> Next: Pinching and Pruning
Controlling Vegetable Plant Growth
Controlling and directing growth of vegetable plants does more than shape the plants, it redirects their growth energy to producing flowers, fruit, berries, or leafy green foliage. Special methods are also used to blanch or lodge, producing respectively attractive white asparagus, leeks, and Belgian endive or larger root crops in onions, garlic, and leeks. In this section you’ll find:
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- Why vegetables require growth management.
- Where to pinch and prune vegetables to prompt greater production.
- Why and when to remove or cull fruit in fruit-bearing vegetable plants.
- Good pruning practices.
- Training vining plants onto plant supports.
Understanding and Managing Plant Growth
You may direct your vegetable plants’ growth by taking advantage of their reaction to pinching, pruning, or cutting to alter the quality and quantity of the fruit and foliage that they produce. Besides these goals, you also may wish to keep a plant’s size to suit a certain area of your garden or train it to grow vertically up a trellis, stake, or other support.
Most plants grow to predetermined shapes depending on their habit, which may be low and prostrate, mounding, branching, or tall and upright. Genetically controlled, these forms may be influenced by the conditions that plants experience during growth such as prevailing wind and by events, including breakage, insect infestation, or browsing by rabbits or deer.
Active growth normally takes place at the buds found at the ends of branches and vines or on top of tall, upright plants. Chemical messengers within the plant signal that this bud, the so-called dominant bud, is the place where growth should be sustained, in a process called “apical dominance.” Intermediate buds, which occur all along the branch or stem, remain dormant as long as this dominant bud is actively growing. Should the terminal bud be damaged or removed, the bud nearest the end of the stem will become dominant and start to actively grow in its place.
Improving Fruit Production
Remember that your vegetable plants are very adaptable. As the quantity of fruit they bear is reduced, they compensate by making each fruit larger. When they grow excess foliage, they compensate by reducing the number of flowers and fruit that they set. You can increase the yield from your plants by pinching off flowers and removing some leaves, or culling fruit too close together.
Each of the remaining blossoms that set fruit will be larger than they would be had the competing flowers and foliage remained on the plant. On vining plants such as cucumber and squash, entire branching stems can be removed, leaving a single runner to train vertically on a trellis. By so doing, you will reduce the plant’s footprint from more than 20 sq. ft. (1.9 m2) to as little as 1 sq. ft. (929 cm2). Combining pruning and using vertical supports allow you to plant more densely and reap larger harvests of larger fruit, berries and grapes.
To avoid open wounds that might invite disease organisms, use sharp, clean shears, washing them between pruning cuts in a solution of 1 part isopropyl alcohol mixed with 9 parts water to sterilize the tool. Bypass pruners—shears with blades that slide past each other rather than stopping on an anvil—are best because they cut cleanly and avoid crushing stems. For new buds, pinch tender stems between your thumb and fingernail; use a pruning knife to cut older, tougher or woody vines.
Managing Growth in the Garden
You’ll quickly master managing the growth of your vegetable plants in your home vegetable garden.
Supports you installed at the time of planting will soon provide climbers and sprawling vegetables a home so they take up less room in your garden [See: Supporting Plants]. Get them started by training or tying them to the base of the trellis, stake, or other support.
As plants grow, pinch and prune them as demonstrated in this section to make them more productive.
When lodging and blanching are needed, follow the demonstrations closely for best results.