Why Not to Prune Houseplants too Much and What to Do if You Did

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Today, we’re going to talk about pruning. There are always a lot of questions about pruning, and this time I’m going to drill down on why you don’t want to prune a plant too much. This is my beautiful Chinese evergreen, and she does need a little bit of pruning, but mostly just to remove old flowers and old leaves. I always think of these beautiful plants as flowering because they’re so colorful, but it’s the variegation, not the flowers.

So, she does need a little bit here and there in terms of old leaves and bent leaves, but she really doesn’t need a lot of pruning. What you want to look for is a plant that looks well-formed. Just because a plant—you’ve never pruned it before or you think it’s time to prune—doesn’t mean you should prune it. There are many reasons for pruning a plant, and I cover that in other pruning videos as well.

Today, I just want to talk about why you don’t want to prune a plant too much, so you understand the consequences of over-pruning and what can happen to your house plant. Most pruning mistakes do not kill plants immediately. The fatal cuts are extremely difficult to do on accident, and most plants are so resilient that they can re-sprout even if you’ve mangled something or cut off too much. However, it’s going to change the beautiful shape of the plant. Just because you cut off a bunch here doesn’t mean it’s going to grow back just like it was—that’s not always the case.

If you also cut the crown at all, or if you cut the base of the plant, that could be fatal. But for the most part, if you’re often doing some pruning and you’re really overdoing it, that’s going to weaken the plant over time. The plant needs its leaves to photosynthesize, and it needs to cycle water and nutrients. If you’re constantly cutting the plant, you’re cutting off those processes.

Also, if you make jagged cuts or sideways jagged cuts, that can open the plant up to pests and diseases, especially diseases that will enter through that jagged cut. So, that’s why it’s really important to do clean cuts and cut back to two leaf nodes where another leaf will come in. If you’re cutting at the base of the plant, you want to cut down at the base of the plant, just be careful around the crown, which is where the roots meet the trunk, because you don’t want to cut anything vital off. If you have stems coming down near there that you’re getting rid of, you want to cut down there rather than leaving empty stocks that aren’t going to do anything but eventually die back.

As mentioned, it’s not going to happen all at once; it can be cumulative. The cumulative effects of over-pruning are just like everything else—over-watering can lead to root rot, too much sun can cause scorched leaves, and not enough light will lead to plants losing their leaves. The cumulative effects of pruning can eventually weaken the plant. That’s a reason why you don’t want to over-prune.

When you prune, you never want to prune more than a third of the plant in one session, and then you want to wait a few months. You don’t want to start again next week; the plant doesn’t have a chance to recover. As you can see, this beautiful plant has no reason for me to take off a third of her—she’s doing great. But I can’t tell you how many times people just think they have to prune just because they have to prune. They think, “Oh, they make pruners for me to prune,” or something—I’m not really sure.

Please be very judicious when you prune. As mentioned, no more than a third in one session of pruning, or even much less, is really better. The better thing to do is just to prune a few leaves here and there, or if maybe a branch is leaning out, you could prune that one off. But a little bit at a time when you prune is a much better way. You’re not going to stress the plant, and you’re not going to do things to make the plant not take in nutrients or water appropriately, etc.

You also want to be careful about when you prune. Pruning is generally not advised in winter, as most houseplants are not actively growing during the cold months. When you prune, it stimulates growth hormones in the plant, but then the plant grows much more slowly and cycles water more slowly, so it’s just not a good time to do that. Spring is the best time to prune, then summer, then early fall. By mid to late fall, hold off on the pruning unless something really needs to be done—then wait until spring again.

If you do over-prune a plant—say you’re seeing this and you think, “I may have over-pruned my Chef Lara”—or something. Chef Lara’s tend to be victims of over-pruning because they branch out. You start pruning, and before you know it, you’ve over-pruned. If you’ve over-pruned your plant, keep it well-watered, but not over-watered, and keep it in good lighting. It’s really important that it’s in good lighting while it recovers.

What you want to do is get it into a stress-free situation as possible. Don’t feed it after the pruning because that will initiate growth once again, which will stress the plant. Hold off on fertilizing until you see some new growth on the plant, and the plant looks like it’s recovered from the pruning. At that point, you want to use a half-strength fertilizer, and you would only want to do that in spring and summer, and early fall as well.

Those are some tips for what to do if you’ve over-pruned. One really important thing is to promise your plant you will never do that again. I have links for pruning tips below, on how to do that, and just give it time. If you’ve over-pruned, give it time. Plants are resilient; as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, they will do their very best to grow back for you. They will often do that a few times, and then eventually, when they realize you’re not going to stop, they may not anymore.

But as long as you stop over-pruning and start doing it judiciously, only when it’s really necessary, then your plant will recover and will be okay after all. Let me know if you have any questions about pruning or about any plant you think you might have over-pruned or anything else related to plant care. I’m happy to answer those questions.

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