My last “Know It and Grow It” column gave you some information about how our indoor plants respond to the photoperiod or lengthening days of early spring. After being nearly dormant for four months, they are eager to start active growth.
If you have a plant that is getting too tall, now is when to do a little pruning to get back to where that plant will look balanced and proportioned.
Often upright-growing plants have several stems in the container. The most effective way to prune them and still keep the plant looking good is to prune a couple of the tallest stems back to 8 inches above the soil. These stems will develop new growth but in the meanwhile, the remaining unpruned stems cover these “stumps” until they develop new leaves.
The process is repeated the next year and depending on the number of stems, probably the following year as well.
The neat part of this process is that usually each stem that is cut comes back as two stems in the place of the one you cut off, thereby giving the plant a much fuller look.
If the plant that is demanding more space than you want to give happens to be a vining plant, you need to take stem tip cuttings that are no more that 6 inches long. This is the most tender growth and will root much more quickly than older wood. Put the cuttings in a vase or jar with 3 inches of water and keep it in similar light to what it has been used to.
Philodendron, pothos, German, Swedish, and English ivy are all candidates for this type of propagation. If you use a clear glass container to root the cuttings, you can easily tell when to add water and you can also see when the roots develop.
To achieve a full-looking specimen plant, I will usually plant five or six cuttings together in the same pot. Again, start with a fairly small pot, probably 4 inches wide. As the vines begin to grow, you can shift up to a 6-inch pot.
If this propagation activity is too overwhelming for you, you can just toss the old plant and start with a new one.
Active growth means active appetite. When there is little new growth happening, the plant isn’t going to need much fertilizer. That changes when active growth resumes in the spring, so now is the time to use a water-soluble plant food in the water once per month.
If a plant isn’t getting adequate nutrition, it will often drop older leaves in an attempt to maintain the new growth … it’s called survival.