Pinching out new leaves

[andyh]

Where is the best place to obtain staurogyne sp in large amounts for cheap?

Staurogyne grows fast mate, just be patient and you'll be able to do what you want with it, thats the cheapest way!

Be brutal when trimming it, I used to pinch out leaves to encourage more growth, you can get it really bushy that way. Helps when trying to fill out an area.

Sorry to thread hijack..... matt can you explain the pinch out leaves comment above, I am interested in this technique as i am trying to get my staurogyne to bush out. :?:

 

[Steve Smith]

Re: [WANTED] Looking for Staurogyne.

Hi Andy. It's similar to many stem plants. If you pinch out the new crown of leaves growing at the top of the stem it should spur the plant to bush out somewhat. This is also true with taller stems, where you cut them low down so they fork into two, where there was one stem.

 

[andyh]

Re: [WANTED] Looking for Staurogyne.

Hi Andy. It's similar to many stem plants. If you pinch out the new crown of leaves growing at the top of the stem it should spur the plant to bush out somewhat. This is also true with taller stems, where you cut them low down so they fork into two, where there was one stem.

When you say pinch out, do you mean just crush the top a little to prevent more growth. In case you cant tell i havent done this before ( well i have pinched things, but not my plants )

 

[Steve Smith]

Re: [WANTED] Looking for Staurogyne.

Hehe. You kinda pinch them and pull them off the stem. If you look at the top of the stem you can see the newest leaves in the crown, as they are nice and lush and smaller than the rest of the leaves. You pinch them between your fingertips and tug them off the stem.

Essentially you should have removed a small cluster of young leaves and maybe a tiny amount of stem.

I guess it's called pinching because you're using your finger and thumb in a pinch like grip, but you're making a clean cut, perhaps with your thumbnail.

Hope that explains it

 

[andyh]

Re: [WANTED] Looking for Staurogyne.

Hehe. You kinda pinch them and pull them off the stem. If you look at the top of the stem you can see the newest leaves in the crown, as they are nice and lush and smaller than the rest of the leaves. You pinch them between your fingertips and tug them off the stem.

Essentially you should have removed a small cluster of young leaves and maybe a tiny amount of stem.

I guess it's called pinching because you're using your finger and thumb in a pinch like grip, but you're making a clean cut, perhaps with your thumbnail.

Hope that explains it

Thanks Steve, difficult to explain, maybe you should produce a video!I will give it a go.

Chilled84, sorry for the thread hijack!

 

[Steve Smith]

Split this into a new thread as it has some OK info, and was hijacking a for sale thread

 

[andyh]

Thanks to the steve who moved this thread.

I am going to have a go at this later!

 

[a1Matt]

(Nice thread split their Steve )

..ditto all that Steve says.

Also... if you pull out odd leaves lower down the stem you can encourage the same forking\bushing lower down. This works with some plants and not others. Staurogyne responds really well to this. I used to just pull one leaf out of each Staurogyne stem every couple of weeks. pinch 'em out like Steve says. Careful not to snap the stem though as Staurogyne can be quite brittle.

Sidetracking slightly... After a while you have very bushy stems which you can cut near the substrate, the 'stump' grows back as long as it has two or more leaves on it still IME. Hack the other bits into smaller pieces and you can replant over a larger area. As the other bits have no roots you want more leaves on each bit so that it can stay alive while re easablishing.

I found this a good way to get decent coverage from an initial small amount of plants.

I would only do it on healthy plants growing at a good rate though. On a Non-CO2 low light setup I tried it and it just stressed the plant out and killed it. With 1.5wpg T5 and Co2 it worked very well for me. If in doubt try on one or two stems first.

 

[Jase]

Sidetracking slightly... After a while you have very bushy stems which you can cut near the substrate, the 'stump' grows back as long as it has two or more leaves on it still IME.

Adding to this, I have found, by accident (and poor aim), you can get away with a snip at substrate level and it will grow right back, assuming that the roots are established enough I suppose. Obviously, this is much slower growth than if you keep some leaves on

 

[mr. luke]

I just hacked mine into tiny pieces (stuff matt sent me)
4 leaes per piecs and a few with more just to be safe
Got a tiny bit left over that im going to try emersed

 

[Steve Smith]

Nice one