Five Tips For Great Vegetation
Chances are if you’re a plant owner you’re familiar with the term leggy. Now at first this sounds like maybe it's a nice thing, your plant is growing after all, but it’s growing in every direction except up and suddenly your pot looks empty. “What happened to my full foliage?!” your inner voice questions and perhaps you’ve found your way here for the answers.
There are five main things to do to help our leafy friends if they’re getting leggy, so read on to find out as i’ve already done the leg work for you!
Number One: Let In The Light
The biggest reason why plants tend to become leggy is that they’re not receiving adequate amounts of light. Try opening windows earlier, moving your plants to sunnier areas, or investing in grow lights. Since plants grow towards the sun, when the light is sparse they tend to spread out in search of sunlight. Offer your plants more light and they’ll start perking right up!
Number Two: Rotate Your Pots
If your plant resembles the leaning tower of Pisa lately or has a prominent front vs back side, it's receiving uneven light. The great news is that this is one of the easiest fixes! Simply rotate your pot once every week or two so that it gets sun from all sides. Overhead light can be especially helpful, as it encourages even vertical growth.
Number Three: Check Your Conditions
If you’ve ensured that your plants are receiving good lighting conditions and they still seem sad, make sure it’s not a deeper problem. Plants can become leggy as a result of poor growing conditions, so look at your soil to see if it’s time to repot, make sure the humidity level is okay, check that your planters have drain holes, etc. Sometimes little things we might overlook make big differences.
Number Four: Tools Of The Trade
Now sometimes, especially with larger aroids and big plants in general, a plant may appear leggy because it is lacking support. Sometimes only a temporary support is needed until the plant begins to grow more upright again. If this is the case a simple pole with ties or plant clips can hold the larger leaves upright and help the plant adjust. In certain cases a more permanent support might be needed. In the case of plants such as a mature Monstera, using a moss pole so that the aerial roots of the plant can grow into it will keep the plant growth more vertical, thus ensuring your plant grows more upwards than outwards.
Number Five: If It's Too Late, Propagate.
If you’ve left a plant to grow down and out for too long, it’s not to say it's done for. You’ll hear the term “chop and prop” come up often within plant groups, so let's get into what that means and why it’ll help. To chop and prop means to cut back pieces of the plant and then propagate those pieces. If your plant went from a full pot to a few sad leaves or vines you can chop, prop and then re-pot. This allows the newly propagated pieces to fill in any gaps that formed and leads to an even fuller plant than what you most likely started with! It’s best to propagate and repot during the growing season, so if winter has left your plants leggy a little spring chop n prop may be just the refresh they need.
