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How to encourage lateral growth on H. Pinnatifida

papa_c

Member
Joined
22 Jan 2013
Messages
368
After many attempts to grow Pinnatifida i have finally had some success. My goal is to promote bushing effect with side shoots. I feel it is now time to prune the plants, from the picture where should I be targetting my cuts? Would be good if somebody could mark on the picture!

20200912_155309.jpg
 
Continuosly cut away all the big, upright shoots as low as you possibly can. These are the dominant ones favourized in growth, so once removed the plant will concentrate on growing the lower, skinnier ones. These tend to start off horizontally, thereby making the bushy effect.
Sooner or later some of these new shoots will become the new dominant ones, though, again being favourized. They will grow upright and need to be cut - exactly like the previous ones. This process is ongoing......
 
@Mick.Dk

thanks for the advice, is there any need to leave the last node on the dominant stems, or do I trim them where the are growing from the main plant?
 
bushygrowth.jpg


I did a little drawing for you on how I would do it. It's the same as you would take the tops off other plants like basil to promote bushy growth.

The bottom layer of leaves shows how some nodes don't have side shoots, they might have nothing or just a single mini leaf coming out. Don't bother to pull the tips from there, they're less likely to grow nice side shoots. Take from a node that has a tiny mini side-shoot already (like the middle where I put the red line), this might just look like 2 tiny leaves on a little bud, they'll shoot up when you cut off the top. You want to cut as close to this as possible.

You want to ideally take off growth from the lower half of the plant, the lower you go, the bushier it will be. Also, you could replant the top that you've cut off, and take it's very top shoot off to promote more bushy growth (this is the red line on the top leaf part).
 
The above is a general description of safely trimming any stem-plant. Almost all stems will respond well to this.
Hyg. pinnatifida, however, is really, really - REALLY - good at growing new shoots from any internodes (=the point on stem, where leafs are attached) left after a trim. And there are always some nodes left, however hard you trim this plant. Nodes with no visual new growt will always sprout new shoots.
- SO, specifically for Hyg. pinnatifida, I recommend cutting really as low, as you possibly can. This will grow a better-looking plant.
 
@Mick.Dk

Thanks, taken your advice and trimmed low, always feels brutal when doing this, let's hope my nemesis doesn't return and it starts to branch out.
 
@shangman

Thanks for the comments, I've replanted the cuttings and will trim them higher up and see what happens...
 
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