SEE How To Prune Hibiscus PERFECTLY - DO'S & DON'TS

Hey guys, welcome to Gardening Upbeat and I hope you are doing very well. Today we are going to see why, when and how to prune hibiscus plants perfectly. Actually I have done this before many times but did not discuss in details. That's why I thought to do this video. First let's see why to prune. The answer is simple and it is to get more flowers. Hibiscus usually produces one bloom on one branch and to get more flowers our plants should have more branches. If we don't they don't produce more side branches. Something like this one. Sometimes our plants also get leggy. Something like this. This footage is from 2021. Same plant here and this is the footage from 2019. As you can see it's a quite old plant and it's still here with me. I have just pruned today to get more flowers in 2024. Anyway I pruned this plant in 2021 and within three months I got result like this. Much fuller plant and lots of blooms. So I believe there is no any doubt about why we need to prune. Coming to the next point. What is the best time to prune? Spring is the best time to prune and of course we can prune here and there during the growing time which is summer. So how to prune perfectly? Before pruning please sterilize your pruning devices. I am using Dettol here. For pruning normally saying there are two ways. Soft pruning and hard pruning. Other methods are also there like selective pruning, corrective pruning etc. But just to keep it simple let's keep it as soft pruning and hard pruning. Soft pruning can be also referred as pincing. I am going to do the same thing on this plant. Just remove two to three centimeters from the top and cut in 45 degree angle above a node. Similar way I have one more plant where variety is the same. It already has more side branches on the top but still we can pinch the branches to make it even more fuller. In case you are wondering it's a variegated hibiscus plant with red flowers. I need to get a new pruner as you can see. It's not sharp like before and there should be a sharp cut actually. After some days the plant is going to produce more side branches. You can always prune other branches which is not in proper shape. For example you can prune a branch if it's getting taller than the rest of the branches. Just try to give it a shape you prefer and please note ideally we should not prune more than one third of any branches. Let's talk about hard pruning. Sometimes when hibiscus plants become old they don't grow and bloom like before. That time we can do the hard pruning. For example I did hard pruning on this plant. Before doing it was like this. As you can it was looking somewhat ugly. Repeating it once again I bought this plant in 2018 itself. Please note we can do the hard pruning once in three to four years and please avoid doing it more frequently. Similar way here is one of my other plant from the same year. On this also I am going to do hard pruning. Before hard pruning please remember few important things. Number one it's a good idea to keep the plant at least one foot tall after pruning and I am counting it from the soil level. Number two we can prune every branches and keep just two to three nodes on each branches. Again while doing it please remember the number one step. Number three on any branch we can prune in two different ways. Prune above a inner node in this way and it's going to produce a new branch which is going to grow inward and prune above a outer node in this way and we are going to get a new branch which is going to grow outward. You can refer the image here and if you like you can take a screenshot so that you can refer at later stage. Number four prune in 45 degree angle and keep a gap of around half centimeter between the node and the pruning point. Number five after hard pruning please try to keep at least few leaves so that photosynthesis continues. Well these are actually ideal rules and by following them we can get a healthy hibiscus plant. But not all time it may be possible to follow all the rules. For example I myself finding a very hard time to prune my plant by following all the rules exactly and I have to admit many times I don't think too much while pruning. I just think about getting a good shape and do mistakes here and there. Let me show you one of my such mistake here. This footage is from before and on this branch I pruned here. I should not have done that and instead I should have pruned half centimeter above either this node or this node. It's because this part of the stem is going to be get wasted. Not a good idea as there is not going to be any new growth from this part of the stem. Pruning done. I have also removed the buds. At this stage I am looking for only fresh growth. So what to do after pruning? If you like you can report by providing fresh potting soil mix and this is what I usually do. But this time I am going to do it bit different way as my potting soil mix is not yet ready. Here I am taking one liter water and then going to mix humic acid. Humic acid is not a fertilizer by itself but it helps the plants to uptake nutrients and improve soil structure. The dose is 10 ml in 1 liter water and using it once or twice per year is enough. I would wait for next 7 to 10 days and then I would report. Please let me know by commenting in case you would like to see the updates. In that case I would record all the updates. Thought to upload this video today itself as this is the best time to prune. For your info I have applied 2 liters water means applied 20 ml humic acid. It's also not a good idea to throw the stems. Instead let's grow some more plants. What do think? Anyway I already have a video where I have provided top 4 ways to grow hibiscus from cuttings. In case you are interested in knowing please consider watching the next video. That's all about why, how and when to prune hibiscus plants and I hope you found this video useful. If you did I would really appreciate if you give it a like, share it with your friends and subscribe to my channel if you are new to gardening upbeat. Thank you so much for your time, take care and enjoy.