Indoor Asparagus Fern Plant - Asparagus densiflorus "Sprengeri"

This drooping form of Asparagus fern (Emerald Feather), needs a haircut each spring. It's beginning to thin at the top and get rather bushy at the base. This is a great plant for a hanging basket or in a raised planter.

I see so many different treatments of pruning for this plant, so I thought I would show you how I manage to keep its natural pendulous form.

This room gets moderate light and because it lives happily on a raised plant stand, we still enjoy the long stems to nearly reach the floor.

Wear GLOVES, please!

Before beginning any pruning, please be aware: Asparagus fern plants have spiny thorn like barbs - especially on older woody growth. WEAR GLOVES when handling this plant. Or ouch!

Can you see them? Tiny. Be careful!

First, get a good look from all angles. Get your gloves on and peak beneath those long trusses of growth.

With your gloves, pull back to reveal dead wood, browning stems and leaves that are dry and falling off. Comb with your gloves downwards to get rid of the dead bits. Be thorough. And don't worry, breaking a few stems in the process isn't going to hurt the plant. Prune out any yellowing stems or stems that are weak and not robust.

You want to avoid cutting younger growth. One trick to recognize them from the old is their lack of thorny barbs. See, no gloves to prove a point.

Another way is to see the colour variation.

The older stems are thicker and darker green.

I recommend cutting a third of the old stems back right from the base of the soil.

Go back to the top of the pot. You'll see brown, woody stems that emerge from tuber nodules (lumpy bumps) at the soil level. Don't damage those bumps by pruning the woody stems.  Just cut above.

From the base, gently tease the stems you cut out from the mass of growth and doing this will help generate younger growth to emerge from the top.

Next, figure how long you want to reduce its length.

Grab all the stems and gather them into a pony tail. Cut right above your grasp.


Don't stop there...

The healthy stems remaining need a trim as well. First look for bud axils along each stem. Find really healthy robust joints and start to thin out. Select 1 in about 10 stems like this and give them a cut back.

To show you better contrast, I've laid the cut stem on my jeans so you can see where to cut. Those buds just nestled in the joint of stems and leaves will become new stems.  Cutting some of this lengthy growth in half will bulk up the centre of the plant, as well as force new growth to emerge from the soil. This is key, or you will always have a bulky base and thin top to your hanging plant.

There, a little more even. No more puddling of stems on the floor. No more dead wood or browning leaves. Healthier all around.

Try it yourself!

Pruning and Propagating Jade Plants

With spring coming around the corner, I need to get some house plant duties done.

Three years ago, I rescued a Jade plant which was abandoned in an office corner - covered in mealy bug. (Here's the post on it: Taking care of Mealy Bug). The plant's habit was quite distorted and funky looking when it was brought home. Once the mealy bugs were gone, I just let it rest and recover first before pruning hard.

Now that it has fully recovered, too many stems are meandering and jutting out here and there. I would prefer to get it back on track.

Tiny buds started to emerge from the stem about 5 months ago - now growing upright, towards the light. Yes!  I was patiently waiting for these to grow.

A little pruning and staking will give a better shape and tighter habit. I prefer using a budding knife, or like in this case - a sharp kitchen knife to make the cuts. I just cleaned the blade with rubbing alcohol first (to prevent bacteria or pathogens entering in the stem). Leaving about 1 cm of the main stem to the right of the new green shoot (as seen above). What ever you do, don't cut too close to the shoot.

Even if you only have tiny shoots standing straight up, you can cut off the main stalk to your desired shape.

Finished first step of pruning. I left that wonky stem on the left side, planning to cut and root it once I get better growth, so it remains for now.

With Jade plants - they tend to be slow growing in our environment at home. Patience is key. Pruning will have to take on several stages before the final desired shape will be achieved. But, I love plants and will wait for proper pruning results. Now I can adjust the stake and wait until those new shoots develop into sturdy stems.

But wait - what about all the cut off bits?  Don't chuck them in the compost. Save and restart the process by making new plant-lets. You can give them as gifts - it's so easy to do!

Jade plants have to be one of the easiest to propagate. As seen all over the main stems, little aerial roots are developing at bud axils. These are what you want to reserve.

The trick with propagating succulents, when you take cuttings, you MUST callouss them off first.

This just means, you make and take cuttings and allow the fresh cut ends to seal off and dry completely.

This prevents pathogens and bacteria entering in those cuts when you root them on in potting soil.

Freshly cut.

Here I've placed them by the window, so the light and air movement from the radiator and window will help to dry them out. They've been drying out for about 15 days.

2 weeks old.

Two weeks later, the leaves and stems are still plump and are not shrivelled. Tells you what reserves these amazing Jade plants have built in! And as you can see, the cut off blunt end is all callused. Sealed over. Roots are still white and firm. Good sample.

Now, don't throw out any leaves that have fallen off, until you have a good look at their base.

The right side are the kinds of leaves you want to save. 

Here's why:

Jade plant leaves are great to start new plants with. But you need to know a trick. Don't tear off the leaves by damaging the basal part of the leaf that was attached to the stem. They must have wings as shown above. New buds and leaves will emerge from these undamaged ends. So be careful removing them from the stem.

With propagating cuttings and leaves, you need to use succulent or cactus soil. The soil must be porous and loose.

Or make your own:

Make sure the pot you use is not too large. Or too much moisture will dominate and mould and rot will take over.

On this cutting sample, I removed many leaves so that the cutting won't suffer from lack of root development. You see, when propagating, roots should equal the amount leaves. When there aren't any roots, reducing the amount of leaves - the cutting is less stressed. 

In removing the leaves, sometimes little leaf axil bits still stick on the stem. Use a clean spoon to scrape any bits from the bud. They flick off easily from the stem, now that they were calloused over. Leaving these green bits attached would attract decay. And we need to make sure that roots develop with ease. You can use rooting hormone if you wish, but since I have small rootlets already, this isn't necessary.

This pot is about 3 inches high, slightly taller than the length of the cutting. I just used a metal prong to pre-dig a hole and then...

...inserted the cuttings, without firming the soil around. I placed two cuttings in each pot and used a larger pot with a shallow insert to root on the leaves. Here I situated them next to the window, close to a radiator beneath. Perfect spot. Warm base, sunny top.

I only gave a 1/4 cup or so of water for each pot and lightly watered each leaf separately. DO NOT OVER WATER at this stage. Let the little bit of moisture from the damp soil and the air pockets help draw out new roots.

Some folks add grit/course sand to the top. You can, but I find I can't tell how wet the soil is at this stage. In a month or so, I may go ahead and add grit to help trap in moisture, that way I don't need to water as often. Until then, I can easily see damp soil and know when to prevent overwatering.

Wait a month or two and new leaves will emerge from the base of each leaf and new terminal buds will developed on the cuttings. I can't wait! It's so easy!

UPDATE:

Four weeks later.....success!  Here are the tell-tale signs that the cuttings have taken root.

Before: just placed on the window sill. No visible leaves or buds at the terminal axil.

Up Close After:  New Leaves! Yay!

Shiny new leaves emerging from the leaf joint.

Now you go and try it yourself!

Common Houseplant Pests: Part 4 Mealy Bugs (Update)

I continue to get messages and comments regarding my mealy bugs on jade plants post. It's a sad reality, but a common ground for those of us who love our houseplants and want to save them.

Here is an update of my previous post regarding that sad jade plant that we rescued.

After spraying with water, dabbing with alcohol and repotting; the jade plant is starting to really bounce back. It's been over a year since any mealy bugs have been seen. It was a labour of love. Staking it now - we are trying to regain a balanced growth habit. I just wish we had more light to get tighter stem growth.

No more distorted leaves and white flakey bits in the leaf axils. All clean.

Interesting enough, 3 months ago, a huge jade plant was gifted to us and on close inspection, it too was covered in mealy bug.

I didn't even take a picture of the before, as it went straight into the bathtub and got a spray down. I wasn't going to allow mealy to take over the house. This plant was worse. However, while trying to spray the plant down, the tightness of growth habit didn't allow for a thorough job. Instead, the power washer was used on a softer spray setting and all the nooks and crannies were blasted.

 This is the result. After a thorough blast, a heavy prune (to thin out and expose the inside of the plant) and the removal of nearly all the top portion of soil - it's starting to come back.

 All the pruned lesions are showing new buds and growth.

As you can see, some of the spray from the power washer made damaging holes. No worries. Once more leaves emerge, I will pinch this leaf off.

With healthy new leaves and tons of new growth - within a year, this jade plant will begin to look as good as when it was gifted to us.

Who needs chemicals?