Home Hydroponics—Pruning the Correct Way

In any garden, whether traditional or hydroponic, it is essential to prune plants to keep them both healthy and looking nice. Pruning is not merely grabbing a pair of scissors and chopping away at your plant. There is actually a correct way to do this—one that won’t damage your plants. There are also several different kinds of pruning, depending on what part of the plant is being pruned and why. Below we will explore both the different types of pruning and the correct way to prune plants in your home hydroponics garden.

The three most frequent types of pruning are sucker pruning, cluster pruning and leaf pruning. Many plants develop “suckers” or branching growths from the main stem. These will develop into their own stem with branches. In order to keep the main plant strong, removal of these suckers is necessary. This also helps keep your plant from spreading too much horizontally.

Cluster pruning involves the flower or fruit of your plant. Plants do not bloom evenly. This can cause a plant to look lopsided and can cause the plant to utilize nutrients unevenly. Home hydroponics gardeners often take time to remove smaller or less healthy blooms in order to enable the healthier ones to grow larger. This also enables the gardener to control how evenly the blooms are spread out on each plant.

Leaf pruning serves two purposes. The home hydroponic gardener removes dead or dying leaves to enable more nutrients to get to healthy parts of the plants. By leaving these dead leaves attached, you not only have a plant that looks unhealthy, you risk having a plant that is actually unhealthy. Another reason for leaf pruning is to prune off lower leaves of the plant. This enables more light to reach the lower branches, thus creating a stronger base.

The first step in pruning is to remove any dead or dying leaves. This can normally be accomplished by simply pinching where they are connected to the plant. Next, look for any dead branches that you can remove. There is no need to allow them to remain on the plant when they have no purpose. Using pruning scissors cut these branches off as close to the main plant as possible without cutting into the good plant material. Once the dead parts are removed, check for any sickly leaves or branches and gently remove them. By doing so, you allow the nutrients to work harder at feeding the healthy parts of the plant.

Now it is time to consider how you want your plant to look. Remove any lower leaves that are cutting off needed light and any suckers. If you want your plant fuller, removing stray branches will enable those left intact to grow. Oftentimes, a plant will create to smaller branches where one is removed, thus creating a fuller plant.

Home hydroponics gardening is increasing in popularity, especially with the rising costs of gas and food. Making sure your plants are as healthy as possible will help save you money in the long run. For more information on creating the best possible home hydroponics garden you can, visit http://www.advancednutrients.com/artcats.php?catID=1

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