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aharriedmom

Extra Leggy Pelargonium - can I air layer?

aharriedmom
11 years ago

One day I looked at my Pelargonium and two of the main branches were dying back, and the healthy one was long, long. I wasn't sure what to do besides cut the dying ones back to healthy stem (they have never grown) and I was busy with other-life stuff and the healthy stem got longer and longer and longer (and longer).

Sunday I took a cutting from the tip and hopefully it will root - but I was wondering about trying air layering with the remaining plant. I've seen a couple "how to do it" webpages but there were no comments about the success rate.

Should I try it or should I wait for new growth and get more cuttings?

This particular plant has meaning to me so I'd like to save it (or its offspring).

Comments (3)

  • flora_uk
    11 years ago

    You could cut the long stem off and cut it into sections. As long as each section has a pair of leaves you can root each piece, just as is it were a tip cutting.

  • aharriedmom
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you for the response and sorry I didn't see it earlier!

    The first cutting is doing well, I think - I did cut one of the leaves in half because I think (with my very limited and new knowledge) that it was too much for the plant to support.

    Just to clarify:

    So I can take the remaining stem and just cut above each leaf node as far down as I have leaves and plant each piece? Doing that I could get three more cuttings from the stem.
    Do I need to wait for the next piece in line to callous over before cutting it off or can I just chop, chop, chop all the pieces at once?

    unanswerable question: Where will I put all these cuttings? I'm running out of room because I have dived right into houseplants - plus this year I decided to attempt some cuttings from some of my outside plants and they're in the house as well. I need plant shelves, lol.

  • aharriedmom
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I have taken two cuttings off my pelargonium. The first is well rooted (ha, I typed 'rotted' at first) and growing new leaves. The second is freshly 'planted' so hasn't had time to grow yet.

    After I took the first cutting, the mother plant grew a bunch of new leaves, including one further down the stem than had previously had leaves. You can see where I took the second cutting in relation to the leaf.

    My question is - since these plants can grow from cuttings, can I repot the mother plant and bury some of the stem to help make it less leggy? Will the stem that is buried take root? I plan to repot the mother plant into the 5-1-1 mix (unless it's thought the gritty mix would be better for the plant).

    Will that cause an issue with rot because it has two (3?) cut-off stems low on the plant?

    Or - will cutting it back again potentially cause it to start growing new leaves further down the left-over stem, like it did after the first cutting?

    Thank you!!!

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