Scheffelera Bonsai

Sheffelere I picked up at a nursery last year in Del Rey Beach. I just put it in a bonsai pot, your comments are welcome, thank you.

Selective removal of the largest leaves will help reduce foliage size, once a week remove 1/3 of the leaves, but start with the largest and work down in size, after a few weeks you will have much smaller leaves.

billy, you said once a week remove 1/3 of the leaves. How long do you do that for? Even after growing new leaves back, it seems like that would be quite hard on the plant if carried out for more than a month? I have a big one I cut back hard this spring, the branches that I didnt chop have kept large leaves that are shading out the multitude of small leaves that sprouted everywhere after the choping. I know they are very shade tolerant but do you grow them in full sun?
thanks

I would have cut everything back hard, and defoliated it completely. I put mine in as much sun as I possibly can, and wish I had more. Shade accomplishes nothing. I'm about to trim, defoliate and repot mine again.

Billy, please do explain more, I've never heard (or done) that.

R

Full sun will give shorter internodes and smaller leaves. As to the defoliation schedule, you quit when the leaves are small enough for you. The process rewards the plant for growing out smaller leaves since you only remove the largest, but doesn't take all the plants growth energy away at once.
Total defoliation will also work, but you still have to pinch back to keep leaves small.

Well, I guess I was doing that after all... just not on any schedule. I figured it was common sense.

From what I've seen on mine, those bigger leaves come with elongation. I remove that portion of the shoot, not just the leaves.