What is pinching?

Pinching is the removal of the plant's growing tips to force it to put out side shoots and branches. As a result, you will get a bushier plant and more flowers.

Don't confuse this term with 'dead-heading', which is the removal of spent flowers

Who to pinch:

The type of begonia that responds best to pinching are small to medium leaf canes and shrubs, especially if you are growing them in a basket. Pinching will make your baskets fuller and help keep them growing symmetrical. You can also pinch the tips on your rhizome begonias (after they have bloomed) to make them fill the inside of the pot instead of crawling over the edges. Some types that branch well on their own may not need any pinching, but you'll just have to watch and learn which of your begonias fit that category.

As a general rule, large upright canes, larger flowered tuberous, and thick stemmed begonias shouldn't be pinched. Still, you can pinch out the flower buds on young tuberous plants to give them more energy and obtain larger flowers later.

Why:

Let me give you an example. Say you have a plant in a basket with three nice stems. You pinch the tip of each branch. Result: each stem puts out two side shoots. Resulting in a total of six stems. A few weeks later (five, on average) you pinch out the tips on those six stems and each of those pinches resulted will in two more new side shoots. Even if you stopped right there you now have 12 blooming stems by just pinching two times!

Of course, you can usually pinch more times than that before you have to let them go and bloom but I hope this example illustrates what a difference just a little pinching can do.

How:

Remove the growing tip of each branch. The growing tip is that unopened bud at the very tip of each stem where the next leaf will come out. Usually, you remove it by pinching it off with your fingernail. Make sure to remove it completely to the base of the bud or the plant may continue to grow from there. You can also remove the bud and the new baby leaf below it to make sure you got it pinched off.

When:

Start pinching after pruning as soon as the new shoots have grown out three nodes (a node is the joint in the stem where the leaf is connected). Usually, a plant that is actively growing can grow out three nodes in three or four weeks.

Rita Elliott