A Bad Deed: Autumn Geranium Pruning

Fiery fireworks, fellow flower growers!

Preserving geraniums in winter so that in the spring it quickly rushes into growth is the main task, which must be taken up in the fall. I sincerely do not understand why it is advised to cut off zonal pelargonium from each iron. Sometimes this very procedure does not allow the bush to survive the winter calmly.

"We are losing it!": Why autumn pruning of geraniums can harm the plant

You don't need to be seven spans in the forehead to understand: each part (shoot, young leaf, bright flower) is needed for something by a plant. The green part of the zonal pelargonium, both in summer and in winter, performs 2 vital functions without stopping:

1. Participates in photosynthesis. A process without which the life of any plant is impossible.
2. Evaporates moisture that the roots absorb.

What is your favorite color of pelargonium? Let's brag a little about our geraniums in the comments below the article. Send photos of your beauties - for example, I'm very interested. Let's share the beauty of the flower with each other!

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Winter, with its short daylight hours and low solar activity, is itself a strong stress on the plant. Geranium falls into a forced dormant period and slows down all life processes. Pruning in such a situation can "finish off" a weak plant:

• The loss of the green part is the loss of the lion's share of photosynthesis. Not only did the sun become smaller. So also the area for "absorbing" the sun's rays has been reduced thanks to the efforts of a caring grower.

• Loss of leaves for moisture evaporation is fraught with gulf. The flower grower continues to water the pelargonium in the old fashioned way, but the water from the pot has nowhere to go.

In the end, I find pruning pelargonium in the fall a waste of time. Why shape it now? Indeed, over the winter, the plant will still stretch out and become bald. With poor lighting in the cold season, typical for 80% of the territory of Russia, it cannot be otherwise. Unless, of course, you use backlight lamps.

The main nuance: when to prune geraniums in the fall, and when not

There are 2 options for winter storage of geraniums:

• In the old fashioned way, on the windowsill. In this case, nothing needs to be cut. Best of all, geraniums will remain on a well-lit windowsill and watering "as needed".
• In a dark and cool basement. Autumn pruning of geraniums is needed if stored in a dungeon. There really, leaves and shoots are useless to the plant.

I only prune large geraniums in the fall to reduce storage space. I try to cut off gradually and only the tips of the shoots until I get a shape of a suitable size. And more pelargonium is not needed!