Have you ever wondered why indoor plants are difficult to thrive upright compared to outdoor ones? The reason is simple: indoor plants don't suffer the impacts of outdoor elements to develop sturdy support structures, therefore, their stems become weak.
Staking up your indoor plants is a great way to help with that issue.
Below is our guide on how to stake plants in your garden to keep them upright:
How To Stake Plants In Your Garden To Keep Them Upright
When it comes to planting stakes, there are four common types:
- Cage support – ideal for top-heavy multi-stemmed plants with too large foliage/blooms
- Wire or Shaped Support – ideal for creepers or plants needed training to their shape
- Pea Staking – ideal for plants with a spreading growth habit
- Single Stake – ideal for climbers or slightly top-heavy, single-stemmed plants
Cage Support
Cage support is easy to DIY: Secure four or more stakes around the plant stems, 2”-3” apart. Tie one string to one stake (as close to the bottom as possible), then start wrapping it around all the stakes and gradually go up. Finish by securing the string at the top end of one stake.
With larger plants, wrap the string diagonally across within the stakes.
Create one tier or more as long as the flowers are 5” above the top one; make sure the gap between tiers is 4”-6” apart.
Make sure the cage provides enough space for your plant to grow healthily and comfortably inside.
It will then be pressed to the soil or secured to the container/pot/or raised bed. It doesn’t require tying the plant stem to it for support as well.
Wire Or Shaped Support
This type of stake is commonly found in indoor jasmine pots.
A funny thing about this plant is it has many extended branches. During the blossom season, lots of flowers are produced, making the branch heavier so that it can’t support the extra weight.
To prevent them from breaking or laying down on the floor, many gardeners install a wire or shaped support which can be found easily in different shapes, sizes, and materials. But you can DIY one on your own by using a wire coat hanger or a simple piece of wire.
While providing sturdy support for plants to lean on and thrive, it brings a cute sculptural decoration item to add up aesthetics to your garden.
Square shape:
Round shape:
Heart shape:
Insert both ends of the stake into the potting soil and secure them. You should set it up during the growing season of the plants so that when branches start to develop, gently and loosely tie each of them to the wire support.
Pea Staking
This is actually an old staking type that originated in English vegetable gardens, made of multiple dried tree branches, and used for holding up pea vines.
Nowadays, it is widely used for those plants with a spreading growth habit.
The materials are also expanded with more options.
In general, pea staking consists of various branched pieces of brush with the top bent over for an interlaced network shape while the ends are inserted securely into the ground. Plants will thrive inside this network.
You should start installing this stake support when the plant is still young. Buy or DIY – the choice is yours! If you want to try making one on your own, prepare some well-branched brush stems.
Interwoven or bend and group the tops of these stems. After that, secure the bottom ends of the network into the soil. You don’t need to tie the plant stems to it.
Single Stake
Many gardeners use single stakes to support climbing philodendron, monster, and golden pothos vines.
Insert the stake into the ground as long as it is 2”-3” away from the plant stems; make sure it stands upright and solidly. Gently and loosely tie each plant stem to the stake, every 5”-6” along with the stem height, using special plant ties or nylon stretchy ties.
Start with tying a half-granny knot around the stake as long as there is a 1+ inch gap between it and the plant stem.
The next knots are full granny.
Don’t use too much force or tie the plants too tightly because that is prone to injure them.
Once the plant can latch on itself, untie it.
When choosing single stakes, there are two important features you should consider:
- Size
- Material
Depending on the mature size of the plant, choose a single stake with appropriate height and thickness. The larger the plant’s mature size, the taller and thicker the single stake.
As for materials, there are a lot of options available in the market, such as metal, bamboo, moss, and fern bark.
Each of them has specific pros and cons.
Natural materials are eco-friendly but they dry out quickly, which requires frequent mist to keep moist, especially sphagnum moss. Metal is low-maintenance but prone to rust in high humidity while the non-rust kinds are expensive.
Conclusion
Now, have you already known how to stake plants in your garden to keep them upright? Do you find our guide helpful? We’d like to hear from you more so, please share with us your thoughts and feedback if you have tried any of these staking types. Thanks for reading!
