Hello All I have a braided pachira aquaticus, she is about 8ft. tall and in general is doing really well. My question regards pruning. During this summer new shoots have started to grow from the lower end of the trunks close to the soil. There are now around 5 of these offshoots and they are growing like crazy. Consequently growth higher up the plant has significantly slowed. Is it advisable to prune these new growths off and if so what is the safest method of doing so? as above all I do not want to damage the plant in any way, i've had her over a year now and am very attached to it. She is called Carmens btw! Any help would be very much appreciated. Thankyou
While it doesn't hurt anything to remove the shoots, they may be programmed to act as 'replacements' for the older ones (I'm not sure how long they're good for), but why not try removing the 2-3 that you least want (where they are) and see what happens.
pruning pachiras without infection risk hi Rima! G-man owns and loves (deeply!) a rather beautiful Pachira plaited collective (Carmens)and it seems that her desire for new growth has led her to produce a multitudinous bounty of new shoots from her main trunk. As he described in fact. it seems to me that, simply, her main canopy is now overcrowded and competing for the available light - which is good light btw. So wisely she is now shooting in an area where light is plentiful and reassigning her main energies to this area. The main concern is how to prune without introducing infection and compromising her health. As the child of mad successful gardeners, an ex microbiologist and the erwstwhile partner of G-man (who hugged, stroked and spoke to Carmens the first time i visited his flat, which naturally endeared him to me...) I am particularly concerned about the infection risk of pruning! she has has a few curly leaves which in my experience, could be viral in origin. so the burning qu's are: 1/ how to prune without introducing infection? bacterial most probably? 2/ are curly leaves in pachiras a sign of viral infection? if so, the best control? 3/do we actually know if pruning shoots from the artificially created plaited "trunk" is good for the overall plant? all input eagerly awaited! binkxxx ps i carried a new pachira home in a supermarket bag 3 months ago and she is now 5.5 feet high and too heavy to carry. go my beauty ;)
