Chapter 8 - Making Plants Behave

In the previous chapter we mentioned that often when cuttings are made for use in increasing stock, the plants from which the cuttings are taken are also benefited. In this chapter we are going to discuss how you can keep your plants both handsome and healthy by pinching, pruning and cutting back.

Left to their own devices, especially in situations where the light and sun are not so plentiful as they might be, most plants will tend to grow tall and leggy with little or no foliage at the bottom and with all their leaves and flowers growing together at the top. Since our object is to make our plants full and even from the base to the top bush-like rather than tree-like we have to try to prevent this. Although obviously we are talking here of upright growing plants, the same is true for trailers and vines. The part of the stem closest to the base will be bare while all the foliage and flowers will be concentrated at the extremities.

One of the most difficult things for the beginner to bring himself to do is pinch out the center of a healthy young plant. It is almost equally hard to convince him that the branch of his begonia plant which is just about ready to flower should be cut off, new buds and all. But these measures must be taken if the plant is to grow to look like anything at all. The basic idea behind pruning stems and branches, and pinching off growing shoots is that if you halt the plant's growth at one point the energy saved will catise it to grow in another. Thus we can within reason control the point and the direction of growth on all our plants. This is not to say that some plants which are properly cared for, given enough sun and light, and turned regularly won't grow properly without help, but this is the exception rather than the rule.

Pruning. When a plant has become leggy and is branching out away from its base as shown in the illustration here, the time has come to cut it back. First, select the stem you are going to cut back, and then with a razor blade or pruning shears, make a horizontal cut straight across the stem just above a node. The node should be facing toward the center of the plant rather than away or else you will just compound the situation. A four to five inch slip from the end of the section pruned off can be used to start a new plant, as described in Chapter 7.

Pinching. The purpose in pinching out the center growth of a young plant is to keep it low and force it to grow outward rather than up. The center growth of all plants, because it is in direct line with the roots which provide the food, will tend to grow stronger than the parts of the plant further from the center. If this center growth is removed the growth toward the outside will be greater. Pinching to be effective must be done early. If you wait too long you may find that you have to cut the plant way back to get the effect you want.

Another kind of pinching on flowering plants is done to increase the size of the flowers the plant is to produce. If a plant has a great many buds you can assure yourself of better though fewer flowers if you pinch off the excess buds and allow the energy of the plant to be channeled into producing more luxuriant flowers from the few that are left.

Air layering. Because air layering is in the strict sense of the word a method of propagation it is generally treated under that heading, but since it deals more with the appearance of a particular plant than the increasing of stock, we are going to deal with it here. Air layering, or

Chinese air layering, as it is sometimes called, is a method by which a long-stemmed, leggy plant can be cut back to size. At a point several inches below the lowest branches make a vertical incision in the stem about two inches long and about a third of the stem diameter in depth. Using a plastic paper as a cover (the polyetheline bags in which potting soil is sold are good for this purpose) bind sphagnum moss around the cut and water thoroughly. Keep the cut covered and watered and in about eight weeks new roots will have formed at the cut. At this time the top of the plant can be cut off just below the new roots and the plant rooted in a new pot filled with your regular potting soil. The old plant can be discarded.

The seasons at which pinching and pruning are best vary from plant to plant and so we can't give you any hard and fast rule when to perform these operations. However, most gardeners feel that spring or fall are generally the best times of the year.

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