How To Prune Devil's Ivy
Devil’s ivy is an extremely easy-to-grow plant that adapts to almost all indoor environments. It can survive well without any soil or sunlight. Whether you keep it in a warm or a cool room, it will serve well in a hanging basket or a tabletop planter. It has big heart shaped leaves that may have yellow streaks on them. Although it can thrive in almost all growing conditions, its leaves need regular trimming. Cutting back the stems of the Devil’s ivy is extremely helpful in managing the length of its vines. If not trimmed, its branches can reach the entire span of your room, and will attach themselves to almost any surface they come across. The best thing is that this plant can tolerate heavy trimming and you can do it at almost any time of the year. Read this OneHowTo.com article to find out how to prune Devil's ivy.
Steps to follow:
Start by examining the stems of the plant and locating the leaf scars. The scar is the area where the leaves join to the main stem is called. Look for any horizontal lines on the stem, caused by the leaf scars.
Select the leaves that you want to prune. Use a clean knife, scissors or, ideally, pruning shears, to cut the stem half an inch above the leaf scar. Devil’s ivy will send out a new stem at the scars below the point of cutting, from which a shorter, fuller plant will be possible. If you cut all leaves right at the bottom of the root, you will end up creating an almost leafless stem. The stem can be cut back as much as required to maintain the size that you desire.
Cut back any new stem that grows during the summer and spring seasons. Cut the stem back to the leaf on the top to help further branching and growth. You can continue trimming the leaves until you give the desired shape to the plant. Pruning the Devil’s ivy will promote bushier and more compact growth in future.
Inspect the Devil’s ivy for any mealy bugs, which are commonly seen pests on this indoor plant. You will identify them as a cotton-like white fuzz under some leaves of the plant. Treat them by rubbing an alcohol soaked cotton swab on them. Trim off any discolored stems or leaves from the plant.
After pruning, remove any plant material which fell into the pot. Water the plant until the soil becomes moist. Avoid long periods of dryness, as the plant will now need to recover from the trimming session it went through and start a new growth.
Keep aside any long and healthy vines you cut off. Pruned off roots of the Devil’s ivy can grow into a new plant. To make them grow, you can coat the stem’s end that you cut with a rooting hormone and put it in watered soil. The soil should be moist. The pruning can root and start growing within 4-6 weeks of trimming.
Shedding a few leaves every now and then is normal for a Devil’s ivy plant. But constant shedding and yellowing will indicate that you are watering your plant much more than needed. Use a balanced house plant fertilizer to feed your plant every 2 weeks during summer, fall and spring. Feed only once during winter months. Trim off the growing tips to keep it bushy and growing. You may also be interested in How to care for devil's ivy.
If you have experience with this plant not growing properly, or even growing too much, share with us in the comments below.
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