by Evin Morrison, Extension Master Gardener
Photos © Evin Morrison
Just like us, sometimes our plants need a little support. Whether you just want to encourage a plant to climb rather than trail or you need a brace to keep it from tipping over, there are quite a few ways to prop them up and give them a hand. With so many options and tools out there, how do you know which one to pick for your plant?
What’s a Moss Pole?
One of the most common type of plant support is the moss pole. These posts are usually made of sphagnum moss or coco coir and are used to help plants that like to climb like philodendrons, pothos, and monsteras.
In nature, so many of these plants attach themselves to trees, walls, and rock faces to climb up toward the sun. Some species even need to have something to climb to stop producing juvenile leaves and start growing the mature leaves that so many houseplant collectors are looking for. Pothos vines in our homes usually have small to medium green leaves and trail from the tops of bookshelves or hanging baskets, but if you ever see one in the wild that has climbed up a tree the leaves are huge and have fenestrated leaves. While you might not be able to replicate that in your home without a very tall space, you can train a pothos up a moss pole and watch as the leaves get larger and larger as they grow vertically.
However, there’s more to training a plant to climb a moss pole than sticking one in the soil. Plants climb by producing aerial roots that grow from the nodes above the soil. These roots then interact with whatever surface is nearby that creates the support system and holds the plant in place. In order to recreate this interaction in your home, you’ll want to force contact between the moss pole and the nodes that you’d like to produce roots. To do this you can use plant Velcro or jute twine to tie the plant in place. From there, you have to make sure to keep the moss pole slightly moist to encourage the roots to grow into the pole. Without the roots growing into the pole, you’ll have to continue to tie it in, and you probably won’t have the larger leaf growth.
While there are many types of moss poles on the market, they won’t all give you the same results. For plants that you want to root into the pole, look for ones that have an inch or more of moss wrapped around the post (usually made of wood or PVC) or that are mesh tubes filled completely with moss. It’s important that there is enough medium for the roots to grab on to. Some available options are stakes wrapped in a thin layer of moss, and these are best to use only as stakes for support rather than for training the plants to grow vertically. Additionally, coconut coir is better for the environment than sphagnum moss, but it’s also much harder to keep moist for long periods of time. So, when deciding which moss pole is best for your plant, it’s also important to consider your humidity levels and how much you want to water or mist the moss pole.
Stakes and Bamboo Hoops
Some plants don’t need to root into a pole to climb. Plants like hoyas will greatly benefit from having a stake, hoop, or trellis to wrap around and climb. Again, you’ll need to work with the plant a bit to encourage it to find and use the new stake. Sometimes you can simply wrap a vining plant around the pole or stake, and it will stay in place, other times you’ll need to tie it in just like with the moss pole. When tying a plant in, no matter the support system, it’s always crucial to make sure you aren’t tying it too tight. If the stem grows wider, the tight connection point can cause a narrow, weak spot that might break if the top of the plant gets too heavy. Loosely attaching the plant also allows it to move freely as the plant follows the sun or gets caught in a breeze. You don’t want your plant to snap off and break because you were trying to make it grow taller.
Another common reason to stake up a plant is to support heavy bloom spikes or top-heavy plants. This is most often seen with orchids, like the ones you see at the grocery store. After the bloom spikes fade and you trim them back, you can save the stake and the clips to use when it reblooms or for another plant that needs a little support. If you don’t like the look of a plain stake, this is a good opportunity to use one of the moss-covered stakes. While they don’t have room for roots to attach to, they make for a more aesthetic option than the standard bamboo or painted wood stick.
Especially at this time of year, amaryllis are a popular option for seasonal holiday décor. The huge, beautiful blooms often need some support to stay upright so they don’t tip over and snap. While they sell special stakes for this purpose that have a small hoop at the top to loop around your flower spike, you can easily make one using a recycled wire hanger or some thick-gauge wire. Amaryllis bloom spikes are a lot softer than orchids so having this loop to hold the flower upright is better than tying it to a pole with twine. If you want to tie it on the pole, try using a softer, wide ribbon as there’s less chance that it will dig into the flesh of the plant.
Boards and Planks
Some plants like rhaphidophora and scindapsus are considered shingling plants. These plants grow flat on a surface with their leaves slightly overlapping like roof shingles. While these plants will grow without a support, to get this specific growing effect, you’ll need to give them a board or plank to attach to. The roots of these species stick on to the board and attach to it while growing upward with the leaves staying totally flat against the surface. Using scrap pieces of cedar boards is a great option for shingling plants because cedar is naturally resistant to moisture and won’t degrade in the moist soil. To attach a new plant to a board, you can use strips of old stockings or an upcycled, stretched-out hair elastic around both the plant and the board. The contact created will encourage the roots to stick on to the board and start to shingle.
While it may look out of proportion at first, use a board that gives your plant room to grow. Attaching an extension board to the first one can be difficult, so it’s important to make sure there’s lots of space for your plant to grow. If for any reason you need to switch out the plank, you’ll have to rip the plant from the board and then start the connection process all over. Removing the plant from its support system will not only ruin the root system, but very likely the plant will break during this process. Luckily, these species are very easy to propagate, so if you do end up with broken pieces you can add them all to the same pot to grow even more plants.
Get Creative!
Plant supports are easy to find online or at a garden center, but you can also get creative and use a variety of upcycled and found objects to support your plants; driftwood, for example, makes great planks. Plant stakes are also easy to find. You can cut up bamboo stakes and attach them together in a pattern to create a trellis using hot glue and twine. For smaller plants and orchids, use chopsticks to make great stakes and twist ties from bread bags to loosely tie on the plants. You can of course use scrap wood to make moss poles, stakes, or planks for shingling plants and larger boards to support tall or large plants like mature Monstera deliciosa.
There are so many reasons and ways to support your plants, but knowing how they grow in the wild and then working to replicate those conditions is a great place to start. Once you have a plan, get creative with the tools you use and before you know it you’ll have a full collection of tall, lush plants and beautiful, upright blooms.