Home Plant guides Reviving a neglected plant: Pruning & Propagation tips for plant parents!

Reviving a neglected plant: Pruning & Propagation tips for plant parents!

In this video, join me as I tackle the challenge of rescuing a neglected houseplant that I forgot to water! 🌱 I’ll show you the signs of distress to look for, how to trim yellow and brown leaves, and the importance of using sanitized tools to prevent disease.

Roelof Jan Elsinga - Plant care for Beginners Author

Written by Roelof Jan Elsinga

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Watch as I demonstrate the step-by-step process of caring for your plant, including pruning techniques to encourage new growth. Plus, learn how to propagate your cuttings and select the right media for rooting, whether it's water or LECA.

Whether you’re a seasoned plant parent or just starting out, you’ll find valuable tips to keep your plants healthy and thriving. Don't forget to subscribe for more plant care tutorials and updates!

Key topics covered

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  • Signs your plant needs help
  • How to properly prune your plant
  • Caring for cuttings: Water vs. LECA
  • Important tips to prevent plant diseases

Thank you for watching, and let’s get those plants back to life! 🌿

Transcript

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TimeScript
0:00So I was walking around my house and I discovered I forgot to water one of my plants.
0:07So you know what? I thought why not set up the camera and show you what I do in this case?
0:12You can see yellow and even brown leaves, so we're going to have to trim a little bit.
0:20I'll show you what to trim and what to look for to make this plant look good again.
0:26So, what we'll need is this pruning shear.
0:34But before we use that, I’ll have to clean it with some alcohol.
0:40We do this to make sure that we don’t spread any disease from one plant to another.
0:46So let’s grab a little paper towel and clean the tool. Here we go!
0:59Now this tool is clean and we can use it.
1:03We know for sure that it won't spread disease from this plant to another plant or maybe from another plant to this plant.
1:08We want to do this any time we switch from one plant to the next. So that's clean.
1:14Let's look for this leaf here. You can see that this is yellow.
1:21I'll move this aside and you can see where it goes – all the way up here.
1:25We want to cut it right up at the base, here. Let me try to show you a little bit closer.
1:30So we want to cut it off right here, right where it connects to the stem.
1:37Alright, so we've decided we're going to cut it right at the stem, right up here.
1:42Grab the scissors and cut it right off as close to the stem as possible.
1:48There you go! Some will just fall off right away because they’re that dry.
2:01These are the dry brown ones because they completely dried out.
2:06I forgot to water it for a week or so, and it’s in the middle of summer in a hot room, so all the moisture will evaporate quite quickly.
2:15Alright, so there are a few more obvious candidates like this yellow one and this yellow one back here, so I’ll cut those off.
2:24Just make sure to go as close to the base of the leaf as you can.
2:28I’ll try to go as close to the stem here.
2:34So, let’s pull this out.
2:39Alright, now that we have cut off the most yellow and brown leaves, you will also see some of these yellowed ones that are not completely yellow.
2:49Most of these leaves, they won’t turn back to green, so we can also trim these off.
2:57Just go around to look for any of these and remember to cut them off as close to the stem as you can.
3:12Also, some of these are mostly green still, but the edges are yellow, so just cut them off.
3:16It will encourage new growth anyway, so get rid of all the leaves that don’t look too good.
3:25As you can see, this plant has a really obvious front and back because it's in a corner room.
3:30It always faces the light; however, for some plants, you would recommend rotating them.
3:37For this plant, I don't recommend it because if you do, you will get really weird growth.
3:56So I found an example of what would happen if you rotate this too much.
4:02Here you've got a vine that hasn’t been trimmed, so you can see this is really long.
4:12If you were to keep this on the plant, you can see it has growth in really strange directions.
4:25That's what your whole plant will look like—disorganized and kind of weird.
4:32While we have this plant here and while we're trimming, I also want to trim this because you can propagate those.
4:40So I can show you what this looks like from close up.
4:44You can see a really long vine.
4:48This is my fantastic permanent filming setup! (Haha)
4:56Here we go! Let's connect it to the plant.
5:03It's a little difficult to show you, but here we go.
5:08We want to cut it off right here, ideally under a node.
5:14This is a node right here; it’s a bit thicker than the rest and new leaves will come out from it.
5:21You can see little air roots coming out of there; we want to cut under that because those will turn into new roots.
5:28Let’s grab your scissors and cut it off right under the node.
5:38Okay, so we've cut it off. You can see right here.
5:43It’s a bit difficult to focus, but you can see the node—this is a bit thicker than the rest of the stem.
5:50You can see very small air roots with little brown dots coming out.
6:09If we go down, you see this plant has quite a few of them.
6:24This cutting is pretty long; we can probably cut this into at least five or six different cuttings.
6:32Make sure at least every cutting has two leaves because the leaves are needed for photosynthesis.
6:43So, again we’ll cut it right under a node.
6:47You can see this one has three leaves, so we'll cut it right here.
6:57We got one, two, three leaves on this cutting!
7:02I’ll cut right there.
7:07One, two, three leaves on this cutting! I’ll cut right there.
7:19And then, since this one barely has any leaves, just this one here, I'm going to try to propagate it.
7:27However, I don’t think it will work because it is quite a big cutting, but it doesn’t have many leaves.
7:36Alright, let's see how well we get on this small space.
7:40Now that we've cut them all up, I've got all the cuttings right here, we’re going to pot them.
7:45I don't like to do this in soil because it can grow diseases quickly.
7:52So, I prefer to do it in water or choose a bit of LECA.
7:55Here I've got a really small pot; this tiny one is just there to ensure that roots will grow.
8:01You can repot them as soon as possible.
8:04I took a few out to make it easier to check how much water is at the top because it's a bit difficult with no drainage hole.
8:18So, that's how I do it. I stick a little stick down there to see how much water is left.
8:24We've got the cutting. We've got the pot. Let's put it in there somewhere.
8:28You might want to keep it at the edges here.
8:36And because we have quite a few, I'm going to have to balance it, so it’s going to be a bit difficult to film.
8:40Here’s another one; this one has a big air root.
8:44And here’s another one.
8:47Alright, this one will just be at the edge here.
8:57So let’s put it down for a little bit.
9:03If I let go, they will fall out because they're not anchored down.
9:07I’m going to put some of the LECA around the roots right now to see if this works.
9:13Let’s grab a few pebbles.
9:52Now they are anchored down a little bit, and now you can let go. See? They’re not going anywhere.
9:59Now you want to give them some water.
10:02For watering, I'd like to use water, obviously, but we're adding some hydroponics fertilizer to it.
10:08This is important because the LECA in here doesn’t have any nutrients, and soil does.
10:13That’s why you can use different types of fertilizers when you use soil.
10:16Since we’re not using any soil, we’re going to have to use this special type of fertilizer.
10:22In this case, I have to add one milliliter for every liter.
10:26My container is three liters, so I’m going to add three milliliters.
10:32Usually, the little things have lines on them; you can see subtly see them in there.
10:40Each of them is a milliliter, so it's easy to measure.
10:44I’m going to mix that.
10:46I couldn’t use my three-liter container, so I used an old fertilizer bottle that’s no longer in use.
10:56I just added some of the hydroponic fertilizer; this is about half a liter.
11:00So, half a liter of water and half a milliliter of the fertilizer mix.
11:05Now we can add it to the LECA in the little pot.
11:11I added some water, but it's spilling everywhere; that’s okay.
11:18It’s in there, not all the way full obviously; you don’t want to drown the plant.
11:20Just enough in there so the plant can have some water, but not drowning.
11:33This is all good to go now.
11:36That took a lot of effort! It’s so warm in here, but it’s done!
11:41I potted up the thing and it has some water; now all that’s left to do is to clean this again.
11:47We want to use the same alcohol. I already did that, but you want to do that when you switch to new plants as well, just to be safe.
11:56Every time you put it away and anytime you pick it back up, just clean it.
12:00You can spread diseases really easily, so it’s really not worth the risk to not do it.
12:07Now the plant looks really nice again, and it’s a good idea to water it instead of forgetting it.
12:14Otherwise, that will happen again! By watering frequently (at least once per week in the summer), you will encourage the plant to grow more.
12:25The pruning we did actually promotes growth because now it doesn’t have to take care of those sick leaves anymore.
12:32It can grow new leaves that will pick up the light again, causing photosynthesis and feeding the plant again.
12:39So, pruning is a good thing for sure, but also, don’t forget to water your plant!
12:46Thank you for watching! This is something new I’m trying to do. I’m not very good at videos; I've been writing a lot about plants, but video is very new to me.
12:54I hope you enjoy this!

Thank you for reading this post! I hope it helps you to keep your plants healthy and beautiful! If you're looking for more guides on specific plants, you can always request a plant guide to get a guide for the plant you have trouble with.

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About the Author

Roelof Jan Elsinga - Plant care for Beginners Author

Meet Roelof Jan Elsinga, a passionate and knowledgeable plant care enthusiast. With 6 years of personal experience, Roelof Jan has gained a wealth of knowledge on indoor plant care. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced plant owner, Roelof Jan's practical advice and deep understanding of various plants and their needs can help you become a successful plant caretaker.

Although Roelof Jan may not have formal gardening credentials, his expertise has been cultivated through caring for many plants and providing valuable guidance to fellow plant lovers just like you.

Roelof Jan is always eager to expand his knowledge. He dives into many different sources to deepen his understanding, stay up-to-date with the latest findings and is always happy to receive feedback. He takes great care to ensure that the recommendations he provides are not only practical, but also accurate.

Roelof Jan's main focus is to offer reliable and easy-to-understand information and support to all plant lovers out there, helping them confidently navigate their plant care journeys with success.

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