How to grow a full bushy basket of Wandering Jew?

Hi!

I've enjoyed propagating bits of my ordinary purple/silver Zebrina as accents for "ikebana-like" containers for awhile, but I've never been able to get it to look like the full, bushy baskets I see at the stores. I've tried putting as many clippings in one basket as I could cram in there neatly, with about 3/4 to 1' of space between cuttings, but they still just go long and spindly. Long and spindly is good for "ikebana" but not when I want a lush, full plant.

I thought nipping the ends of the clippings would help make it bush up, but even then, new growth just starts growing off the nipped end of the clipping instead of nearer the base of the plant.

Any tips, besides "go buy a bushy one"? I've got a pot with some spindly Zebrina in it right now that needs a trim, and thought I'd ask for some help before I just end up doing the same thing I've been doing....

Thanks!

What sort of light are your plants getting? Insufficient light is a very common problem with things being grown indoors and will tend to make the growth long & spindly as you describe. If you want new growth near the base of the plant, you'll have to trim it back farther--new growth will start from where you trim. But unless you give it enough light, even if you trim it back farther that new growth will just get long & spindly again.

Hi ecrane!

The plants get mostly indirect natural sunlight during the day - since their container is on top of a cabinet in my bathroom under a skylight. The plants (I keep calling them "plants" - 'cuz it's like each cutting I stuck in there is just one spindly shoot instead of a unified whole plant) are healthy and are the perfect purple and silver color.

Last time I tried to give the plant more sun, I had moved it to to a south window, and the color totally changed from purple/silver to green/silver. That was when I was still living in R.I. over a year ago. It was still healthy, but I prefer the purple/silver color. I'm pretty sure if I stuck it outside now that I'm in Florida, it would change to the green/silver again in more direct sunlight.

Is there a way to get more light to a plant for growth without it affecting the color?

Thanks!
Rose

I'd try gradually increasing the light--sounds like you made a pretty big change, so maybe there's a happy medium where it'll stay the color you want but also have more compact growth. If you do decide to move it outside, make sure you adjust it gradually to the higher light levels or else it can sunburn. You may never achieve quite the same effect though as the baskets in the store--many growers treat things like that with growth regulators to keep things looking nice & not growing too fast while they're still at the store/nursery, but the effects wear off eventually and the plant will go back to growing how it normally would. I'm confident you can get the growth more compact than what you have now, but you may never quite get to that "gold standard"

Growth regulators, huh? I Googled that and found this stuff... but over a hundred bucks for a pound?! Following the mixing ratios, this pound of growth regulator would last me a like, a thousand years! Wish I could buy a quarter pound of it for 30 dollars... I'm gonna hafta do some more Googling to see if I can buy a little bit somewhere - or maybe find a local greenhouse that would part with some!

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/product/b-nine/growth-regulators

It's not really something that's made easily available to the general public--I'm not sure why. Could be it's nasty toxic stuff, or it could be that it's not good to use on plants on a regular basis--a one time application while the plant's at the store may be fine, but I'm not sure if it's good for plants to be repeatedly treated with the growth regulators.