After I was a little bit child gardener, making an attempt my hand at rising vegetation in my mother’s backyard, I began out with an affordable little petunia that I discovered within the discount bin at a grocery retailer.
That 12 months and for a few years to observe, my petunia vegetation would develop fortunately and proceed to bloom all summer time, however they virtually all the time become a leggy mess.
They stopped trying like the fuzzy, colourful vegetation we all know and love and began to look scraggly and skinny halfway by the rising season.
I knew they may look stunning. Those within the hanging pots lining our Foremost Road all the time seemed phenomenal. What was I doing unsuitable?
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Now, collect ‘spherical, kids. Auntie Kristine goes to let you know a few time lengthy, way back, earlier than the web was accessible in your pocket.
Again then I couldn’t simply hearth up the household laptop and do a fast search to determine the issue. I needed to ask round. I checked out books on the library, and I talked to a pleasant professional on the native nursery.
That’s how I first discovered why these vegetation turn out to be straggly and methods to keep away from it.
I even discovered methods to repair the issue if the plant grew to become a leggy mess. As soon as I discovered the best way of the petunia, I by no means needed to take care of an unpleasant, lanky pile of stems ever once more.
All these years later, I’ll come throughout a house with a pot filled with leggy flowers, and I need to share the great phrase. That might be a bit cheeky, so I’ll simply share it with you, as a substitute.
Whereas we’re at it, in case you want a fast rundown of methods to greatest develop and look after petunias, go to our information. Then, we’ll dive into rising bushier, happier vegetation.
Coming proper up, right here’s what we’re going to go over:
Leggy petunias are exceptionally frequent as a result of these vegetation naturally tackle a scraggly, prolonged progress behavior as they age. So to forestall this, now we have to struggle towards the plant’s pure progress.
Earlier than we speak about prevention or fixes, let’s speak about why this type of progress occurs.
Why Do Petunias Change into Leggy?
Petunias naturally have a trailing, pendulous, or mounding behavior.
As every flower grows and fades, the plant sends out longer stems with new flower buds. It’s not too far a stretch to go from trailing to leggy and it may possibly occur rapidly.
All through its progress cycle, the plant continually sends out new progress.
Whether or not this progress is thick and luxurious or lengthy and skinny depends upon a number of elements, together with the quantity of moisture, daylight, and vitamins the plant receives.
There are self-heading varieties on the market and these will usually preserve a way more compact behavior with none intervention from you.
Even if you’re rising one among these, it nonetheless helps to know what to do to forestall legginess.
Stopping Legginess
Petunias supplied with the correct quantity of water are much less prone to turn out to be extraordinarily leggy.
The quantity of water a plant requires depends upon the species or hybrid you might be rising, location, time of 12 months, and whether or not or not it’s rising in a container.
Many hybrids do greatest if the soil is allowed to simply barely dry out between waterings, whereas some want a bit extra constant moisture.
Because the summer time progresses and the climate turns into hotter and drier, the vegetation will inevitably want extra moisture.
The trick is to maintain the moisture stage constant. Don’t let the plant dry out and wilt one week after which preserve it overly moist the following, petunias do greatest with consistency.
Daylight can also be an element. A plant that receives too little solar goes to try to stretch and attain to seek out the quantity of sunshine it wants.
They carry out greatest in not less than six hours of daylight, however much more is healthier. A fast option to produce a leggy plant is to place it in too little daylight!
Lastly, soil diet is a vital issue, significantly for petunias rising in containers. When a plant is in a pot, it has restricted entry to vitamins. It depends on you to offer it what it wants.
Most varieties will do greatest when fed each different week with a light, balanced fertilizer.
I feel Right down to Earth’s Starter Combine is ideal, as a result of not solely does it have the precise stability of vitamins with alfalfa meal, fish bone meal, oyster shell, and assist meal, but it surely additionally incorporates helpful endomycorrhizal fungi, which is usually missing in potting soil.
Right down to Earth Starter Combine
Arbico Organics carries this fertilizer in one- or five-pound containers.
While you present the right situations to your flowers, all that’s left to do is deadhead the spent flowers.
Anytime you see a flower that has light in colour, appears to be like a little bit ragged, or has closed up, pinch it or minimize it off simply in entrance of the closest leaf node or the leaf node behind it.
This encourages the petunia to ship out new, branching progress and flower buds, serving to to take care of the fuzzy behavior.
Tips on how to Repair Leggy Development
So let’s say, regardless of your efforts at correct cultivation, your petunia grew to become all leggy and gangly, like a colt that hasn’t grown into its legs. To not fear, these vegetation will be fastened proper up.
Simply minimize the stems again. Take away the tip two inches or so on the leggy branches, making the minimize simply in entrance of a leaf node, whether or not it has leaves or not. If the plant is extraordinarily leggy, you may minimize the branches again by two-thirds.
These vegetation can deal with plenty of pruning, so don’t be shy. Go forward and provides them the exhausting chop in the event that they’ve gotten particularly leggy.
Now, keep on prime of deadheading and be sure you’re offering the correct quantity of water, vitamins, and daylight.
Leg It From Legginess
I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of to ask to have huge, bushy petunias with piles of colour with out having to tolerate straggly stems. You don’t must.
Rising these flowers doesn’t imply you need to take care of ugly, leggy progress.
Hopefully you now know methods to take care of leggy, scraggly vegetation. In the event you nonetheless have questions, inform us all about it within the feedback part beneath.
And for extra details about rising petunias, try these guides subsequent: