You've probably heard houseplants described as "leggy," a vague-sounding diagnosis that's actually one of the most common issues amongst indoor plantings. What exactly are leggy plants? Think of them as the botanical equivalent of gawky teenagers. These plants are "all legs," with stretched-out stems standing in for limbs, along with spindly growth and sparse leaves.
Legginess is not just an awkward phrase some plants go through before they blossom. It's a sign the plant is straining to position its leaves in the sunlight, enabling it to produce enough energy to stay alive. Reaching in the direction of available rays, stems grow longer and thinner and drop leaves that the plant can't support with its limited food reserves. Fortunately, with a few smart interventions, you can help your houseplant regain its lushness.
Weak, thin, leggy—these stem issues are your plant's way of telling you it's living in a spot without enough light. Different plants have different light needs, so it's important to find out exactly how much light your particular houseplant requires for healthy growth. Then you can match its location to the brightness it needs.
Knowing the direction a window faces will help you figure out how much light is streaming through it—and determine which plants will thrive when parked there. For example, pothos grows well in low light and will do well in a north-facing window. A geranium, on the other hand, demands very bright light, so it will stretch and turn lanky in the same north window. A south or southwest window is the best place for a high-light plant, since it will enjoy the most intense sun exposure there.
Houseplants are generally classified into three light-level groups: low, medium, and high.
Low Light: Often described as "bright enough to read a newspaper," low light is commonly found in a north window or a fairly dim corner of a room. Low-light plants are grown for their foliage since they rarely flower. Some common low-light plants are arrowhead, dracaena, English ivy, peace lily, philodendron, pothos, snake plant, and ZZ plant.
Medium Light: East-facing windows provide medium light. A west-facing window that's out of direct sunlight is another great location for medium-light-loving plants. These include begonia, croton, fiddle-leaf fig, peperomia, rubber plant, schefflera, and spider plant.
High Light: Generally, brightly-lit locations such as a south- or southwest-facing window provide high light. But be careful: Plants can be sunburned if they're abruptly exposed to too much light. (Scorched leaves are a sign your plant is soaking up too much sun.) High-light houseplants include cacti and succulents, citrus, gardenia, jasmine, and kalanchoe.
If your home lacks adequate natural light for your houseplants, supplement with artificial lighting. This can be especially helpful in winter, when the sun's rays aren't as intense and the days are shorter. Whether you use a household lamp or a specialized growing light, choose LED or fluorescent bulbs for the best results. Incandescent bulbs don't provide all the wavelengths of light houseplants need, so they'll continue stretching to find light, resulting in leggy plants. If using a household bulb, "daylight" type bulbs provide brighter light and wavelength intensities for plant growth.
How to Prune a Leggy Houseplant
You've solved the light problem, but is there any way to tame the legginess once it's already happened? Yes—you can cut leggy plants back to encourage new stems to sprout, restoring your plants to lushness. Trim any exceptionally long, lanky stems, removing a third of their length and snipping just above a node (the point where leaves grow from the stem). If your plant already has new shoots coming up from the base of the plant, removing nearby gangly stems will give the fresh growth room to soak up the sun and flourish.
How to Propagate Your Houseplants to Easily Expand Your Collection for Free
Adjust Your Watering Habits
After giving them a trim, water your plants well. The soil around those growing in high-light areas dries faster than the soil of those in low-light spaces, so make sure to adjust how often you water accordingly. After three or four weeks in the new light location, your plant should start to look fuller and healthier. At this point, you can add a little houseplant fertilizer, following package directions.
Trimming, pinching, and pruning are all helpful activities for eliminating leggy growth. Start by pruning back the longest stem. You can cut right above the uppermost growth node, which should encourage the plant to create new growth at the side of the stem rather than continuously upward at the top.
Leggy seedlings are a common problem when starting seeds in late winter and early spring. The good news is that these spindly plants can often recover and become lush green crops.
This happens when your plant is placed in insufficient light and over time, your plant grows taller to try to capture as much light as possible. In the process of trying to absorb more light, the stems elongate, the leaves lose their color and leaf drop can occur.
How do you stop leggy growth? It's really easy to stop a plant becoming leggy, or to help it stop creating more leggy growth: put it somewhere with the right level of light. If a plant has become leggy, move it a little bit closer to a window.
Complete fertilizers contain all the nutrients that plants need for healthy stems and root systems including potassium, which promotes root growth and thicker cell walls.
One of the easiest ways to make your potted plant look fuller instantly is to clip the nodes of the leaves back into the soil. This method works best for vines, pothos, or leafy plants. To accomplish this, all you need is a bobby pin (or a plant clip if your stems are thicker).
'Pinching' describes a type of pruning that encourages plants to branch out along the stem to become fuller and more bushy. When you pinch out a plant, you remove the top of the main stem, forcing the plant to grow two new stems from the leaf nodes below the pinch.
You can lower the temperature, increase the light, water appropriately, and thin them out. If you're just getting started, use these tips to prevent leggy seedlings and get your plants off to a healthy start. Then, they'll be strong for their transition into the outdoor garden.
What Does "Leggy" Mean? A leggy indoor plant has long, weak stems with minimal foliage. Instead of growing compact and bushy, the plant's growth becomes elongated and straggly.
To encourage new growth and branching stems, you can cut leggy houseplants just above the nodes or growth points. This is an easy way to keep houseplants compact. Every spring we use sanitized, sharp shears to perform springtime maintenance.
With some intentional work, you can get your plant to grow the way you'd like. There are three main methods to produce growth: pinching, pruning, and notching. Each method has its place in helping a houseplant grow and branch.
Generally, yes, you can plant leggy seedlings deeper in the soil to help compensate for the extra-long stems! However, avoid the temptation to plant them deeper right away, when they're still very young and tender. Weak, thin, small stems may rot once they're buried in damp soil.
To prune a plant to encourage bushy new growth, snip off the dominant buds on select stems, staggering the cuts to encourage varied growth. Trim some branches back by a quarter, others by a half, and still others all the way back to their base.
Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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