5 Expert-Approved Ways to Keep Your Houseplants from Leaning as They Grow

When you’ve got a houseplant that’s supposed to grow upright and straight, but is leaning like the Tower of Pisa, what’s going on? The most common reason for crooked growth in indoor plants is that they are reaching for light. The expert tips will help you solve the problem so you can encourage strong, healthy, and vertical growth in your indoor plants.

Why Plants Start Leaning

The primary reason a houseplant bends or leans is due to phototropism, which is the scientific term for a plant’s tendency to grow towards the sunlight. In a home, light usually comes from a window on one side of the plant. This causes a growth hormone called auxin to build up on the shaded side of the stem, stimulating cell elongation and causing the plant to bend towards the light.

To determine what your plant needs to straighten up, it’s important to know what the plant’s form is supposed to be, says Paris Lalicata of The Sill. “Know the growth habit of your plant,” Lalicata says. “Is it a climber? Is it a tree? Understanding what its form should be helps you determine what you need to do to get it to grow straight.”

Tips for Straighter Houseplants

For indoor plants that naturally have an upright growth habit but may be leaning and lopsided in your home, here’s what you can do to help it straighten up.

1. Rotate the Plant

The easiest way to get your plant to grow straight is to rotate the pot every time you water. This makes sure all sides of the plant get equal light, which encourages more even growth. “Indoor plants are not getting light from all directions like they do outdoors,” Lalicata says. “They’re usually in a window, it faces one direction, and they tend to stretch toward it.”

Lalicata recommends rotating your plant a quarter turn, once a week. ”Plants that are slower growing, like snake plants, will need to be rotated less often,” she says.

2. Get the Light Right

Rotating a plant does not work if the plant is in a spot where it is not getting enough light overall. A plant that is stretching and has stems with big spaces between its leaves is light-starved and desperately seeking light. That stretching out is called etiolation, and it leads to leggy plants that fall over because their stems are weak and thin.

Move an etiolated plant to a brighter location or put a grow light directly above the plant. “A grow light placed overhead encourages a plant to grow straight up, and it’s a good solution for a space where you need more natural light than you are getting through windows,” Lalicata says.

3. Provide Physical Support

For plants that are leaning a lot, have weak stems, or are climbing plants, providing physical support is key to keeping the plant straight. 

Canes or stakes: Insert bamboo, plastic, or wood canes into the soil near the main stem of the plant. Use soft ties like twine or Velcro strips to secure the stem to the stake. Don’t tie the plant too tightly, or you risk damaging the stem.

Moss poles: For climbers such as monstera, pothos, or some types of philodendrons, use a moss pole to hold up the plant. These poles provide a growing medium for the plant’s aerial roots to attach, allowing them to pull themselves up just as they do on a tree in their native environment.

Coir poles: Another pick for climbers is coir poles. Lalicata recommends using cocoa coir poles. “They’re more environmentally friendly because coir is a renewable resource, and peat moss isn’t.”

Trellises: Place wood or wire trellises in the pot for vining houseplants, giving them a structure to climb and promote upward growth.

4. Prune for Better Shape

Pruning a lopsided plant can make it grow fuller and have a more balanced appearance. If your plant is leggy and sparse, prune the longer stems to encourage the plant to branch out and get bushier, Lalicata advises.

Prune just above a growth node, the point where a leaf grows from the stem. You can also “chop and prop” (prop is short for propagating.) Take cuttings from the pruning, root them in soil or water, and plant them in the same pot as the parent plant for a fuller-looking houseplant.

5. Adjust the Pot Size

A plant that’s top-heavy and in a pot that is too small is prone to tipping or leaning. Repot it into a larger, heavier pot to provide a more stable base and give the roots room to grow and anchor the plant so it grows straight.