One thing is you dont have enough geometrie for the tenticle to really bend or do anything. Needs more polys. spherical zones are for more conrol over fall offs. Only areas within spheres are affected but this is not needed for your tenticle. Area in green sphere is effected alot and turns to none into the red area. In picture 2 in first post I can see its bending but there just isnt enough polys to move around for smoothness. The scaleing stuff is confuseing. Look at how some of the Regular Poser characters are set up. Try to notice when and how the spherical zones are used and how the scaleing is set up.