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Beating the roses to produce, seriously!

16 years ago

I went to a plant show last weekend. People were gathered around this woman at the herb booth. Someone had asked how to get a plant to produce when nothing seems to work. She says she takes an aluminum baseball bat and wacks it. That stresses the plant into survival mode and it starts producing seed (flowers, fruit, etc.) I thought I'd try it. I wasn't going to use a baseball bat (I don't have one anyway.) So I used a rolled up magazine. My subject was Carefree Beauty which has been pouting since I took her out of the ground and into a pot. It has been a couple of months. So I wacked her good. This was Tue. Today she has a bunch of new growth, just 3 days later. Coincidence?

Nancy

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Comments (7)

rose_nutty
16 years ago
My grandmother used to tell about my dad taking a broom to her tomato plants when he was about 3 years old. For whatever reason, he beat them almost leafless (and she beat his little behind - this was 1920). She had the best and most bountiful crop of tomatoes that year she'd ever had or ever had after that.
malibu_rose
16 years ago
Just don't try it with your kids! LOL!
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teka2rjleffel
Original Author
16 years ago
Malibu, not even in the backyard where no one will see? Just kidding of course. I'll stick with plant abuse. It's pretty hard to put my 32 year old daughter over my knee anyway.
Nancy
jerijen
16 years ago
It actually IS an old technique. But not a baseball bat for Heaven's Sake!
In old accounts I've read, they used some sort of a WHIP.
A related technique is the use of a wire brush on an old, long-uncared-for bud union,
which has grown barky and crusty.
"Wounding" the tissue is supposed to encourage the emergence of new canes.
I've done it, and I have never seen any sort of positive result, but YMMV.

Jeri
veelakin
16 years ago
Good grief. Violence in the rose garden. How very American. 'Spose we could devise a very special technique which may (or may not) be tortuous for our bushes? ... Something like water boarding for bloom, maybe?
karenforroses
16 years ago
I have a friend who owns a commercial nursery. Whenever I visit him in the greenhouses in the spring, he's always brusing his hands over new plants - especially tomatoes. He said this encourages the plants to put out more branching on shorter stems, which results in more blossoms and more fruit.
rjlinva
16 years ago
my parents used to beat me to get me to shape up...i think it worked

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