Geranium pruning rules for lush flowering
Numerous types of geraniums are famous for their unpretentiousness and bright flowering. But with modest requirements for soil, watering or temperature, the main step in the care is pruning geraniums for lush flowering. If you neglect it, pretty soon the number of inflorescences will noticeably decrease, the shoots will stretch out and become bare, and the flower itself will become shapeless and unattractive.
How to prune geraniums correctly? When is the best time to pinch and remove shoots?
Why prune geraniums?
Since among indoor and garden geraniums there are plants with erect and lodging stems, tall and dwarf forms, ampelous and shrub-forming species, then each plant will have to choose its own approach.
- cause the appearance of lateral shoots and the formation of new buds of inflorescences;
- give the plant a compact, even shape;
- make flowering more lush, longer and more stable;
- get high-quality planting material for breeding your favorite variety.
You should not wait for the shoot to lengthen in a season or two, and the foliage on it will remain only at the very top. The specificity of geranium is that this plant extremely rarely gives lateral stems without outside interference, but there are dormant buds in each node. Pruning geraniums causes these buds to awaken and not only form a new stem, but also lay flower buds.
Geranium pruning technique for lush flowering
How to prune geraniums to bloom? The flowering and good condition of a plant primarily depends on the quality of the pruning. Therefore, it is necessary to remove excess or dried stems with a sharp, disinfected tool:
- It is best to take a blade for this purpose, but if it is not there, a clerical or thin kitchen knife will do.
- Scissors should not be used, as they pinch the shoot and break the tissue at the cut site.
The cut is performed over the leaf node facing the outside of the bush. In this case, the emerging shoots will not interfere with each other and will not cause excessive crown density.
If you need to remove a young stem, you can do without tools. Pinching is done with dry, clean fingers, trying not to pull the shoot and not damage its surface layer.
To avoid rotting or pest damage, the cut sites are sprinkled with crushed activated or charcoal... At home, when pruning geraniums in spring and after flowering, it is convenient to use a natural antiseptic powder - cinnamon.
After pruning geraniums, plants can be fertilized with a nitrogen-containing compound. This will cause accelerated formation of greenery and shoots.
How to prune geraniums in the fall?
When the formation of new peduncles is completed, and the already existing inflorescences gradually fade, it is time for the autumn pruning of geraniums. Before this procedure, the goal is not only to form a beautiful bush, but also to heal the plant.
First of all, all wilted flowers, damaged or dried stems and leaves are removed. This will make it possible to facilitate subsequent work and save the strength of the plant when the active growth of new shoots begins.After a visual inspection of geraniums for lush flowering, elongated, weak, bare stems, spoiling the appearance of the bush, are pruned and shortened.
When choosing a cutting site, it is important to remember that the growth is formed from dormant buds in the nodes, and there is no need to leave long internodes at the tops.
In the fall, retiring plants are cut by about a third. Do not be afraid of such deep pruning of geraniums. During the winter, with good lighting and compliance with the conditions of keeping the plants, everything will catch up and form new healthy shoots. Bush geraniums for better branching of shoots are pinched after every fourth bud.
The process of pruning and pinching painlessly for geraniums lasts until December. The plants are then left alone. In the darkest time of the year, the culture is most vulnerable, it grows worse, and all external influences are perceived as stress.
Spring pruning of geraniums at home
In the spring, for the lush flowering of geraniums, pruning is not carried out as dramatically as in autumn. Such work should begin in the last days of February or at the very beginning of March. In this case, it is dangerous to delay. The later the extra shoots are removed, the later flower buds will form and flowering will come.
How to prune geraniums in the spring so that the effects do not affect summer flowering plants? To do this, it is enough to remove only long or weakened stems, cutting them off so that at least 2-3 buds are preserved from below.
How to prune geraniums to get a standard plant?
Before cutting the geranium and forming a miniature standard tree from it, the side branches are removed from the bush, and the selected stem is tied in several places to a solid support fixed next to it.
Geranium stems are rather fragile, therefore, the garter of the central shoot to the vertical support must be treated very carefully. The trunk is fixed in several places so that the support can withstand the weight of both the shoot and the growing crown.
At this stage, the shoot does not need to be pruned until its height is slightly higher than the support. Pinching the central shoot will cause it to branch. 5-7 of the resulting stems are left to create a lush, even crown of the future tree on their basis.
As with pruning geraniums in the form of a bush, after the formation of every fourth leaf, the shoots are pinched, which over time allows you to create a lively and extremely original decoration of an interior or garden. Since the plant is intensively pruned, you need to wait for the first inflorescences no earlier than a year later, when the crown is formed. For lush flowering, pruning and pinching of geraniums is stopped a couple of months before to allow the plant to lay buds.
How to breed red geraniums? I repeatedly tried to get hold of it, but the roots of the cuttings did not grow in any way in the water, but they rotted and the geranium died. At the same time, the roots grow back from pink and white geraniums in almost a week! Can you tell me what the secret is? Maybe stick the stalk right into the ground without roots?
Very often it is the red geranium that is capricious. In such cases, it is preferable to plant the cutting immediately in the ground, after dipping the cut in the root. A mistake that is often made is cuttings that are too long. Spill the planted stalk well and cover with a jar or transparent plastic bottle. Remove the cap after the first new leaf appears.