Gadenin日本語Get the appWhat the braid is
A braided money tree is not one plant. It is three, five or seven separate seedlings planted in the same pot and woven together while their stems were still green and flexible, then trained with a tie at the top as they thickened. Each strand keeps its own roots, its own bark and its own canopy for its whole life. They press against each other and eventually fuse a little at the contact points, but they never become one trunk.
That is the key to everything else on this page. Anything that kills one seedling, whether rot at its base, a damaged root system on that side or simple shading, kills only that strand. The others carry on and you are left with a bare woody rope running up through a living braid.
The braid is decorative, not structural. Cutting a dead strand out will not make the remaining stems fall apart, because each one stands on its own roots.
Why one stem in the braid dies
Losing a single strand is common and the reasons are almost always mechanical rather than a disease that will spread to the rest.
| Cause | How to recognize it | Whether the others are at risk |
|---|---|---|
| Rot at the base of one seedling | That stem soft and dark at soil level, its leaves yellow and drop first | Yes, if the pot stays wet. Fix drainage immediately |
| One strand permanently shaded by the others | Thin stem, few leaves, slow decline over a year | No, this is competition within the pot |
| The tie at the top left on too long | A constricted ring where the wire or tape sat, growth poor above it | Yes, remove any tie once the braid holds itself |
| Weak roots on that seedling from the start | One strand always thinner than the rest, never catches up | No |
| The braid pulled too tight when trained | Deep grooves where stems cross, bark cracked at contact points | Possibly, since damaged bark lets rot in |
Removing a dead strand
Do not pull. A dead stem is woven through living ones and pulling it out tears their bark. Cut it away in pieces instead, and take your time.
- Confirm it is actually dead Scratch the bark with a thumbnail in two or three places up the stem. Green underneath means it is alive and should be left. Brown and dry all the way up, and soft at the base, means it is finished.
- Cut it into short lengths in place With sharp pruners, cut the dead stem into two inch (5 cm) pieces from the top down, leaving them where they are. Short pieces lift out of the weave without dragging against the living bark either side.
- Ease the pieces out one at a time Work each piece free with your fingers, twisting rather than yanking. Where a piece is fused to a neighbor, cut it flush instead of forcing it and leave the fused sliver behind. It will weather away.
- Cut the stump below soil level Take the base of the dead stem off just under the compost so no stub sits in the wet. Then dig gently on that side and remove the dead root plate, which is a rot reservoir if you leave it in.
- Close the gap or leave it The remaining strands will not re-braid themselves. Either accept the gap, which fills visually within a year as the canopy thickens, or unbraid the whole thing at the next repotting and grow the survivors as separate trunks.
Never seal the cuts with paint or wax. Clean cuts on a plant kept on the dry side callus over on their own, and sealed wounds trap moisture against the wound.
Cutting for a fuller head
A money tree branches from dormant buds just below a cut. Left alone, each strand puts out one long shoot and the head goes thin and top heavy. Shortening the shoots is what produces the dense round canopy people buy the plant for.
Prune in spring or early summer while the plant is actively growing, never in the cold months when the wound sits open and the plant cannot respond. Expect the first new shoots three to six weeks after cutting.
- Cut a quarter inch above a node Find the raised ring where a leaf was attached and cut just above it, leaving a short clean stub. Cut far above a node and the bare length dies back. Cut into the node and you lose the buds you were aiming for.
- Shorten the tallest shoots first Take the longest shoot back by a third to a half. Two or three new shoots normally break below the cut, which is how you double the branch count each season.
- Take out crossing and inward growth Remove any shoot growing back through the middle of the head or rubbing against another. An open center keeps air moving and keeps the inner leaves from being shed for lack of light.
- Never remove more than a third at once Hard pruning a whole plant in one go leaves it unable to feed itself and it responds by dropping more leaves. Spread heavy reshaping over two seasons.
- Keep the cuttings Every shoot you take off in spring or summer with three or four leaves on it is a viable cutting. They root readily, so pot them rather than binning them.
What to write down
Record the date of each pruning and how many shoots broke below each cut, and note which strand of the braid produced them. Over two or three seasons that tells you which strands are vigorous and which are being shaded out, which is the earliest warning you get that one is failing. Also note the date a tie was removed from the top of the braid, since a forgotten tie strangles a stem slowly enough that nobody connects the two.