I got a Schefflera plant recently in a 4" pot. I pruned it to encourage branching (cut off the top a little.) Before pruning, new leaflets were always set of 8. The rest of the plant has leaflets of size 8. Now new leaflets are always set of 5. Curious about why this happened and if it will ever grow set of 8 leaflets again..
2 Answers
Ive noticed something similar to little leaf on mine, the new leaves stayed smaller and had less leaflets per hand and fell off fairly quickly... they love iron..also, i know they like to stay fairly moist but how much water is it getting? I let mine look a little almost droopy before watering...this and a slow release high iron fertilizer seems to have helped a ton 
The number of leaflets is variable - I just checked my own plant, which is Schefflera arboricola and is about 2 feet tall. A few leaf clusters have 7 leaflets, most have 9, and a smaller number of newer sets of leaves have 10 leaflets, but I don't have a single leaf cluster with 8, or even 6. You may find, as the plant grows on, you get more leaflets with new leaf clusters. Schefflera actinophylla, though, more usually has 8 leaflets.
