Pruning Dracaena: Useful Tips

To grow a false palm at home, it’s a dracaena, it won’t work if you don’t know the pruning technique. This operation should be carried out regularly - this helps to renew the leaf part and allows you to prevent or cure plant diseases in time. By trimming, a neat crown shape is created, thanks to which the plant decorates any house in such a way.

Dracaena Care - General Points

Dracaena itself is an undemanding plant in its care, and in many respects because of this it is so common among those who like to practice flowers. Especially well take root at home varieties Marginata, Godsefa and Dragon Tree.

Dracaena has many varieties, most of them are unpretentious in care

Table: Dracaena content throughout the year

What else you need to know about dracaena:

• Before watering, it is recommended to loosen the soil around the trunk well, check to what depth the soil has dried out. If drying does not reach a depth of 2-3 cm, you need to wait with watering. Better to underfill than transfuse the plant. Varieties with wide leaves have a large evaporation area, and therefore require abundant watering.
• Variegated species of dracaena need very good lighting. They will feel more comfortable on the south window. In summer, dracaena can be taken out into the open, but sheltered from the wind and the scorching sun room: on the bay window, balcony, loggia, terrace.
• All dracaena are afraid of drafts and direct sunlight, despite their African origin. Contamination should also be avoided by wiping the leaves with a damp soft cloth.
• For less trauma to the plant during transplantation, experienced gardeners use a transshipment method (transplantation while preserving the old soil). Dracaena under the age of 5 years must be transplanted every year, then once every two to three years.

Self-trimming dracaena - how to do it right

Pruning in itself is a stress for the plant, and if it is performed during the period of pronounced dormancy from October to January inclusive, it is doubly painful. The plant is weakened, the healing of sections and the appearance of lateral shoots is much slower, and even the death of the plant is possible during the rehabilitation period. Nevertheless, pruning should be carried out, but the best time for this operation is the period from early spring to early fall, during the growth phase, when the places of cuts heal better and faster and the awakening of sleeping buds occurs.

In order not to additionally injure the plant, pruning must be done on time and correctly

There are several reasons for trimming dracaena:

• plant aging, the need for rejuvenation;
• deformation of dracaena, the need to give the crown a shape;
• reproduction of dracaena by transplantation of processes;
• disease prevention, treatment for pests.

You can learn more about how to deal with diseases and pests of dracaena from the material: //diz-cafe.com/rastenija/bolezni-i-vrediteli-draceny-kak-raspoznat-problemu-i-borotsya-s-nej.html

Trimming for side shoots

If you have acquired a young plant with one trunk, and it has a sufficient length - at least 30 cm to the place of leaf formation - it can be cut for branching. To do this, cut 10 cm from the top of the dracaena. After the procedure, from two to five new shoots can form on the trunk. It is customary to leave three strong shoots in such a way that they are freely located on the stem.

Dracaena Marginata: before and after pruning for lateral shoots

Branch pruning

It is carried out in those cases when the leaves are crumbled at the dracaena and it is necessary to return to it a magnificent and elegant crown. If there are 2-3 branches on the trunk, the tops of each of them are trimmed at the same height, leaving only 2-3 hatching sleeping buds.

2-3 hatching kidneys are recommended to be left after pruning

If you cut the shoots at different heights, you can get a beautiful multi-tiered plant.

Layered dracaena is created by trimming the tops at different heights

How to Make Dracaena Bonsai

The cultivation of dracaena in the bonsai technique is, in principle, possible, but is associated with great difficulties. Dracaena grows rapidly, and some of its species have large leaves, so a real dwarf tree will not work out of it - although you can try to imitate Japanese technique.

It will be possible to achieve the desired result if we ensure uniform development of the root system and the deciduous part.

You need to take a plant with a low trunk (not higher than 30 cm) and a developed crown, take it out of the pot and cut the roots by about a third. Transplant the plant into a suitable flat container with drainage. The root neck remains 1-2 cm above the soil level. After 2-3 weeks, you can begin to form a crown. Trimming the top and side shoots are further operations that are performed as the growth and the desired result. The roots are pruned once every two years. To create additional shoots, the so-called tops, cut lignified shoots near the trunk. This procedure contributes to the thickening of the trunk below the cut branches. Extra sprouts are removed on the trunk.

A few tops formed at the root neck of dracaena after trimming

After dracaena transplant, pruning is at the discretion of the owner - depending on the form you want to receive. So, for example, you can raise the root neck, leave one strong sprout in place of the trimmed top, and remove the rest.

After trimming dracaena, you can leave only one strong sprout

Dracaena bonsai is quite demanding in care. It is necessary to regularly and thoroughly dust the leaves, remove the yellow leaves in a timely manner, monitor the humidity level in the room: often spray the plant, use a double pan with wet gravel, plant moss in the soil where dracaena grows - it retains moisture.

2 times a week, the dracaena must be turned to the light by 90^about - for even distribution of sunshine.

Trimming rejuvenation with dracaena

With age, the plants dry out and fall off the lower leaves, the trunk becomes long and unattractive. When necessary, pruning is done to update the plant. The long trunk is shortened - the minimum recommended height is not lower than 5 cm, although you can cut the dracaena almost to the base, leaving at most three buds at a height of 0.5 cm. Just make sure that the cut is always open before healing. The place below the cut level is treated with a growth stimulant and wrapped with moss. After this pruning, the awakened buds will grow and no longer into the side shoots, but into the central trunks.

Such a magnificent outfit dracaena received after anti-aging pruning

You can not cut off a diseased plant with a rejuvenating purpose that can be treated. Usually, after trimming the unhealthy dracaena, rotting of the cut places begins and the trunk is damaged to the very base - then it is almost impossible to save it. You must try to cure it first, and then do the pruning. A healthy dracaena after pruning will begin to branch and will return to its former beauty.

Sanitary pruning

With severe dracaena disease, pruning is done at any time of the year. Cut off all affected parts of the plant: trunk sections, branches, leaves. Be sure to check the condition of the root system - with partial root decay, the affected areas are also trimmed and disinfected. With complete decay of the root system, you can try to save the healthy parts of the dracaena for reproduction. Cut off the tops and parts of the trunk that are not infected and will subsequently be transplanted, soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 6 hours for prevention.

In the absence of disease, if, for example, the dracaena shoots are deformed, a sanitary-forming pruning is performed with the removal of all the tops, deformed shoots and dried leaves.

7 steps dracaena pruning

You need to cut the dracaena with a sterile tool

1. Take a sterile sharp knife, determine the location of the cut at the desired height, not lower than 30 cm from the soil on the central trunk and side branches. You need to plan the cut at the level at which the plant will have access to light.
2. Gently and evenly cut. Immediately after surgery, treat with garden varieties, molten wax or crushed activated carbon. This procedure is done so that the inner layer of the trunk does not dry out.
3. If there are leaves at a distance of 10 cm or more from the cut, remove them to reduce the area of ​​evaporation and the rapid growth of lateral shoots.
4. For better awakening of sleeping buds, treat the stem with a growth stimulator at the level of 15 cm from the cut. An aqueous solution of epin, charcor, cytokinin paste, etc. is suitable.
5. Wrap around the trunk about 15 cm with moist moss. The slice remains open.
6. Cover the plant with a plastic bag to create the required temperature and humidity. The best option: temperature 25^about C and air humidity 75%.
7. Water the plant abundantly and put in a shaded place.

Video: cropping and shaping the crown of dracaena

Features after trimming

After pruning, the dracaena is watered 2-3 times a week through the pan, since the package is not removed in order to maintain a stable microclimate and until new seedlings appear. The stem 3-4 times a week is sprayed with water at room temperature. Once a week, moss is moistened, if any, and the trunk is inspected. Immediately after the buds hatch on the trunk, the cellophane is removed and the pot is transferred to the light.

It will also be useful material about methods of propagation of dracaena: //diz-cafe.com/rastenija/dratsena-razmnozhenie-v-domashnih-usloviyah.html

Possible cropping issues

• After trimming, in some cases, the kidneys do not wake up. It is necessary to re-trim, making sections a few centimeters lower than before.
• The place of the cut in one or more areas (the central trunk and lateral shoots) begins to rot. Immediately need to do a second crop, removing all the rotten parts.
• Some kidneys are stunted. You can activate their development by spraying the emerging shoots with urea (an aqueous solution of urea - 1 g / l) or make an aqueous solution of the growth regulator by adding micronutrient fertilizer (2 drops of epin + 2 drops of cytovit per 250 ml of water). Zircon is more suitable for stimulating flowering. After the procedure, gently blot with a cloth so that the solution does not stagnate in the sinuses of the shoots and does not cause burns to the plant.

It’s easy to grow a palm-like plant at home - dracaena is undemanding to maintain. From the owner you need attention and timely watering, proper lighting and trimming done on time ...