From our perspective as oregano plants, pruning is a form of controlled damage that triggers our innate survival mechanisms. Our natural growth pattern is to become woody and leggy, focusing energy on a single main stem to reach sunlight and produce flowers for reproduction. When you cut into our stems, you are simulating herbivory (an animal eating part of us). This perceived threat activates hormonal responses, primarily the production of auxins at the tip of the cut stem. These hormones redirect our energy away from apical dominance (vertical growth from the main tip) and stimulate the activation of dormant lateral buds located at the leaf nodes further down the stem. This results in the production of multiple new stems from a single point, creating the fuller, bushier appearance you desire.
Your timing is crucial for our health and robust response. The most impactful pruning should occur during our active vegetative growth phase in spring and early summer. This is when our sap is flowing vigorously, days are lengthening, and sunlight is abundant. We can easily channel our stored energy from our roots into producing explosive new growth to replace what was removed. Please avoid major pruning late in the season as we are preparing for dormancy; a hard cut then would force us to use precious energy reserves on new, tender growth that would be vulnerable to frost. You can, however, harvest smaller amounts regularly throughout the growing season, which acts as a continual, mild pruning stimulus.
To achieve bushy growth, you must make your cuts in the correct location. Do not simply haphazardly remove leaves from the top. Instead, identify a stem and locate a set of healthy leaves. Your cut should be made approximately ¼ inch above a leaf node (the point where a pair of leaves emerges from the stem). Make a clean, angled cut using sharp, sterilized shears or scissors. This precision minimizes damage to our tissue, reduces the risk of disease entering the wound, and provides a clear signal to the latent buds at that node directly below the cut to awaken and grow. Always prioritize pruning the longest, leggiest stems first, as this encourages the shorter ones to catch up, creating an even canopy.
A key component of encouraging vegetative (leafy) growth is to prevent us from flowering. Flowering and seed production is our ultimate goal, and it consumes a massive amount of our energy, causing leaf production to slow or halt and stems to become woody. As soon as you see the beginnings of flower buds forming, you must "pinch" them off. This is simply a type of pruning where you use your fingers to remove the flower bud or the very top set of leaves. By consistently pinching off these flower buds, you frustrate our reproductive cycle. We respond by redirecting all that energy back into producing more leaves and lateral branches in a continued attempt to grow tall enough to successfully flower, resulting in the dense, bushy plant you want for culinary harvest.
