How To Trim A Money Tree 

Money trees are popular indoor plants that can brighten up any home. Many people choose them for their homes because they are said to bring positive energy to the space around them.

As their name suggests, they’re also thought to be a good luck charm for bringing additional money into the home.

They’re an easy plant to maintain and this is another reason why they’re so popular. They don’t take much daily care but they can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) tall so they do need the occasional trim.

If you don’t prune your money tree, it can grow messy and out of control so to make it look its best, get those pruning shears out!

If you’re not sure how to trim a money tree, however, don’t worry! In this article, we will tell you all you need to know about how to trim a money tree.

When Should I Trim My Money Tree?

There are a few circumstances when you should trim your money tree. These include:

• It becomes overgrown
• The leaves become brown or wilted
• Every spring

We do recommend trimming your money tree every spring. This will help your money tree keep its nice shape and remain healthy and thriving throughout the rest of the year.

Pruning Your Money Tree

To prune your money tree, we recommend using sharp gardening shears. The shears should be clean and sharp as this will make it easier to trim the tree.

Make sure that the shears have not been used to trim any diseased plants previously.

Diseases and pests can live on the shears and be transported from plant to plant. You should either use a different pair of shears or give them a thorough clean in some water first.

Now let’s look at how to trim your money tree.

Step One – Find The V-Shape

Look at where your money tree is planted in the soil. You should be able to find two branches that extend from the base of the trunk and make a V-shape.

This is the area where you should make your cuts as it will help your tree to maintain the correct shape and grow as it should.

Step Two – Trim

Trim the trunk above the V-shaped branches that you identified earlier. You should make the cut around half an inch (1.3 cm) above where the branches extend from the trunk. 

Your shears should be held at a 45-degree angle as you make the cut. Ensure the cut is nice and clean as this will help you remove the excess branches and leaves. Making a clean cut is much easier when your shears are sharp!

Step Three – Remove Branches

Take a close look at your money tree and assess the branches that extend from the top and sides of the trees. If a branch appears overgrown, you should remove this.

As before, look for where the branches extend from the trunk in a V-shape and make the cut around half an inch above this spot. This will enable the branches to grow back effectively over the next few months. 

Move around the tree and make sure that you cut any overgrown branches that you find.

Step Four – Prune Unhealthy Leaves

As you look around the money tree, you may find that although some branches look okay, some of the leaves may be brown. You should also remove any leaves that look dry, dead, or brown.

These can be removed by removing them at the stems or branches. Individual leaves can be trimmed at the stem but if there are several leaves on the same branch, you may just want to remove the entire branch.

You should remove these leaves in the same manner as you remove any branches. Look for where the stems extend from the branch and make the cut around half an inch above where they join to the branch. The cuts should also be at 45 degrees again.

Step Five – Be Careful

When trimming your money tree, it is easy to become carried away with how much you trim. As you remove the branches, however, make sure that you are not removing more than half of the money tree’s size.

We recommend that you take away a few branches at a time. Start by focusing on the most obviously overgrown branches or brown leaves and then take a step back to assess how your tree looks.

Only remove a few branches at a time and check how much you have removed. It can be difficult to correctly assess this unless you look at the tree from a distance.

If you look at the tree from a few steps back and you haven’t taken away half, you can remove a little more. This is especially important if the tree looks lopsided or uneven.

You should look to remove some more branches to even out the size and make the money tree look neater and more uniform in shape.

Removing too much of the tree can actually stunt the growth of your money tree. You may find that your tree will not recover and grow as it should if you prune away too much.

Basic Maintenance

There are a few small steps you can take to make sure that your tree looks its best between trims. These include:

• Pinching new buds
• Watering the soil when it is dry
• Repot the tree every few years

We recommend replanting your money tree every two to three years or whenever you notice the root system has filled your pot.

Final Thoughts

In this article, we explained when you should trim your money tree and have a few details for basic maintenance. We also gave step-by-step instructions on how to correctly trim your money tree.