How can I keep my flamingo plants small for a terrarium?

Question

I have some flamingo plants, Anthurium sp., growing in my 60x100x60 cm rainforest terrarium.
My problem is about this big one here

It's about 60cm in height, and I want it to keep it a bit smaller and growing more, but smaller leaves (both the green leaves and the spadices).

The plant is growing on a mixture of orchid and plain clay granules. Lightning is a very natural (and powerful) sun spectrum, and the plant is fully exposed to the lights. The permanent daylight schedule is 13/11 (on/off), which I've chosen mainly for my pets (madagascar daylight geckos) living there. The actual lighting setup is a 50W HID lamp (directly above this plant), and a 150W HQI lamp, that produces most of the required sunlight spectrum.
Also watering is almost completely automated, I've got a rainfall (misting) simulator, that runs 5 times a day (the atmospheric humidity is pretty high ~75-80%).
I have other, smaller flamingo plants growing in this terrarium, and they are more appropriate within my conceptions. Though the plant I'm talking of, already was big from the beginning (~35cm).

My question is:
What can I do (how to cut down) to give this plant a more smaller (ca. 40cm height), and more bushy shape?

To elaborate on my concerns:
I'm afraid of just clipping all of the big leaf and spadix sprouts, could I actually kill the plant?

Any hints appreciated!

Answer 1

You appear to have set up a perfect environment for your anthuriums so keeping them smaller will be challenging.

• One very simple approach is removing the largest leaf at the base of the plant on a regular basis. New growth will continue and fill in the empty spot.
• EDIT: your light levels look fine. Your plants may be experiencing lower light levels than you think due to condensation on the glass blocking light. Increasing the amount of light might help keep them smaller. Many plants will stretch out or etiolate in response to lower light levels.
• another approach would be to restrict the root growth. Theoretically a plant with a smaller area to grow roots will stay smaller. In this case I am not sure how effective it would be as moisture, light and a substrate are all available.