Beginner Gardening: Coleus seedlings, 2 by tapla

tapla wrote:
That they are large plants and trying to keep them small will not work is not necessarily true. Sequoias are considered to be large plants, yet they're regularly kept in small bonsai pots for decades if not longer ........ but my instructions didn't actually involve keeping them small. Rather, proper management of energy can be used to keep the internodes short, leaves smaller, and the plant generally fuller and more compact. Essentially, removing the large leaves that are no longer necessary reduces the amount of energy the plant is able to convert to food, which is a good thing if you're trying to reign in a rangy plant and make it more compact. Combining that strategy with pinching is the best way to maximize ramification (a full plant).

See some normally rangy plants below.

Al

This message was edited Aug 23, 2015 2:20 PM