A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 How do I make her stronger?

My Dieffenbachia's stem is pretty weak. I have to keep a stick beside it to keep it upright. It was suggested to me that if I repotted it in a bigger pot it would focus it's growth more on the stem, making it stronger. Is this a good idea? Besides the weak stem I don't see any need to re-pot and I don't want to do so if it's not going to help. So should I re-pot or not? (hey that rhymes...lol)

the stem thickness on diffenbachias and draceanas is determined by the amount of light that the plant gets while the stem is growing. that is why you see some with thin, then thick,then thin stems. that is from indoor, outdoor, back indoor growing! what i would do is cut the top off, put it in the pot with the main plant, and let the bottom produce babies on the sides! works great and looks cool. otherwise, propping it up is your only option.

chop the whole thing off about a foot above the soil and put it in the sun. you can take the top and put it in a bucket of water and it will grow roots.

they're next to impossible to kill, the stump will grow back. my mom had one and every time she thought it was getting too big, she just hacked it off and let it start over.

They like very bright light. I think that is important in keeping it strong.

Faizi

I think I should have added that my diffenbachia is not very big as of yet. It's only about a foot high entirely. It's growing new leaves like crazy, and it's in a nice bright but not directly sunny spot where it seems happy. Do you think the stem might thicken yet seeing as how it's still pretty small?

yes, it might. it also depends on the variety of diffenbachia. some of them never grow as tall and thick as others.