Question about training a plant

[Tortdad]

So I went all gung hoe and bought some plants for my enclosure to finish setting it up today and I got a ficus tree and a hibiscus as the main two plants. The thing is that my ficus tree is too tall, I didn't measure it when picking it out.... They all look small when in a massive garden center, lol

So my question is has anyone had any success training a tree to grow in different directions?

What I mean is this tree is the kind with multiple narrow stalks twisted up to make the trunk section of the tree. Do you think I can easily untwist the tree then bend one section to the left and the other to the right and so on to make the tree nice and wide to fill the enclosure or do you think id just end up snapping it into a million pieces?

I guess I could always just put it in a pot in the dinning room so it could have some free range time out of its enclosure and buy a different smaller one for the enclose but TBH what I wanted to do was plant a hibiscus in a pot in the back yard so when it had its free range time that it was in the sun soaking up natural UVB.

 

[Carlton]

Can you prune the top branches of the Ficus instead? I prune mine all the time, though I let the sap from the cuts dry and clean it off the tree before using it in the cage. The fresh sap is sticky and an eye irritant (if your cham happens to get the fresh sap all over itself and happens to get some on its face or in its eyes). The problem you may have wrestling with the plant's main stem and the growth pattern is breaking more of the main stems, shocking the Ficus and causing it to drop more of its leaves than necessary. They do this when very stressed, and it can be hard to get them to leaf out as fully afterwards.

 

[Tortdad]

If I trim it there won't be very many leaves left at all. I'm going to hit the garden center on the way home and find a smaller one.

I'm also going to try and untwist this other one to see if it works. If not no big deal, I'll just use the smaller plant.

 

[Carlton]

If I trim it there won't be very many leaves left at all. I'm going to hit the garden center on the way home and find a smaller one.

I'm also going to try and untwist this other one to see if it works. If not no big deal, I'll just use the smaller plant.

Ah, so the twisted plant you have now is only green at the top? That's because the lower branches didn't get as much light as it was growing at the nursery. I don't like "garden center" Ficus that are trained this way but I realize most of us don't have many options. The way they are grown means the only green leaves appear at the very top of the tree because the branches are too dense and compact to let light filter through to the rest of the tree. I would ask the garden center if they have any Ficus that are NOT trained like this. Some may be left to grow more bushy and natural, not so stylized.

 

[Tortdad]

Ah, so the twisted plant you have now is only green at the top? That's because the lower branches didn't get as much light as it was growing at the nursery. I don't like "garden center" Ficus that are trained this way but I realize most of us don't have many options. The way they are grown means the only green leaves appear at the very top of the tree because the branches are too dense and compact to let light filter through to the rest of the tree. I would ask the garden center if they have any Ficus that are NOT trained like this. Some may be left to grow more bushy and natural, not so stylized.

It's got a good amount of foleage on it but I'd literally have to chop like 12" of this thing leaving very little green left. I'm on my way there now so I'll see what other kinds they have.

 

[Tortdad]

Just an FYI for anyone else reading this.....

That twisted up focus tree un twisted and let me bend it to whatever I wanted it too.