Too tall Firesticks.

[Stan]

What do you do when it gets about 8' and starts to fall over? I tied it up,but its extremely floppy with rubbery trunk. Anybody had this happen? I've had plants that leaned many times over the decades,but this is especially bad. Like it can't hold its own weight up. It was wrestlemania just for me to tie it back-but how long that works is dubious. Prune it ?

[mcvansoest]

Mine did exactly the same. It is funny how the regular E. tirucalli does not do that. I had one almost get to tree size at my old house and its trunks was solid as a rock.

I have a firesticks here at the new place in the ground and last year it was about 7' tall, now without me doing anything to it, it does not even reach my shoulders, but is three times as wide around. Everything started leaning one way or another. I think it got too heavy.
The Firesticks at my old place did exactly the same thing from one day to the next flop-tacular... I pruned that one and got it to correct itself somewhat.

So the one here will, this fall, get a serious pruning in an effort to make it less unruly and hopefully right itself a bit.

My neighbors got one at 7-8' size when they redid their back yard yard in the spring and it came and still is heavily staked.

If you do prune make sure to wear full length clothes and face protection, the sap can gush out of the bigger branches quite strongly and can be a serious irritant to a lot of people.

[Stan]

That's the exact situation. I would hate to prune it lower. I liked the idea of a future 20' red succulent tree around Christmas. It looks unavoidable though...its very bendable now.Darn,it doesn't seem to branch much and I could have just another sticks plant with the heavy top lopped off. It was nice to see while it lasted.
Thanks.

[mcvansoest]

So mine has many thick side branches dragging it down... I'd take a pic but it is such a mess it would not be interpretable. Also it has a lot of separate trunks coming from the ground either because it was a multiple planting or it branches at or just below ground level. It is a giant mess...

You can try and see if you can prune it enough to make it possible to stake the main trunk.