How to make a petunia “lush”

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Petunias have long earned great popularity among flower growers due to their long flowering, ease of cultivation, and a wide variety of colors and shapes. The plant is widely used for landscaping city parks, summer cottages, home balconies and terraces.

Although many representatives of this ornamental culture are considered unpretentious, caring for them requires knowledge of the peculiarities of agricultural technology. One of them is pinching.

Why do you need to pinch petunias

Petunias, primarily ampelous, are not prone to independent bushing. A plant that develops without human intervention forms only one long stem, and few flower buds are laid on it. Proper pinching stimulates the formation of side shoots. The result is a bush that looks neat, and it produces much more buds and flowers. In addition, the quality of flowering increases: it becomes more lush and hardy. Pinching is the main way to get a beautiful and healthy petunia bush.

Removing the tops of the shoots promotes the appearance of new lateral stems, which allows you to form a beautiful flowering bush.

For bush varieties, pinching is also recommended to stimulate branching, and for most modern cascading varieties, it is considered optional.

When is it best to pinch

The earlier you start the process of forming a plant, the better. It is recommended to do the first pinching when the seedlings have at least 4-5 full-fledged leaves. Removing the “growth point” at this point not only stimulates the development of new shoots: the increase in green mass allows you to strengthen the root system of plants. Such bushes then more easily tolerate transplanting to a permanent place, bloom luxuriantly and for a long time. The procedure can be repeated in about a month, when the plants recover from stress and get stronger. During this time, side shoots will grow on the main stem, and each of them will need to be pinched.

How to do pinching

For pinching, you will need manicure scissors or a stationery knife, which should be wiped with alcohol, otherwise the flower may get sick or even die. It is believed that the petunia should be pinched correctly immediately after 4-5 leaves appear on the stem. Having prepared the tools, determine the correct place for pinching: count four leaves from the bottom – and remove the top of the shoot, making a cut at a right angle, as in the photo above. Thanks to this, the petunia will not grow upwards, but to the sides, and new buds will begin to form on the side shoots, from which flowers will appear. After you cut off the upper part of the plant, the cut site must be sprinkled with ash or activated carbon powder. If there are at least 3-4 leaves on the cut tops, such stems are usually not thrown away, but used for vegetative propagation: the cuttings are rooted in water or a moist substrate, and then planted in a permanent place.

Using cuttings, experienced gardeners successfully save on the purchase of ready-made seedlings or increase the number of specimens of rare and fashionable varieties of crops grown independently from expensive seeds.

The second time the petunia needs to be pinched after it has been planted in a permanent place – in a container (pot, flowerpot, etc.) or in open ground. Pinching creates a stressful situation for the plant. As a rule, the procedure postpones the start of flowering by 2-3 weeks. To help the bushes adapt faster, it is recommended to feed them well with a complex mineral fertilizer and spray the leaves with a growth stimulant.

General principles of pinching petunias

If you want your petunia to bloom profusely and for a long time, and the bushes themselves to look beautiful and lush, you should follow these rules:

• the earlier the first pinching of seedlings is carried out, the easier it will be for the plant to tolerate stress and subsequent transplanting to a permanent place;
• only healthy bushes can be pinched – if young plants develop slowly and look weak, it is better to wait with the procedure;
• each pinching delays the start of flowering, so pruning is carried out a little more than 2-3 times per season.