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How To Prune Your Plants
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When it comes to plant maintenance, you may assume that there’s little to do beyond watering and fertilizing. However, there’s another important component of the plant caretaker process: pruning.
Pruning is a proactive approach to keeping your plants healthy and vibrant, but you must do it the proper way. Otherwise, you might damage the plant. In extreme cases, you may even accidentally kill it.
So, to help you ensure your indoor and outdoor plants really thrive, here’s what you need to know about pruning.
Why Pruning is Essential for Plants
There are several primary reasons to prune your plants, including:
- Better Health - If a plant has dead leaves, flowers, or branches, it draws nutrients from the rest. So, pruning these pieces allows the plant to focus on the healthy parts of the plant so it can continue to grow bigger and better without wasting energy or resources.
- Thicker Plant Growth - Pruning can stimulate growth wherever you trim the plant. If you do it correctly, you may notice more flowers and leaves, giving your plant a much more vibrant appearance.
- Pest Control - Outdoor plants can harbor all kinds of unwanted visitors, and pruning can help remove pest-damaged or infested sections of the plant.
How to Prune Without Damaging Your Plants
Step One: Look at Your Plants
The first way to know what to prune is to inspect each of your plants thoroughly. During this step, you’re not just looking for dead or dying sections. You should also determine where new growth is emerging, such as new and dominant buds. Knowing where these are will help you make better cuts.
Step Two: Start Trimming
First, remove any dead pieces. Be careful to avoid cutting emerging buds, as you don’t want to clip them before they have a chance to flower. Deadheading is the process of removing dead buds as close to the stem as possible.
Step Three: Trim to Stimulate New Growth
Overall, you never want to remove more than ⅓ of the total plant, as that will shock the system which could cause it to die out. However, you can pick some choice areas to cut where growth is lacking.
During this step, make sure to cut just before a leaf node (where a leaf branches off from the stem). Also, work on dominant buds because they will grow back the fastest and the most. If you trim less-dominant buds, more nutrients will go to the dominant areas, leading to less growth overall.
Step Four: Clean Up
Remove all trimmings, as well as any dead leaves or branches that have fallen off. Inspect for signs of pests, and water the soil if necessary.
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