Southern Style Cooking: Week 4: Pruning Your Houseplants

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Week 4: Pruning Your Houseplants

Welcome to Week 4!

Allison Bean, Editorial Director

For beginner and expert houseplant parents alike, pruning can be an intimidating thought. But it shouldn't be; houseplants are more resilient than you think, and pruning can make them bushier, healthier, and more beautiful if you know how to do it properly. While you don't have to do it as regularly as watering or fertilizing, pruning your plants when they become overgrown, uneven, or just have dead growth, will make them more presentable.

Supplies You'll Need

	Pruning shears
	Kitchen scissors
	Gardening gloves (optional)

How to Prune Your Houseplants

Observe Your Plant

	Take a step back from your houseplant, and look at its structure and shape. Notice whether it is growing spindly, looks fuller on one side, or contains any diseased or dying foliage.

	Check for areas of potential new growth, known as "latent buds." Buds typically occur where the leaf joins the plant stem.

Choose Your Tools and Remove Dead Matter

	If the plant's branches are thick, such as those of an indoor tree, use pruning shears. If they are slender, kitchen scissors may give you a cleaner cut.

	Clip or pinch off dead leaves and stems. If stems have rotted at the root, pull them out, and make sure to let the soil dry out before the plant's next watering.

	If you're working with a flowering houseplant, remove all spent flowers by pinching them off or clipping them back as close to the main stem as possible.

Prune

	For all houseplants, encourage new growth by cutting your plant just before a leaf node. Or when cutting back larger stems, cut as close to the main stem as possible. However, do not remove more than 25 percent of the plant.

	Snip off the dominant buds on select stems, staggering the cuts to encourage varied growth.

	Trim some branches back by a quarter, others by a half, and still others all the way back to their base. This way, when the plant produces more leaves, the random growth pattern will fill it out.

	Most houseplant cuttings can be saved, rooted in a cup of water, and then planted to form new houseplants. Succulent clippings can even be propagated by planting them directly in a pot of soil and keeping it moist. After a few weeks, you'll have even more plants to add to your collection.