Podocarpus House plant to Bonsai Advice...

Today I was given this Buddhist pine (Podocarpus) which has been kept as a house plant for many years. It has grown gangly and the main trunk is probably about 5/8" diameter.

I have been researching  Podocarpus and many of the older trees have great trunk diameter. I need to start cutting this down to size and thought I'd ask some advice.

Right now it's about 4ft tall...



Here are some of the main branches less than 18" from the soil...



Finally a closeup of some of the hot mess inside there...



I have no idea when this last repotted, should I do that first or should I start by just lopping off most of the top of this plant and cutting back the longer side branches?

Also, do these propagate easily from cuttings?

This is a start, appreciate any help.


thanks,

Rob

Style and prune to your heart's content, with the untouched roots there's root enough to sustain the plant as is. So it will quickly recover from top work. Any mistakes or regrowth that is needed will be quick to rectify. When the plant is well on its to looking something like, then the roots can be better developed.