Those who dedicate part of a terrace, a garden, or the interior of their house to the care of plants should know their basic needs to promote their good growth and maintain good health. In this sense, one way to care for a plant is pruning.
It will be essential that you do it correctly to promote the plant's reproduction and prevent it from being affected by pests or diseases. For example, the Brazilian trunk, water stick, happiness stick, or Dracaena fragrans, one of the most common plants in homes because it is very decorative and easy to care for, requires pruning you must do from time to time.
If you have this plant at home and want to discover when and how to prune a Brazilian trunk, as well as the most basic care for this plant, read on.
When Can the Brazilian Trunk be Pruned
The Brazilian trunk ( Dracaena fragrans ), also known as the stick of water and the stick.f happiness has a specific season of the year that is ideal to be pruned. The best time to prune a Brazilian trunk is summer, especially if you want to promote the plant's reproduction process.
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Why should brazilwood be pruned in summer? Simply because these months of the year help cut you extract from the plant to develop new roots. In this way, new planting is favored, so if you have a Brazilian trunk that is too high for the warm months, you can adjust its size and take advantage of it to get the cuttings.
How to Prune a Brazilian Trunk-Step by Step
Before detailing the pruning process, you must have all the tools to prune a Brazilian trunk, which are the following: special pruning shears, pruning gloves (optional), and healing paste to heal the wounds caused in the plant by the cuts made.
If you are pruning the main trunk or some thick side logs, you should use large pruning shears or a pruning knife. When you have the materials organized, take note of how the Brazilwood is pruned :
- Disinfect the scissors with rubbing alcohol and put on the gloves if you think you'll need them. We recommend using them if the trunk is thick and you will have to use a lot of force to achieve pruning.
- If you want to do a complete pruning, for example, if the plant is too tall or its highest part and some branches are diseased, start by taking as a reference point half the stem's total height and making the cut. This is the most common method for pruning the plant, but you can also cut from a lower or higher point, depending on the plant's height and condition.
- Cut with a little slant. The path cannot be completely straight. It should have a minimum of 25 degrees of inclination.
- Cure the parts that you have cut from the Brazilian trunk so that it is not affected by any disease or plague since it is very common for fungi to appear in the lesions if clean tools have not been used or if preventive treatment is not used. To do this, use a homemade or commercial healing paste.
Do you want to discover how to make homemade healing paste for plants? Follow these steps.
- Melt some wax in a bowl.
- Add 15 grams of fungicide powder.
- Mix the melted wax with the fungicide powder until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the cuts made to the plant.
- Wait a few minutes for the mixture to cool down and start working on the cuts. In this way, the cuts are sealed, and the plant is prevented from getting sick or water from entering this delicate area, which would negatively affect the plant.
After finishing the pruning of the Brazilian trunk and healing the wounds with the homemade healing paste, the plant will not require great care to maintain good health. You have to comply with the basic care and wait for new shoots to form.
How to Care for a Brazilian Log
After discovering how to prune a Brazilian trunk, when is the best time of the year to do it, and how to heal the wounds caused by cuts during pruning, it is necessary that you know or, at least, review the basic care of the Brazilwood.
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- Brightness: this plant, although you should not expose it directly to the sun, needs to be located in places with good light.
- Temperature: the water stick does not adapt to the cold and suffers a lot of it being exposed to sudden temperature changes. Avoid placing it outside, especially in the winter and even less at night.
- Humidity: requires to be in a humid environment. Try to spray warm water on its leaves 2-3 times each week.
- Irrigation: despite needing moisture, the Palo de agua does not require abundant watering. The frequency with which you should water it is 2-3 times a week in summer and once every 10 days in winter. Check that the surface of the floor is dry before adding water to prevent it from puddling.
- Fertilization: the ideal time to fertilize the Brazilian trunk is in spring and summer. At this time and every 15 days, apply diluted fertilizer to the water with which you water the plant.
- Reproduction: you just have to cut some shots and, later, plant them again. Another alternative that you can resort to is the use of residues that remain from the plant's pruning, planting them so that they multiply.
Adapted and translated by The Cop Cart Staff
Sources: Uncomo
