Leggy coleus is a common problem with growing the colorful plant because of incorrect care being given to them. Coleus is a reasonably common plant of the Lamiaceae family with a ton of different variations.
The plant has a beautiful color and vibrancy, which makes it even more attractive to grow, but its legginess puts a majority of gardeners off. Not to worry, since today we will be looking at ways to best deal with spindly coleus plants and bring them back to life.
How To Fix Your Leggy Coleus?
To fix your leggy coleus, you must first begin by pruning it right and try to increase the light source of the plant. Then, you could also try to rotate it often so that it would fully receive sunlight, and lastly, you could try to properly fertilize it.
– Proper Pruning
Pruning is a fantastic approach to encourage the plant to develop new growth. The old, leggy growth is taken out when a plant is pruned. This means that you will now cut the unnecessary growing parts and try to grow them in a neat way.
A shorter and more compact new growth will be produced because the plant is forced to do so. Cut back the leggy stems of your coleus plant to the proper length to prune it. You can also get rid of any flimsy or weak stems and any leaves that are dark or yellow.
Your plant will become tall and spindly if you don’t prune it. Which is why it is an important aspect to do so, and when you aim for it, you will see that the plant would reduce its extra growth and become more normal in its range.
The plant will get fuller and bushier due to pruning, which promotes the plant to create new growth. To keep these plants from getting leggy, they must be clipped every few weeks, and then you will see the healthy growth if your plant.
– Increase the Light
You must give your plant additional light if it is leggy since it isn’t receiving enough. This can be accomplished by relocating the plant to a more sunny area. Coleus requires at least four hours of light daily and does best in direct, bright light.
Note that grow lights are man-made illuminations that replicate the sunlight that plants require to develop and grow in a healthy way. They are a fantastic alternative if you cannot give your plant enough natural light, especially the right kind of it.
For a coleus green to grow and thrive, it needs direct, bright light. These plants require at least four hours of natural, intense light daily but prefer six to eight hours. If your area has a lot of sunshine, you might need to offer some afternoon shade to keep the leaves from burning.
However, be cautious, because when exposed to direct sunlight, the leaves may fade and acquire brown areas. They will extend towards the light source and grow leggy if they don’t receive enough light, and now you must adjust the direction of it.
They will extend towards the light source and grow leggy if they don’t receive enough light. For plants to manufacture food through photosynthesis, light is necessary. The plant will become thin and leggy as it tries to grow toward the light source if it isn’t receiving enough light.
– Rotate the Plant Often
Turning your coleus frequently is another technique to keep it from growing leggy. This will guarantee that the plant receives equal light on all sides.In a week or so, turn your plant over so that the leaves can all get an opportunity to take in light.
– Have a Fertilizing Schedule
In order for the plant to create new growth, fertilizer is necessary. In short, try using a fertilizer that is balanced and designed for these plants is the best method to prevent this.
If you fertilize a plant too frequently, the roots may become injured, and the plant won’t be able to produce new growth. Throughout the growing season, it is preferable to fertilize your coleus plant once a month, and you can completely forego fertilizing during the winter. Using a lot of nitrogen fertilizer might make coleus grow more slowly than it can support, resulting in leggy growth.
Your coleus may get leggy if you fertilize it too frequently, throughout the growing season, fertilizer must be applied to the coleus once a month. If you fertilize more frequently than that, you risk encouraging the plant to grow excessively, which means that it would have a stressed thrive, in this case. On another note, if you place some high-nitrogen fertilizer, the plant will also promote the plant to develop more quickly, which may result in the plant getting lanky.
How To Ensure that Coleus is Leggy?
To ensure that coleus is leggy it would begin to grow taller than usual, and have only a few leaves, or the leaves would be arranged in a diverse matter, the plant would start to tilt on one side, and would look quite weaker showing now new leaves.
– Grows Taller than Usual
Your coleus is leggy if it is tall and spindly. Strong coleus plants should have short, compact stems and lots of thick leaves. The plant will spread out and grow thin if it receives insufficient light or too much fertilizer. You will especially need thick stems for propagating coleus, so make sure you improve the health of this plant before planning to do that.
The plant will get lanky as it reaches the light source due to the lack of illumination, the stems would look quite taller than usual, and they will also begin to extend themselves. The plant will develop too much growth due to the excess fertilizer, which will make it leggy.
– Having Only a Few Leaves
If a plant has few leaves, there is another clue that it is lanky. Coleus, in good condition, should have a lot of leaves and new growth coming out of the center. However, now, the leaves will be scant and they will develop quite shortly, if the plant is lanky, and they would not be as rich in their color as they normally would.
For plants to manufacture food through photosynthesis, light is necessary. The plant won’t be able to grow enough leaves if it doesn’t receive enough light. In order for the plant to produce new growth, fertilizer is also necessary. If you fertilize a plant too frequently, the roots may become injured, and the plant won’t be able to produce new growth.
– Leaves Are Far From Each Other
Your plant probably needs more light if its leaves are small and spread out. Low light levels cause these plants to have smaller, more widely spaced leaves, which shows that the stems would have more gaps and then after a height, they would show another leaf. By developing fewer, bigger leaves, the plant is attempting to maximize the light it receives.
– Tilting to One Side
Your plant is probably not getting enough light if slanting to one side. Plants incline towards the light source to get closer to it, and this is because it has grown bigger and taller, which means that you will see it become heavy and start to shift weights. You should give your plant additional light if it is sagging towards one direction.
– The Plant Is Becoming Weak
The plant may droop as a result of inadequate light, especially for plants to manufacture food through photosynthesis, light is necessary.
These plant, when leggy will begin to droop if it doesn’t receive enough light because it won’t have the energy to maintain its upright position. If the leaves on your coleus are drooping, they will look weak because you would see that something is lacking in their normal behavior.
– No New Leaves Appear on the Plant.
Your plant is probably not receiving enough light or fertilizer if it isn’t producing new leaves. For further growth, coleus requires both light and nutrition. The plant won’t be able to grow new leaves if either one is insufficiently supplied to it. You will now need to give your plant extra light and fertilizer if you want it to produce new leaves.
Conclusion
Treating your plants with the proper coleus care helps them grow coleus beautifully. Not only will you encourage healthy new growth, but it will also help keep things less leggy. To recap:
- Ensure your coleus are getting a lot of light as they will use the energy to straighten themselves out.
- If you’re wondering how to replant coleus yourself, ensure that you follow a proper guide and plant it somewhere it can receive a good amount of light.
- Potting coleus should be easy once you’ve taken care of other steps in order to see it grow healthy again.
- Use some of the best potting mix for coleus, accentuating the plant’s health and making it grow even healthier.
- You should also ensure that in order to know that the plant is actually leggy, you must properly check the aspects such as tilting to a side, appearing weak, or even having a few leaves and a great space between them.
Now that you know the way that a leggy plant looks, you also know the right ways of fixing the plant. Whether it’s about rotating the plant once in a while or placing the right schedules, you got it, your plant will look healthy and beautiful again.
