Monday, September 7, 2009

Pruning marigolds at Walkway Bed

 Marigolds

At Walkway Bed, 15 marigolds were planted close and compact with diagonal orientation. They grew very tall, coming to three feet. I was discussing with Kakdah one morning about putting the height down a little...... They had become too tall and leggy, with occasional gust of strong winds around here, they swayed too much, and I am afraid they will collapse one day.

Then with a cutter each, we go on pruning the marigolds. We cut a foot off at the central stem. The smell of marigold leaves is very peculiar; sweet, raw and heavy. The point we cut, has lot of little shoots at every nodes, So I guess these little shoots will spring into action in no time. Now we are looking at marigolds with mixed feelings.... How will they handle life with the new "hair crop"..... Are we being too cruel to marigolds?.




cut


cut


the new look of marigold bush
at Walkway Bed.



Has anybody tried pruning marigolds before?


Cheers,
~bangchik and kakdah
Putrajaya, MALAYSIA.

11 comments:

  1. Perhaps they need a sun hat--until they get used to their new haircut! LOL!

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  2. Three feet marigolds? You should be kidding! What did you feed them?
    My marigolds are too short to be cut down, but I would cut three feet ones! I think you did right!

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  3. The tallest marigolds I have grown were about 18-inches high. They were white ones and I grew them last year. None toppled over but they weren't in areas where there was much wind.

    Please keep us updated on this. I've not heard of 'trimming' marigolds as you have done, although pinching back the main stem to promote branching is fairly common.

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  4. Hello Bangchik, I hope that the shrubs will get lushier :-) Have a great day! and happy gardening.

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  5. Bangchik, your marigolds seem to have 'extra power'. Mine grow like vines and they crawl around the plant bed. They have just enough leaves to cover the soil but the stems of your marigolds look big and strong and they are growing upright! Did you use some magic potion?

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  6. I would imagine that the plants will now bush out more rather than heading for the sky. I'm sure you'll get more flowers too.

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  7. > Curmudgeon
    ... haha.., I guess so. But the little side shoots will soon form nice hats!

    > Tatyana.
    > Belle
    It really is 3 feet! Poultry manure during soil preparation, liquid fertiliser every fortnight and water is what they get from me. May be the extra care and attention these plants thought they are getting from both of us, is what really matter... haha.

    > LynnS
    > Steph
    Since marigolds look very much similar to our ulam raja (herbal salad), I dont think they mind being trimmed a little bit. Shoots of ulam raja has been cut off on regular basis for salad and they keep growing. The same thing goes to marigolds I suspect. At least that will make them neater, bushier, denser and healthier!

    > Jo
    Thanks, I hope they will get bushier and sprout more buds and flowers.


    Cheers
    ~bangchik and kakdah
    Putrajaya, MALAYSIA.

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  8. They are big marigold plants compared with what I grew.

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  9. You have your reason on that, just like we decided to chop our papaya tree, but I missed my papaya.

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  10. JOANNE.... The fact that they are big must have something to do with with the variety of marigolds we are having. It definitely not a dwarf type. But our sunflower at one and a half foot tall is really dwarf!

    RAINNIE... The only reason worth mentioning is to reduce the height a little bit, making them less leggy.... Other reasons are offsprings of the main reason...

    Cheers,
    ~bangchik
    Putrajaya.

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  11. Bangchik, I am suspicious of this Chinese wording comment. I can read some of the words, if not mistaken there are links to products or even porno sites. You may want to remove it. I have been seeing such comments on my blogs too.

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