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[piatotsini]

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[jimbooo]

your onto a loosing battle there mate LOL sorry you'll realise why when you've read this.

there are 2 ways to prune stem plants depending on your goal.

situation 1: just planted 5 stems a week ago and you want to propogate them to make a big forest of the same plant.

after 1 week or whenever you feel the need to prune cut the stems in half while still planted. then replant the top bits you have removed in front of the stumps of the original stems to hide the ugly bits.

the stumps will branch at the cut producing 2 or 3 new stems from the cut section.
the replanted "tops" will continue to grow straight up.

the next week pull out the rear stumps completely, remove the 2 or 3 new branches and replant as individual stems.

and so on.


when you have enough stems to plant your desired area things get easier. to prune remove the entire collection of stems, cut off the BOTTOM section as high as you can whilst leaving 2 or 3 roots on the section ABOVE the cut. then replant the TOP SECTION and discard the base and roots.

the pruned top sections will re root themselves very very quickly ie within 48 hours.

from then on just pull out, cut the bottom off and replant. this is why stem plants are higher maintenance than other plants. if you discard the top your just going to get lots of ugly branches as you have already found out.

hope that makes sence, feel free to ask more questions if your unclear about anything.

James

 

[pseud]

This is why I turned to slower growing, and fewer stem plants.