can you make a plant grow thick or thin?

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silence Perranporth, United Kingdom Aug 11, 2009

Hi, I am completly new to gowing house plants, I doubt this is a very sensible first question :)

I would like to grow a cheese plant and also some devil's ivy to have very thick stems and not much foliage, is this possible?

I've seen cheese plants of roughly the same age with vastly different amounts of foliage and stem thicknes, is there anything I can do to get a very thick stem/branch system whilst also

keeping the amount of foliage down?

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tapla Bay City, MI(Zone 6a) Aug 11, 2009

Bright light will shorten internodes (stem portion between leaves), thicken stems, & reduce leaf size. Growing the plants tight in the pot also reduces leaf size and shortens internodes. This is part of what you're asking for, but the shortened internodes effectively puts more leaves on stems per foot of growth. You can always prune some of the leaves off, but the reduction in photosynthesizing surface tends to reverse the effects of bright light, which would INCREASE internode length and INCREASE leaf size, undoing the benefits of the bright light. It's a catch 22 situation.

Enter the fertilizer strategy. Fertilize often with low doses of any 1:1:1 fertilizer, like 20-20-20. Supply just enough N to keep the plant green and support a normal number of lateral breaks (side branching). This will control extension and help to keep the plant compact/bushy & thicken stems. A reduction in N is a major player in the strategy involved in bringing short, compact plants, that are already sexually mature (in bloom) to a greenhouse near you.

Al

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silence Perranporth, United Kingdom Aug 11, 2009

Thanks for your reply tapla

I doubt I'd want to prune them until they start getting really overgrown, I don't think I'd prune the Devils Ivy at all but could I take a cutting of one of it's thicker stems then grow a thicker plant from that? repeating the process to get a thicker and thicker stem to the plant? I remember devils ivy doesn't brauden out till it's a considerable hight/length, should I start growing the ivy from a thick stemmed cutting?

I also read that air movement plays a big part in thickening stems, perhaps keeping them under a fan (particually the Cheese plant) during the first few months of it's life would help?

"Enter the fertilizer strategy. Fertilize often with low doses of any 1:1:1 fertilizer, like 20-20-20. Supply just enough N to keep the plant green and support a normal number of lateral breaks (side branching). This will control extension and help to keep the plant compact/bushy & thicken stems. A reduction in N is a major player in the strategy involved in bringing short, compact plants, that are already sexually mature (in bloom) to a greenhouse near you."

I'm a little confused, do you mean I should use a regular amount of fertiliser or restrict the amount of fertiliser?

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