Stop the Trailing Habit of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew)

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How To Stop The Trailing Habit Of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew)

Are you a gardener or houseplant grower looking for a technique that you can use to control or stop the trailing habit of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew)? Here we describe how to make them trail longer or how to stop that and create a more bushier, rounded plant.

There are many different varieties of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew) and most of them trail – but not all.

However, here is a simple technique that you can apply to all varieties of Tradescantia that do tend to trail in order to control its trailing habit. 

Tradescantia Growth Habit – and how to get longer trailing stems

Varieties like Tradescantia Zebrina have a nice trailing habit that happens in the horizontal sense: in the wild it grows prostrate along the ground, therefore growing this plant in a pot makes it curl upwards at the ends (in response to gravity). Tradescantia Red Jewel grows in the same way.

Many varieties of Tradescantia trail on the ground much faster than when hanging down in a pot. Therefore, a great tip to improve trailing and prevent the shoot ends from turning up too soon is to trail the plants on a horizontal surface first. This will enable them to go much faster and further and then you can pick it up and hang it to make a much better training plant. 

How to Make Tradescantia Bushier by Pinching Out

‘Pinching out’ is a great and easy method you can apply to help you stop or control the trailing habit of Tradescantia and produce a more bushy, rounded plant. Pinching out stops the trailing and starts the plant to sprout further up the stem and produce some side shoots. New shoots could also come from the base and that is purely a result of pinching out the tip. 

How To ‘Pinch Out’

You should cut the plant part way along the stem from the end between the leaf nodes and the leaves. But you shouldn’t cut just below a leaf node because that will leave a bare stem which will die back. It will also make the plant look pretty unsightly with a dead bare section. (Check out the video above for a demonstration)

It is therefore best to cut the plant just above a leaf node as that will make it look more aesthetically pleasing. Again, cutting back will stop the stem from growing any longer: instead it will start bushing out along its length.

You can use the cut material to make another plant. The growth hormones are situated around the leaf nodes so you need to strip off the bottom few leaves, then bury the cutting slowly in the soil because it will be very brittle. Tradescantia will root in practically any media you choose – even water!

Within a week after planting, there will be another plant of Tradescantia wandering around the greenhouse. 

This process is easy and can be done with various Tradescantia varieties like Tradescantia Maiden’s Blush, Tradescantia Zebrina, Tradescantia Red Jewel, Tradescantia Purpurea, Tradescantia Sillamontana, and all sorts of Tradescantia hybrids. You can create a bushy plant or a trailing plant – it’s up to you. You can also create a prostrate plant that creeps along a surface in different directions.

Here’s a walkthrough in even more detail:

Stop the trailing habit of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew)

Cheat Sheet
Video: Stop the trailing habit of Tradescantia (Wandering Jew)

Direct Link to video: https://youtu.be/aNt7EoHi8hg

This is to explain and demonstrate how to stop a Tradescantia from continually lengthening its stems and how to ‘pinch out’ the growing tips to make it bushy.

Tradescantia Red Jewel and Tradescantia Zebrina (and many other hybrids) prefer to grow horizontally otherwise if in a hanging basket they’ll try to curl upwards instead (responding to gravity).

If you want a Tradescantia to trail downwards from a basket then try trailing them horizontally first (see above) until they reach the desired length, then you can hang it – although inevitably it’ll curl upwards again (see below).

How to prevent to Tradescantia stem from lengthening (and pinch it out):

Firstly, go to the end of a stem and remove the terminal (end) leaf. This will be enough to stop it from growing any longer. It will also cause the stem to produce side shoots further up the stem.

Secondly, if you wish to use the end of the stem for ‘cuttings’ then cut further back the stem just above a leaf node (i.e. where a leaf appears from the main stem) – see above image

That’s enough to stop the stem from growing any longer and cause it to bush out. You now need to prepare your cutting.

Cut your shoot to around 10 to 20 cm in length, and remove the bottom few leaves from the part of the stem that’ll go into the media.

Make a final cut just below a leaf node (see above). You should be able to see the ‘buds’ of new roots already protruding! (see below)

You can then plant your cuttings into general purpose compost or John Innes no 2 (although practically any media will work for them).

That’s all there is to it!

You can do this with any of the tropical Tradescantia varieties, and create a trailing plant, a bushy plant, a ‘prostrate’ plant or a mixture of all 3!

Tradescantia will root in practically anything (even in a cup of water!) – so don’t worry too much about it.

You should have roots within a matter of days.