TIMELY PRUNING

 TIMELY PRUNING

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

12/VII/2023

 

With onset of the monsoon, creepers and vines, which were lying dormant have erupted, engulfing everything that comes their way. At times you may see a creeper shoot many feet in one night. A tentacle jutting out will catch hold of a support and the creeper follows in its wake.

 

For us, even a wild creeper is left to flourish. The cover they create doesn’t let rain get through and drench the plant. Also, in the summer heat, shade keeps the plant from dehydrating and drying, unless sunlight gets blocked completely.

 

Sometimes ‘untrained’ vines dominate the scene and choke potted plants. These creepers also consume manure at a very fast rate, depriving the main plant of its nutrition. It entangles and entwines and then strangulates it, making survival of the ornamental plant difficult. Such creepers have to be removed in time before they engulf that plant. The waste collected goes in making compost.

 

Onset of rain is the best time to prune your plants. Some plants become unwieldy and grow enormously big and need thinning. Some develop multiple weak shoots, which in turn give smaller or weaker flowers and need to be clipped off.

 

With pruning, comes a time for sowing ‘cuttings’. What we do is, we plant healthy pruned shoots in the same pot. This helps us to identify the colour of the flower once the cutting grows. It saves the effort to tag individual cuttings.

 

As one was snipping through the maze of vines which had erupted around our garden, my attention was drawn to two things. A plant with leaves like ‘canna’ had emerged from a pot in which Bamboo had been planted. It looked familiar, and yes it was ‘Haldi’ (turmeric).

 

Last winter, as an experiment, we had planted a few raw turmeric nodes bought from the sabziwala for making “kachhi haldi ki sabzi”. It is a delicacy in our part of the country. “Sardi-Zukham-Khansi-Joron aur haddiyon mein dard ka ram baan ilaj hai” they say.

 

Along with it was another surprise. Our Passion flower vine had taken support of this bamboo and climbed quite high on the adjoining champa tree. However, when I cleared the clutter, I found a new bamboo shoot had sprouted. This bamboo plant had been ‘latent’ for a long time . Rainy season has given it a boost to multiply. Another experiment to grow bamboo in the desert is successful.

 

In my exuberance to chop off some parasite vines, I inadvertently snipped off the passion flower vine. My heart sank. It was about to flower. The positive side was that one could now inspect its flower pot in greater detail. It not only needed attention but also manure. Bamboo stilts supporting the vine had to be realigned and the vine was fastened to those ‘stilts’ afresh. It will bear bigger flowers in due time.

 

Pruning has certain definite advantages. Height of plants can be maintained as per the décor of your garden, instead of letting them grow clumsily. It also gives a chance to check the health of your plant once inspected at close quarters. Some branches get infested with bugs and need to be severed, before bugs consume the plant.

 

Mealy bugs are a menace in this season, especially on Hibiscus. These bugs are invisible initially to the naked eye, till the time their infestation starts wilting flower buds and the plant itself. Till then, they hide behind the leaves. It is only when you turn the leaves upside down can they be spotted.

 

‘Fauri-Ilaj’ for bugs has to be done pronto. What gives immediate results to us is the use of old unused hand sanitizer which we bought in bulk during

covid. The alcohol in the spray dissolves their sweet white coating, which is food for ants. A word of advice, if there are ants on your plants, chances are that mealy bugs could be there. Ants in turn protect these bugs. One hour of sunshine after a spray is good enough to eliminate them.

 

Sometimes, we delay or avoid pruning for obvious reasons. One of them being flower buds on that branch. The lure of flowers makes us postpone this perennial ritual. However, one must not delay. Rainy season is the time for new sprouts to appear. The earlier in the season you trim, the more flowering shoots will emerge, simple!

 

To make pruning fun we sing, “a trim-trim here & a trim-trim there, here a trim, there a trim, everywhere a trim-trim, e-ya-e-ya-o! Would you take advice from Old MacDonald or...? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS