I intend to cut mine in 2, propagate the top part, while force the lower to branch..
I guess cutting it and rooting is going to be the easy part.
The hard would be getting it to branch...
How would i ...go about this? It already has started branches in new places, but its not as much as id like(to far and few in between, some are on the upper half...

skopjecollection said:I intend to cut mine in 2, propagate the top part, while force the lower to branch..
I guess cutting it and rooting is going to be the easy part.
The hard would be getting it to branch...
How would i ...go about this? It already has started branches in new places, but its not as much as id like(to far and few in between, some are on the upper half...

I have one about 6 years old. I don't think you can force them to branch out more. A few years ago I cut mine back to try and get it to Branch out more in theory. No new branches came out of old branches it just shot up a bunch of smaller weaker branches from the base of the plant. I have another one with only one plant that's about 3 years old it has a couple newer weaker branches coming from the single stem. That one has 1 strong branch near top of it. It's a silly looking plant but has rustic look. I wouldn't recommend cutting back much of the plant unless you want a lot of weak new growth. I did actually get one of 5 of the cuttings to root and grow. It took a long time but it rooted. The cutting was laying on my bench for over a month when I noticed small roots growing. I did dip the fresh cutting in a rooting hormone and let it lay. The other cuttings I placed in dry soil and they rotted. I think spindly growth is the nature of the beast as they age. Hahaha. That's why they got the name crown of thorns. Because there a tough thorny mess that wants to stab anything nearby.

My experience with these, is that the current cultivar i have(thin stem, tall), is that they dont get better looking with age...especially indoor. Youll get this large, mean looking , ocotillo style shrub with a bunch of stringy branches....

skopjecollection said:My experience with these, is that the current cultivar i have(thin stem, tall), is that they dont get better looking with age...especially indoor. Youll get this large, mean looking , ocotillo style shrub with a bunch of stringy branches....

that's about right. Hahaha. I can take a picture of what mine did after I cut the tops off and post it later. 4 years ago the one I have was outside and froze. I don't know how it came back. last spring I gave it a trim and about 20 new shoots came up after. Mine looks like it's been threw WWII and been out in the desert for the past 50years but it never stops flowering that's why I keep it.

I have no idea how you would truly go about getting Euphorbia like this to branch out. I have an E. unispina and E. poisonii that never developed any branching like they are sometimes shown to do. They only grow straight up.

E. milii and its hybrids display a good variety of branching phenotypes. Some plants branch at the base (only) and seem hard to force to branch above that point (my limited experience) whereas the species tends to also branch and rebranch higher up. I'm not sure there is a good way to generalize for the whole group.

The West African plants like poissonii all branch given time and space. Maybe your plants need bigger pots, Smotzer?

@baja_costero you think pot size could have something to do with it? Euphorbia are not my expertise. They're not in overly small pots, I think if I were to repot them bigger I'd have to adjust my mix cause I already don't like how long it takes my Euphorbias in their pots to dry out. I had them in the geeenhouse and has to remove the drip lines cause the soil refused to dry out. I could try uppotting them a bit. I plan on doing a big uppot in the next couple weeks to my E. esculenta like you suggested.

Any chance of a picture? I saw the one you posted in the other thread right after you arrived in Texas, and the plant looked big for its pot.

Mine has already started branching...but i want to reduce its...verticality.
I just wonder if i can get more branches...and maybe some symmetry..

The varigaited one I posted a picture of is starting to show new branches. But it's a single plant. The other one started with 6 plants. I trimmed a few of them because they were looking weird. Shortly after I trimmed them all the smaller ones came up. I am guessing from the few plants I trimmed.

@baja_costero Here's the E. poissonii. Excuse their ragged look they got a little damaged during the move




And here's my also ragged E. unispina, who got too much water and not enough light

Bump both up a size in the near future. Here's one of my seedlings in an 8 inch pot, where it has been for years and will probably be for years longer.



Other plants here are leafless, and one is about to flower. I leave my plants out in the winter rain no problem (mild winters here) even when they are leafless. They are growing in 50% pumice (maybe a little more). Their soil does not tend to go totally dry for long at any time of year.

Baja_Costero said:Bump both up a size in the near future. Here's one of my seedlings in an 8 inch pot, where it has been for years and will probably be for years longer.



Other plants here are leafless, and one is about to flower. I leave my plants out in the winter rain no problem (mild winters here) even when they are leafless. They are growing in 50% pumice (maybe a little more). Their soil does not tend to go totally dry for long at any time of year.

Okay I will definitely get all my Euphorbias into bigger pots. I think I'm just so used to growing pachypodium where they do worse in bigger pots, and from being a bonsai apprentice for years, that use of smaller pots just inadvertently carries over into other things I've grown too. Note added Euphorbias will do better with bigger pots!

In all fairness you should err on the side of a smaller pot when in doubt. Do these changes very deliberately at the start of the growth season. And think twice (or more) about going past the 8 inch size until several years have passed (up to a decade). I use azalea pots (wider than deep) but not bowls or bonsai pots. My goal is to put my plants in the ground one day so I'm trying to encourage them to think big.

Yeah I always end up going in smaller pots but I'll definitely increase with my Euphorbias. But man I wish I could experiment with putting pachyies in the ground. That wound be awesome! One day maybe

skopjecollection said:Mine has already started branching...but i want to reduce its...verticality.
I just wonder if i can get more branches...and maybe some symmetry..

I cut this one a couple years ago, the 2 branches were already there when I cut it. It didn't change the main plant at all.

You cut it too low. Or too close to the existing branches.
New branches come out of the "nodes". (those bumps where the leaves were)
Whenever pruning any kind of bush one determines where to cut by the location of the nodes. The new branches will grow out of the nodes just under the cut.
So one needs to determine which direction they want the plant to grow in and then let that be the node which remains. Many times the plant will 'bush out' or grow from more than one node when it has been pruned.
You did not leave any nodes above your cut so that is why you did not get any new branches.

OrchidBob said:You cut it too low. Or too close to the existing branches.
New branches come out of the "nodes". (those bumps where the leaves were)
Whenever pruning any kind of bush one determines where to cut by the location of the nodes. The new branches will grow out of the nodes just under the cut.
So one needs to determine which direction they want the plant to grow in and then let that be the node which remains. Many times the plant will 'bush out' or grow from more than one node when it has been pruned.
You did not leave any nodes above your cut so that is why you did not get any new branches.

I was hoping to get more branches off that stem. But if I cut one of the long branches about half way up would that branch shoot out more?

Is this Euphorbia milli dead? When I scratch a stem there is no green. Bad sign, right?

Yes, if you don't see any green, it's most likely a goner.

I have had good luck with all of my Euphorbia Millii branching. The thick stemmed ones seem to branch the easiest, but the thin stemmed ones branch nicely too if you keep pruning them. Just remember what Bob said about the nodes.