattice style in the round at this point. An example of the lattice in the round is here in lucky bamboo form. It is a commercial site, but appears to be a Portland OR florist. Good luck.
Thank you very much for the info. That's basically what I'm doing, I loosely tied the maybe five shoots and I'm thinking of putting a ring in the center for support. Who knows? There are two or three new little shoots growing as well so I'll take your advice and prune those; maybe I'll plant them and start braiding them the right way. Again thanks for your speedy response.
