Help with the ethics of trimming trees and plants?!
My girlfriend is very hesitant to do this, fearing that to the plant, it's like decapitation or losing a limb. Can someone explain why it is, or is not like this. Do you think plants mind? Or do you think it's like the equivalent of trimming nails or hair--that it encourages healthier growth and isn't at all harmful?
Any thoughts, experience and/or links to relevant articles would be greatly appreciated.
Also, how do you determine where to cut?
Answers: From what I've been told, my girlfriend has a few plants that seem to be meeting the criteria for needing to be trimmed.
My girlfriend is very hesitant to do this, fearing that to the plant, it's like decapitation or losing a limb. Can someone explain why it is, or is not like this. Do you think plants mind? Or do you think it's like the equivalent of trimming nails or hair--that it encourages healthier growth and isn't at all harmful?
Any thoughts, experience and/or links to relevant articles would be greatly appreciated.
Also, how do you determine where to cut?
I've had my plants for years and years, I'm attached to them.
I don't really trim my plans, I remove the dead leaves. I like them wild :)
But it does depend on the plant. If you cut the tops off of evergreen trees, they die.
Why not get her a book on plants for valentines day!
Your girlfriend needs help.
And I really don't mean to be rude or anything, but seriously it's just a stupid plant!
Your girlfriend does know that whatever you cut off will grow back, right? And she also knows that plants don't have feelings, doesn't she?
If it is plant or shrub that requires trimming then I do not think that this will cause any more trauma to the plant then say like us getting our hair cut or nails trimmed. Depndning on the type of plant or shrub it may be more detrimental to the plant to not keep up with the trimming it needs to grow and prosper.
I would do some research on the type of plants you have and see what the experts reccomend ad far as where to cut, ect. Your local nursery should have an expert in this field, whom can guide you.
Good luck!
Trimming plants is not harmful. Plants cannot feel pain, biologically plants have no nervous system and they certainly don't have brains. Plants therefore are unable to feel anything, period. She can feel free to trim them to her heart's content, and to trim them any which way she wishes to.
I don't think plants necessarily need to be trimmed, we just trim them for our convenience and so that they maintain a shape or a certain look that appeals our eye. Plants have been around hundreds of millions of years and before us, nobody trimmed them, except maybe animals that ate them ;)
Like we tell those who say "YOU"RE KILLING A PLAAAAAAAAAAANT", plants don't have central nervous systems. Anyone who passed 5th grade should know that.
it is natural for the plant to loose branches or leaves in nature and it helps them to grow sturdy and grow outward. you are just controlling the process. if a plant doent loose limbs it grows upward until it cant support its own weight and then the limb breaks. Plants do not work like animals so dont think of them in animal terms. the best place to trim them is right after a split, this allows the two limbs that split to both grow as main limbs, and your plant to be healthier and thicker.
There is definitely nothing to worry about if you want to trim the plant. Plants feel nothing. Whether or not pruning is necessary is debatable. Your question is regarding ethics, however, and there is no moral crime in trimming a plant.
While I can't help you with the operation of trimming the plants, I can assure you they feel no pain. There has to be a brain involved to process the sensation as pain and plants don't have that (neither do some animals). They will however react chemically and electrically to stimulus. "Warnings" can be transferred through a plant or from plant to plant via root structures.
I can understand her concern, not on an ethical basis but on a personal attachment basis. It really does depend on the plant. I had a tree that I was very attached to. I came home one day and my mom had trimmed all it's branches. I was devastated! I had always just snipped off any limbs that had died and never touched the healthy limbs. It took my tree one full year to recover and start producing new healthy limbs. On the other hand, I had an ivy I was equally attached to. I had no problems trimming it back. The ivy was biologically designed to propagate this way (snip off a length and stick it in water and new roots will grow, no harm no foul). Just learn more about the specific plants you are growing and learn how to take care of them in a way that will make them healthier and heartier!
Good luck on your gardening!
Fruitarians believe that this would harm a plant, and that plants feel pain. It is okay to cut any part of a plant that is dying, in fact this will make it healthier. If you can tolerate the overgrowth, let it grow. If you must cut it, look up the right ways to cut it so that you won't kill it - as long as you don't kill it, I think it will be just fine.