It is quite easy to prune the plant. houseplants such as bougainvillea are hardy woody plants. so it doesn't matter if you cut it even if you have no experience. if you cut just to trim I think it's fine.
But it's different if you prune for the purposes of plant propagation. for example grafting shoots or stem cuttings to increase the color of flowers. If you are in doubt, you can follow my advice.
1. Cut the part you want to cut
2. try to cut it with scissors but it must break immediately
3. Rub the part with fungicides and bactericides or you can give the injured part with wax
4. Place the pruned plant in a shady area or not exposed to direct sunlight and not exposed to rain.
Should I prune my potted bougainvillea?
Some reasons to prune ornamental plants "planting medium with an unbalanced number of twigs and leaves. It can be taken for example that a large body requires a large intake of food as well. if your planting medium is small, try your plant according to the planting medium. if the plant is too large while the planting medium is small, then if you do not give fertilizer regularly then your ornamental plants will not flower."
In pruning bougainvillea flower plants there is no standard recommendation of how many centimeters you should cut. it's just the treatment after cutting and cutting conditions that you should pay attention to.
treat after trimming I have explained above. please re-read. in terms of cutting you must leave enough leaves to carry out the photosynthesis process and not cut all the leaves and twigs.
There are two most ideal times for pruning plants. in the morning and evening. these two times is the general recommendation for all plants in pruning. a strong reason is that at this time the sun is not too hot. The strong heat of the sun will make the pruned parts release a lot of fluid from the plant's body. so this is not good for plant development.
the afternoon is the best recommendation in pruning. The reason is because it will include the night phase. Try to keep the pruned plants from getting rained on, so when you trim the plants you have to read the weather conditions on that day. whether it's sunny or rainy. To increase safety, put plants in the house.
Broadly speaking, in the world of agriculture that focuses on ornamental plants, there are 2 methods commonly used.
1. meet the nutritional needs of plants
Many nutrients will produce a lot of energy for the growth of plant photosynthesis. This gift exists directly and indirectly.
1.a. fertilizer application is included in the direct category
you can give compost with a ratio of 1: 3 with the old planting medium. This will improve the chemical properties, physical properties and biological properties of the growing media. if you want to give chemical fertilizers or factory fertilizers to potted plants, then stress from the water for 2-3 days then prepare 2 liters of water and mix it with 1 tablespoon of NPK fertilizer 16:16:16 (nitrogen phosphorus potassium) sprinkle it on the plants do it 1 time a month.
1.b. transfer to the ground in the indirect category
Believe it or not, transplanting plants from pots to soil will increase the size of the plants. This is because the nutrients in the soil are quite a lot. if the soil looks less fertile then stay calm, if this displacement occurs, the plant roots will expand this will increase the coverage area in absorbing nutrients in the soil.
2. create new shoots
pruning is done to create new shoots. these shoots will develop by absorbing the nutrients that were already available. This is what will make your plants grow thicker.
There are several possibilities for this to happen:
1. not getting good nutrition/fertilizer/plant media
2. Stress lack of water
3. Very old plant age
4. the number of leaves is too much
5. your plants are affected by the disease
watering depends on the size of the pot you have. Please note that plants need moist soil not soil that is flooded with water. The best irrigation is all the planting media is wet but does not seep to the floor. if this happens, the nutrients in the media will quickly run out and you will quickly have to replace the planting medium. keep the soil wet. watering is recommended 1 time in 2 days. Keep in mind that watering has several functions including:
1. to meet the metabolic needs of plants
2. maintain the temperature of the growing media
3. maintain the biological properties of the growing media
The bougainvillea flower is a tropical plant. will grow well at a temperature of 26-35 degrees Celsius. but what if it is brought to a sub-tropical country where the temperature can reach minus? the answer is simple. increase the temperature and still provide light.
Prepare the room, then buy an ultraviolet lamp and set the room temperature to 30-32 degrees Celsius.
I divide fertilization into 2 phases;
1. leaf propagation phase
always try before you want a lot of flowers, you put the leaves first. because if you force the resulting flower is a stress flower in the sense that the plant is flowering because it wants to pass down offspring as if it will die the next day.
I highly recommend a 16:16:16 ratio NPK fertilizer combined with Urea and a little dolomite. please look for a comparison of the three. usually in 2 months the leaves will be thick.
2. flowering phase
if the leaf propagation phase has reached 2 months, please add fertilizer that contains phosphorus and potassium. for this I recommend fertilizers containing KNO3.
Author : Alfian
Editor : Alfian
Reference :
1. Personal experience
2. Knowledge learned during college majoring in Agriculture
3. Searchable literature sources online