What is etiolation and how to prevent it?

Orchid growing in the direction of light.

Have you heard of etiolation? Maybe you saw an etiolated plant, or had one yourself, and didn’t know that was what was happening to it. It’s a very striking reaction that anyone who has in places where they don’t get the light they need has.

The worst is it can happen to any type of plant: cacti, trees, palm trees,… For some it is easier to correct than for others, but what I’m going to tell you is that the simplest thing is to prevent it from happening.

What is etiolation?

Image – Wikimedia/Chiswick Chap

Etiolation, in simple terms, is the “stretch” of a plant. As I mentioned at the beginning, this happens when it grows in areas where there is little light, or where there is more powerful light than it usually receives (for example, if we have a houseplant with little light and that it detects the reflection of the sun on it). a window frame, it will grow towards that reflection).

The problem with all this is that this stretch involves a “thinning” of the stretched part (leaf, stem). Therefore, sooner or later, we will see this rod lose its strength and bend because it cannot fight against gravity. That’s why it turns out to be quite a serious problem, because returning to normal development takes time, and sometimes it can’t even be achieved unless that etiolated part is pruned.

What are its effects ?

If we take into account that all plants need light to grow and develop well, we can imagine how important it is for them to receive the amount of light they need at all times. Without light, they cannot carry out photosynthesis, and therefore they do not grow, flower and even less bear fruit.

At first glance, what most attracts our attention is stem and/or leaf elongation. But there are other effects that we also need to know about, which are:

• loss of color. They change from a healthy green to a whitish green or yellowish green because they produce less chlorophyll (remember that they need light to produce it).
• The internodes are longerwhich implies that the stem will have fewer leaves than it should.
• Stems lose strength and may bendwhich is due to the weakening of the cell wall.
• In some cases, we can also see that new leavesin case they produce them, are smaller than they should be.

How can it be avoided?

Now that we know that etiolation is caused by lack of light, let’s talk about how it can be avoided. Well, the short answer is simple: plants should be placed where they can grow well, and for that it is necessary to know if they are shaded or sunny. But of course, what happens, for example, with the nurseries that we can have inside the house? Or with those plants that, although we know they need the sun -like many cacti and succulents-, we have indoors?

Well, in these cases what we are going to do is gradually expose them to direct sunlight. We have to be very patient with this, because If we suddenly put them in direct sunlight, they will burn. Therefore, I recommend following these steps:

1. During the first week, we will expose them to direct sun for about 30 to 60 minutes early in the morning, then we will put them in partial shade.
2. During the second, we will increase the exposure time by approximately 30 to 60 minutes.
3. And so on for the following months.

Now, see how they react: If they start to have spots that they did not have before, we will have to expose them more slowly to direct sunlight.

How to correct etiolation?

Or in other words: how to recover an etiolated plant? The most important thing is that we know that that is going to take timeMore or less, but you have to be patient. Once we are clear about this, we can act; that is, we will get to work trying to get it to grow normally again.

And how is it done? Well, by following the steps mentioned above; it is: it is a question of exposing them little by little and gradually to direct sunlight if they need to be in a sunny spot, or partial shade if they just need to be in a spot with more light.

In the case where we have, for example, a very etiolated plant, like a globular cactus that has suddenly started to grow vertically, it may be necessary to prune this etiolated part so that it has a chance to develop well.

Hope this was helpful to you.