Help....

[Kristl Walek]

I have a pile of healthy Wisteria macrostachya (Kentucky Wisteria) seedlings on the go and they are way beyond the "staking" point.

I grow dozens of Clematis species each year and my standard routine is to constantly keep pinching them back to encourage root development and discourage long straggling seedlings (and need to stake while at this baby stage). Can I get away with doing the same thing to the Wisteria.

To illustrate---see pictures---the latest growth is the small stem emerging at the topmost node.

Anyone have any experience with this?

[Carlo]

Kristl,

Adult Wisteria are particularly amenable to being butchered, bouncing back with elan a'plenty. I see no reason why seedlings couldn't be carefully pinched to control growth until you're able to let them run.

[Paul T]

Kristl,

A late response to this...... Wisteria will happily branch as the Clematis do, but it also depends what you're wanting to do with them in the long term?  I grow most of my Wisteria standardised onto rose wheels to give a single trunk.  This is much better achieved on a seedling (or graft) that has not been pinched back and has instead been allowed to grow upright quite strongly.  If you're intending to use the Wisteria to cover a wall or something, then no problem at all, but if you're using it to grow up and cover (if you know what I mean) then you're making lots more basal shoots which will keep on trying to grow.

I hope I've explained that alright.  The Wisteria itself isn't going to care what you do, they're indestructible , but the end result you're wanting could be affected by the pinching?