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What To Do If My Arrowhead Plant Is Getting Leggy?

Syngonium, or Arrowhead Plants, are wonderful houseplants that don’t require a ton of attention to keep them happy. But like all plants, they still require some troubleshooting from time to time. This article will help you determine why your arrowhead is looking leggier lately, and what to do about it.

Why is My Arrowhead Plant So Leggy?

why is my arrowhead plant so leggy

Arrowhead plants are native to Central America and South America in the subtropics and tropical regions. They grow as a groundcover in tropical forests in their natural habitat, where their stems can get extremely long. 

Arrowhead plant is also sometimes referred to as Arrowhead Vine since it likes to climb. If put next to a wall or trellis, the plant often tries to use the structure to climb. 

So the good news is, your plant is growing. If you’re not a fan of how your arrowhead plant looks when the stems get longer, there are a few things you can do:

  • Prune it: Arrowhead plants have soft stems that flop over with the weight of their leaves once they reach a certain length. If you don’t want the stems getting leggy and flopping over, you can prevent this with regular pruning or trimming.
  • Hang it up: Many gardeners put their Syngonium in hanging baskets. This allows the leaves to trail over the sides of the container naturally. This can be pretty when you keep it under control with some light pruning.
  • Let it climb: If you want your arrowhead to vine, give it some support. You can use a cage around it or tie it to a trellis to encourage climbing. 

How to Cut a Long Leggy Arrowhead Plant?

how to cut long leggy arrowhead plant

Regular pruning is the easiest way to keep an arrowhead container plant look bushier and less leggy. Trimming this plant is fairly simple.

To prune your arrowhead, simply trim the stems off to the length you want them to be. Make sure you have sharp, clean pruning shears to work with.

When you trim the stems, follow a trailing stem down to where it comes out of the main stem. If you cut below a node, you can propagate and make a new arrowhead plant from the cutting. 

The nodes of the Syngonium are the little lumps towards the bottom of the stem where roots will come from. To propagate, place your cutting either in water or soil, making sure that the node is submerged or covered.  

Trimming the leggy stems of your Syngonium should make it look fuller and bushier. Once you get your arrowhead plant into the shape you want it, maintenance is easy. All you’ll need to do to keep its appearance is pinch off any new growth as it comes in. 

If you’ve pruned your arrowhead plant and it looks too sparse, you can try adding some propagated cuttings into the soil.

To do this, it’s best to propagate your cuttings in water until you see some solid root growth. Then you can add them to the soil of the parent plant to make it look bushier. 

How to Stake an Arrowhead Plant

How To Stake An Arrowhead Plant

Another solution to leggy arrowhead plants is to support them. Since Syngonium plants have leaves that weigh down the stems and are natural climbers, they’ll happily accept some structure.

There are several different ways to stake an arrowhead plant:

Metal Garden Supports

Many types of metal supports can be used to provide structure to multi-stemmed plants like arrowhead plants. Here’s a video that shows what one veteran gardener does to support her Syngonium plants:

Moss Pole 

These poles mimic the natural habitat of the plant and give aerial roots a place to attach themselves. As the stems grow, your arrowhead should naturally climb the pole and attach itself using roots that come out of the nodes. You will need to secure the vines to the pole with twine or plant ties. 

Indoor Trellis 

There are many beautiful indoor trellis options at garden centers and on the internet today. You can train your arrowhead to climb up a decorative trellis by gently guiding the stems onto the trellis, tying some in place if necessary. 

As with most garden endeavors, getting an arrowhead to look the way you want it to can be a gradual process filled with trial and error. Since these plants are so easy to propagate, you can easily start over by growing a new plant if you aren’t happy with your current plant

2 thoughts on “What To Do If My Arrowhead Plant Is Getting Leggy?”

    • If your Arrowhead is getting leggy and trailing all over the place, hanging it may well be the answer! You can have it trailing all over your living room, and not have to worry too much about those long shoots.

      Reply

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