Indoor Baobab - ideas?

Hello! First post..

I have a indoor Baobab which I grew from seed about 7-8 years ago. I've let it grow these years, cutting it down every autumn/winter, since it grows about 50cms every year.

Thing is, the tree now looks pretty miserable (aesthetically), and I'm now looking for advice what to do with it.
Attaching a few pictures here to show you how it looks.

Hiya. Welcome to the forum. In order to help you more, perhaps you could give us a few more details, most importantly where do you live? This is needed because local climate is important in bonsai - for example my bit of "earth" has a different climate to the bit inhabited by a fellow Scottish bonsai person as little as thirty miles away, and it has even fewer similarities to those growers of Baobab in South Africa.  Also, can we assume from your pics that you live in an apartment and (more importantly) don't have anywhere you can keep this tree outdoors?

Thanks

Hi Fiona,

Thanks for the reply! It's staying indoors so it's kept at a constant 22 degrees . It sits in a pot with a mix of gravel, peat and soil that you buy at the local supermarket.

like fiona said, depending on where you are on "earth" helps with giving advice

but regardless of where that is, if it has to struggle to get adequate sunlight, it will always produce long, leggy growth as it appears to be doing currently... i believe this may be an almost universal rule for material that thrives in full sun... not enough sun and it grows leggy in search of sun.

Hello, thanks for the info, might invest in some artificial lighting then!

Do they have that in Sweden?

It really really does help us to understand WHY you'd want to keep a baobab indoors. If you live in Sweden it gives us that reason. Do you have other trees as well as this one?

answers to your questions may become as conspicuous by their absence as your location appears to be

at any rate, there are plenty of threads on this forum about artificial lighting that should help...

fiona - was sweden just a wild guess based on the presence of snow and the use of metric ?
or was there some other clue in the background of the pics ?

Maybe the snow was a giveaway? Or my email ending with .se?

Fiona - have what in Sweden? Yup, tend to go for trees from the southern part of the hemisphere.

Is the place on earth really that important? Being indoors and all? Sure the lack of sun is one thing, but I can't come with anything else.

Is the place on earth really that important? Being indoors and all?

Neighborliness?

Yes, where you live is exceedingly important. I live in Central NY (USDA Zone 5, 43rd Parallel). I grow orchids & bonsai under fluorescent lights in the winter, outdoors in the summer. I find most of the standard advice about orchids & tropical bonsai utterly useless.
Iris

Folks,

doesn't the GUEST part say the person is gone ?
I would have suggested a chat with Andre' B.
Later
Khaimraj

Baobabs don't do well indoors ,they need full sun the hotter the better temp of 22 is not enough ,also very important is watering, indoors maybe difficult to monitor .
Mine is in full sun all day and as soon has the leaves turn yellow winter is on its way stop watering completely ,I normally put mine indoors in the garage for the winter period as soon as buds swell i bring it back outside and start watering
Here is a pic of mine that I took at the beginning of spring  thats is in training

If I can hijack for a moment, how do baobab trees handle high humidity in the summer?

Folks, as Khaimraj said, this guy didn't like us and has gone away.

Ha ha, Too Much Evelyn Wood,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Wood_(teacher)

Laters.
Khaimraj