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Numerous types of geraniums are famous for their unpretentiousness and vivid flowering. But with modest demands on the soil, watering or temperature, pruning geraniums for lush flowering becomes the main step in care. If it is neglected, pretty soon the number of inflorescences will noticeably decrease, the shoots will stretch and become bare, and the flower itself will become shapeless and unattractive.
How to cut geraniums correctly? When is it best to pinch and remove shoots?
Why is geranium pruning done?
As among the room and garden geraniums there are plants with upright and lodging stems, tall and dwarf forms, ampelous and forms shrubs that form semi-shrubs, each plant will have to choose its own approach.
But the main rule of pruning geraniums is a snap. It provides that attention to the length and growth of the stems should be constant, and pruning regular. The systematic shaping of a geranium bush, started shortly after planting, will help:
- to cause the emergence of side shoots and the formation of new buds of inflorescences;
- give the plant a compact flat shape;
- to make flowering more lush, long and stable;
- get high quality planting material for breeding your favorite variety.
Do not wait for a season or two to lengthen the shoot, and the foliage on it will remain only at the top. The specificity of the geranium is that this plant is extremely rare without outside intervention produces lateral stems, but dormant buds are in each node. Pruning geraniums causes these buds to awaken and not only form a new stem, but also lay flower buds.
Technique for cutting geranium for lush flowering
How to cut geranium to make it bloom? Flowering and good condition of the plant, first of all, depends on the quality of the pruning. Therefore, it is necessary to remove excess or dried stems with a sharp, disinfected instrument:
- It is best to take a blade for this purpose, but if it is not there, a clerical or thin kitchen knife will do.
- Do not use scissors, because they pinch the shoot and break the fabric at the cut point.
The cut is performed on a leaf node facing the outside of the shrub. In this case, the emerging shoots will not interfere with each other and will not cause excessive thickness of the crown.
If you need to remove a young stem, you can do without tools. Pinching make dry clean fingers, trying not to pull the escape and not to damage its surface layer.
To avoid rotting or pest damage, sprinkle with crushed activated charcoal or charcoal. At home, when pruning geraniums in the spring and after flowering, it is convenient to use natural antiseptic cinnamon powder.
After pruning the geranium, plants can be fertilized with a nitrogen-containing compound. This will cause the accelerated formation of greenery and shoots.
How to prune geraniums in the fall?
When the formation of new flower stalks is completed, and the existing inflorescences gradually fade, the time comes for autumn pruning of geraniums. Before this procedure, the goal is not only to form a beautiful bush, but also to improve the plant.
In the first place, all faded flowers, damaged or dried stems and leaves are removed. This will make it possible to facilitate subsequent work and save the power of the plant when the active growth of new shoots begins. After a visual inspection of the geraniums for lush flowering, pruned, weak, bare stems, spoiling the appearance of the bush, are pruned and shortened.
When choosing a cut, it is important to remember that shoots are formed from dormant buds in the nodes, and there is no need to leave long internodes on the tops.
In the fall, retiring plants are pruned by about a third. Do not be afraid of such a deep pruning geranium. During the winter, with good lighting and compliance with the conditions of maintenance of the plant, they all catch up and form a new healthy growth. Bush geraniums for better branching shoots pinch after every fourth bud.
The process of pruning and pinching painlessly for geranium lasts until December. Then the plants are left alone. In the darkest season, 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, pruning geraniums are not pruned so dramatically as in the fall. Such work should begin in the last days of February or at the very beginning of March. In this case, it is dangerous to procrastinate. The later extra shoots are removed, the later flower buds will form, and bloom will come.
How to cut geranium in spring so that the consequences do not affect the summer flowering of plants? To do this, it is enough to remove only long or weakened stems, cutting them out so that at least 2-3 buds are preserved from below.
How to prune geranium to get a stem plant?
Before cutting the geranium and forming a miniature stem tree from it, the lateral branches are removed from the bush, and the selected stem is tied in several places to a strong support fixed by a row.
The geranium stems are rather fragile, therefore, the garter of the central shoot to the vertical support must be taken very carefully. The barrel is fixed in several places so that the support can withstand the weight and escape, and the growing crown.
At this stage, the shoot does not need pruning until its height is slightly higher than the support. A nip of the central shoot will trigger its branching. From the stems formed, 5–7 are left to create a lush, even crown of the future tree on their basis.
As with the pruning of geraniums, after the formation of every fourth leaf, the shoots pinch, which over time allows you to create a living and extremely original decoration of the interior or garden. Since the plant is intensively pruned, it is necessary to wait for the first inflorescences not earlier than in a year when the crown is formed. For lush flowering, pruning the geranium and nipping it a couple of months before it is stopped to allow the plant to lay buds.
