Some general thoughts on pruning

[helixturnhelix]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share some experience i've had on pruning.  I'm a pretty recent grower of this plant, got my first one summer from HVH and have spent most of this spring, looking at different ways of pruning these plants and wanted to share my experience with it.  There is going to be variation because each variety acts differently to pruning, but I think that the results I got were pretty interesting.

The first way I pruned one plant right above a developing bud.  What happened after was pretty interesting.  Usually when I prune above a node, a new shoot appears right below, however what happened when a bud was present at the next node was pretty interesting.  No new growth occurred under the four subsequent nodes after the one with the bud.  However after the fourth there was new growth and this node grew into a branch very quickly.  I then decided to cut the bud off, and this is what I found very interesting.  The four nodes below the bud began to produce new growth.  I guess when the plant is in bud, the bud itself produces some sort of growth inhibitor or all the energy in that region is sent to the developing bud, rather than to new meristem formation.

The next "experiment" was with a specimen that was one single stem that was mostly old and woody.  What I did was cut all the green growth at the top off and observed what happened.  In this case, ever node began to form new leaves in groups of two.  Then one node began to grow more quickly that the others and the others stop growing.  Now the plant had one large healthy branch, and a bunch of smaller di leaves.  I wanted more than one new branch, I want several!   So when the new had 5 leaves and nodes, I pinched the top.  Within the next week all the small nodes that stopped growing, began to grow rapidly and new growth was growing on the branch.  I have an idea about pinching new growth (apical meristem) lowering the amount of auxin present in the plant, producing higher leveled of cytokinin, therefore inducing new growth, but its kinda hard to test it without some auxin or cytokinin, so I think these observations are good enough.

The final thing I did was when new growth started growing, i just pinched what looked like new leaves from forming, leaving the new "green blob" there.  Granted this was done when you see very new growth.  What happened was pretty interesting.  The new green growth formed a sort of callus, and sent up three new stems in the place of what would have been one.  This might prove an interesting and effective method to inducing alot of branching in small plants.

Charlie is probably well aware of most of this, but I thought I would share my experience anyway.  The cvs used for experiments:

1) Bonnie Lass, Space oddity, White Lighning
2) Black dragon, Blue ballerina
3) HOMO, Living Lengend

       

[Charlie]

Hey Chris,

That is very interesting. I'm going to try that last technique and see if how it works on some of our 4 inch pots. Thanks for writing this up.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Charlie,

I really hope it works on those 4inchers, and that it is not just a fluke

[Charlie]

If it worked on Living Legend that is encouraging because LL is a somewhat reluctant brancher. HOMY naturally branches well so the results are not that surprising with that one.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Charlie,

It worked very well on LL, I had only a single stem and I now have 4.  LL is a pretty vigorous grower once it gets going too. 

[Nievesgirl]

Thanks for the info Chris ! I need to try this on heartbreak hotel , its not as branchy as I would like it. only 6 main branches and they ae just growing taller.
I also got some info about pruning from Jill, She recommend I prune one branch off of each plant every month. She describe where to cut etc... ( its in my email ) I just pruned my lady bug , and voodoo magic. I don't know if I am pruning them right. 

I am going to try your method Chris also, I will let you know how it goes.

I am wonder what can i do for my nightfire ? to make it start budding ?
I will take pictures for you and let me know what you think.

[helixturnhelix]

Pruning one branch each month would probably work good and allow you to still get flowers.  I like everything to be really even, so I prune all at once.  Though I am finding that its best to do two prunings close to each other.  Prune, get about 2-3 inches of new growth and then pinch the top.  So far its been working really well for me getting many branches.  Also in my previous post, the formation of the callus has been doing well too.  I am by no means an expert pruner, but so far I am happy with my results.  The best thing to do is trial and error and knowing your cvs so you can figure out the best way to prune them.  A cv like hearbreak hotel grows slow, so you probably dont want to prune too hard if you want a bigger plant.  Then theres really fast growing ones like Acapulco gold.  I chopped about 2/3s off of that one and it is sending up 3+ stems on each branch.  It is a fast grower so its fine to do a hard prune. 

I had the same problem you are having with nightfire with white lightning.  All I did was put it in a place where it gets more full sun (about 2 more hours) and its budding up like crazy.  Just like there are cvs who can deal with shade, nightfire might like more sun to bud up. 

Let me know how the pruning goes, hopefully this helps

[Nievesgirl]

Pruning one branch each month would probably work good and allow you to still get flowers.  I like everything to be really even, so I prune all at once.  Though I am finding that its best to do two prunings close to each other.  Prune, get about 2-3 inches of new growth and then pinch the top.  So far its been working really well for me getting many branches.  Also in my previous post, the formation of the callus has been doing well too.  I am by no means an expert pruner, but so far I am happy with my results.  The best thing to do is trial and error and knowing your cvs so you can figure out the best way to prune them.  A cv like hearbreak hotel grows slow, so you probably dont want to prune too hard if you want a bigger plant.  Then theres really fast growing ones like Acapulco gold.  I chopped about 2/3s off of that one and it is sending up 3+ stems on each branch.  It is a fast grower so its fine to do a hard prune. 

I had the same problem you are having with nightfire with white lightning.  All I did was put it in a place where it gets more full sun (about 2 more hours) and its budding up like crazy.  Just like there are cvs who can deal with shade, nightfire might like more sun to bud up. 

Let me know how the pruning goes, hopefully this helps

I will move nightfire to more light and sees what happens. I hope this is not the reason because I will probably never get blooms from it the way my balcony is .

[Nievesgirl]

The final thing I did was when new growth started growing, i just pinched what looked like new leaves from forming, leaving the new "green blob" there.  Granted this was done when you see very new growth.  What happened was pretty interesting.  The new green growth formed a sort of callus, and sent up three new stems in the place of what would have been one.  This might prove an interesting and effective method to inducing alot of branching in small plants.

Chris I did this method on voo doo and I have all kinds of new leaves forming. I will take picture later today.

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Kerry,

Thats great!  Would love to see pictures

[Nievesgirl]

Here is a picture



There are a bunch of leaves forming !

[Nievesgirl]

Chris

Look at how fast this tip is growing this is 12 days later under t5's  3 new branches



I will try it on some other cv's and mark which branch I pinched and i will post more before and afters.  I am liking the results of this method a lot.

[Deb]

Interesting ideas on producing more branches, but I need to know if it is okay to prune my 4 year old hybiscus (potted) as I bring it indoors for the winter in Nebraska.  I have it in the garage already, but it has gotten pretty big this summer.  Will it hurt to prune before bringing inside?

[Nievesgirl]

Interesting ideas on producing more branches, but I need to know if it is okay to prune my 4 year old hybiscus (potted) as I bring it indoors for the winter in Nebraska.  I have it in the garage already, but it has gotten pretty big this summer.  Will it hurt to prune before bringing inside?

Hi Deb Charlie said its ok to prune before winter as long as you do it before the first frost. I just pruned all of my hibiscus but they are indoors now. I am sure it will be ok since you will be wintering your hibiscus also.