Propogator - Working TOO well ??

Hi Springy and Smiffy.

Plants have growing points (ie where buds form) in only specific places. One is at the top of the main stem - the terminal bud. There are others in the axil - the angle between a leaf and a stem - axilliary buds. As long as the terminal bud is growing, the other growing points often don't bother to do anything. This leads to a tall and lanky plant.

If you remove the terminal bud (which can be either a leaf bud or a flower bud), the plant sends a message to the other (axillary) buds to pull their fingers out. The plant is then stimulated to grow in more places lower down. This will give you a shorter and more bushy plant.

The decision to pinch out or not depends entirely whether you want a tall lanky plant or a shorter bushy one. Usually people want shorter bushy ones, so you would pinch out most plants. Some grow bushy naturally - so it may not be neccessary - but it doesn't do any harm. However in the case of a tall sunflower or a Hollyhock, you want it to be tall and thin - so you wouldn't pinch it out.

Pinching out never does any harm as long as you have leaves and axillary buds below the bud that you pinch out, so there are more growing points available. But you must not pinch out bulbs, such as a tulip, because there are no buds below to take over.

You normally pinch out by pinching the terminal bud between thumb and forefinger. You only need to remove a very small portion. However you can cut the plant in half if you want (as long as it is big enough) and it will do the same job. But in the latter case you are wasting a lot of hard effort by the plant. You can pinch out when the plant is still quite small, then pinch out again later. but when you do it later there will be more than one terminal bud to remove. You can do it several times.

Springy, the Salvia and Cosmos can certainly be pinched at some point. I am not sure about the Sunflower and Poppy. Why not pinch out a few and see the difference. Sunflowers are usually tall - but maybe you want a bushy Sunflower if its dwarf.

 

Hi PeterS,
Thank you. Yeah, the Calif poppies are small anyway, and I'm pretty sure they are 'single' flowers, not to get bushy. Crikey, that's good Grammer isn't it! The Dwarf Sunflowers - Mmm. Maybe I'll inch out 3-4 and see how they do, not the end-of-the-world if it doesn't work out. The Cosmos & Salvias, for sure, I'll pinch 'em out.

Thank you,

Springy
x

 

Thank you Smiffy008, Looking forward to seeing her grow. She's a real novelty as we produced two lads and she's the first GrandKiddy!!

xx

 

Thanks yet again Peter , your epistles on the life cycle of a seed to a plant over the last few weeks have been really useful. Now I hope to graduate from a "stick the plant in and hope it grows" gardener, to someone with a tad more finesse and technique!

 

Thanks Smiffy and Springy for your comments. I find it much easier to understand a few principles, that to remember hundreds of facts for different plants. Its laziness really.

 

Might be lazy PeterS, but it's Bally Clever!!

Happy Easter all, and enjoy ya Snowman makin' !!


Springy :D