Branching a Plumeria, Cutting gone bad?

11 years ago

I have a 3 yr old plumeria started from a cutting I took from a tree in the Marshall Islands. The cutting has spend most of the time growing under a grow light with short stints in part sun because I live in Alaska. I am trying to branch the plumeria because it became leggy rather than bushy. We are moving to a warmer part of Alaska and the new house has a sunroom that will give my plants much more sunlight. I cut two branches about 1 inch from the trunk.

One cut looks suspect, pictured. Do I need to perform some sort of rescue or re-cut?

Also I left one branch with all but the budding leaves trimmed (shown with the leaves I have removed) so it wasn't totally bare and out of cautiousness for the plant's well being. I am second guessing that decision. Will leaving one branch hinder the production of new branches from the cuts?

Thank you in advance.

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Comments (2)

elucas101
11 years ago
Hi there! Leaving the full intact branch there won't hinder new branch production from the cut branches. New branches grow from old leaf nodes under the cut so the only thing that may stop it from branching there is if that cut branch is dead / hollow then it is not alive anymore. I would probably carefully cut it back to a point where you can seal it with DAP or something similar to protect from rot / shrink back on that branch as well as the main trunk and hope there is still enough of a branch there / nodes to push new branches. Same with the other cut if it's doing the same thing.

Congrats to you for being able to grow them in Alaska! Your new sunroom sounds fantastic and I bet your plumeria will love it!!

Other people will probably chime in with advice as well, and please keep us posted on what happens!
Libbia
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you so much for the quick response. It defiantly looks like the lower branch is shrinking toward the trunk. I will put DAP on the shopping list for Friday!!
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