Spectacular sansevieria: home care, reproduction and disease

Sansevieria is an evergreen plant belonging to the Agave family. With a powerful root system and leaves of various shades.

The flowers are white with a pleasant aroma that resembles vanilla. Inflorescences open in the late afternoon and bloom all night until morning.

Florists love sansevieria for their unpretentiousness in care and beauty. She is able to decorate any room with her spectacular appearance.

Sansevier home care

Sansevieria is an indoor ornamental plant. It has the unofficial names "Mother-in-law's tongue" and "Pike tail". And growing is not particularly difficult even for a beginner; it is enough to follow certain rules.

Temperature

The plant is not very demanding on temperature conditions. It can grow calmly in both cool and warm rooms. In spring and summer, the pike tail feels good at a moderate temperature, in the range of 17-26 degrees. And in summer and winter, the plant is placed in a cool room, but where the air temperature does not drop below 13-17 degrees. With a prolonged decrease in temperature, the flower becomes ill.

Watering

How often should a plant be watered? Sansevieria recommend moderate and regular watering. In spring and summer, once every 6-8 days. In winter - 1-2 times a month, a day after the drying of the soil. Water suitable for standing room temperature or rain. In cool conditions, watering must not be excessive.

When watering, make sure that water does not get on the outlet. Otherwise, the leaves become soft and lethargic, turn yellow and rot at the base.

The plant tolerates dry air better than humid. Therefore, the space around the pike tail is sprayed only on a hot sultry day. In other periods, this procedure is not required. But periodically the leaves are cleaned of pollution by wiping them with a damp rag or cotton pad.

Lighting and location

Sansevieria is a photophilous plant that prefers bright diffused light. It tolerates both light partial shade and full shadow. Variegated species of flowers, on the contrary, need bright intense light, since in the shade they lose the motley color of the leaves.

Optimal for growing pike tail windows on the east and west sides. On southern windowsills on hot days, the flower is shaded from direct sunlight. On the northern windows, the color of the leaves becomes dark green, and ceases to bloom due to lack of light.

With a lack of lighting, especially in winter, install additional fluorescent lamps at a distance of 30-60 cm above the flower. In the summer, the pot with the plant is taken out to the balcony or to the garden.

Pruning

The cutting procedure itself is simple and does not require special knowledge. Spend it at any time of the year and extremely rarely. Consists of several steps:

1. Inspect the plant.
2. Old rotted yellowed leaves are cut with scissors.
3. Cut off the dry tips of the leaves, while leaving a couple of millimeters of dry strip. Otherwise, the sheet dries completely and becomes ugly.

Priming

The substrate for pike tail should be light, loose and malnourished. Succulent is not susceptible to rotting of roots, therefore it grows best in universal soil for geraniums with the addition of baking powder: expanded clay, perlite or fine gravel. However, the soil can be prepared and mix 1 part of leafy soil yourself, with 2 parts of turf soil and 1 part of sand.

Before planting the flower, the prepared substrate is calcined in the oven and watered with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

When and how to feed?

Feeding a pike tail during the growing season from May to September 1 time in 2 weeks. From October to April, the plant is not fertilized.

For feeding, fertilizers are used for succulents and cacti. But some gardeners also use universal mineral complexes for decorative and deciduous plants, but when breeding, they reduce the dosage by half.

For variegated species, sansevieria does not use top dressing with a high nitrogen content, since it stimulates the production of chlorophyll and thereby the disappearance of variegated leaves.

Transfer

Young plants are transplanted once every 2-3 years, and adults rarely, only when the lateral shoots get crowded in an old pot. Transplant Sansevieria in spring or early summer. And it happens as follows:

1. A drainage layer is poured into a new flowerpot, and then on a third of moist soil.
2. The plant is well watered. After a while, they are removed from the old pot, holding on to the leaves at the base.
3. Remove the old earth from the roots.
4. They put it in the center in a new container, add soil and tamp.
5. 2 days keep the succulent in the shade and do not water.

Reference: When transplanted, the plant is tied to a support, since heavy and long leaves can outweigh and tear it from the ground.

On the video you can see how to properly transplant sansevieria:

What kind of pot is needed?

The root system of the pike tail is not deep and does not develop rapidly. Therefore, the pot should be wide, but shallow. For low varieties of plants, the height of the pot is chosen to be half the diameter, and for high and medium-tall species, the height and width of the container is equal. A pot is best bought made of ceramic. To drain excess moisture at the bottom of the pot must have drainage holes.

How to care for a pike tail in a dormant period?

In winter, sansevieria stops growing, but the dormant period does not have a pronounced color.

• Since the end of September, watering is reduced and top dressing is removed.
• The plant is transferred to a cool room with a temperature of at least 13-15 degrees.
• Install additional lighting.
• Water the plant no more than 1 time per month.
• The leaves are periodically wiped with a damp cloth.

The pike tail is not afraid of heating appliances, but reacts poorly to drafts. Therefore, do not put it close to the window when ventilating the room.

Photo

Look at how spectacular the pike tail looks when it is properly managed:

Caring for a houseplant after purchase

A few weeks after the acquisition, the plant is transplanted into new soil. This is due to the fact that flower shops use substrates with poor nutrients that are not suitable for succulents for growing.

Therefore:

1. The roots of the flower are freed from the old soil, the rotted parts are removed and the places of the sections are sprinkled with crushed activated carbon.
2. Then transplanted into the prepared moist soil and for several days cleaned in shade.
3. Then it is watered and looked after like an ordinary pike tail.

Outdoor cultivation

Regions of Africa and Asia, where the tropics and subtropics prevail, are considered the homeland of sansevieria. It grows there on any poor soil of low humidity. Therefore, as a street flower, it survives only in conditions similar to its historical homeland. In places where there is a frosty winter, in the open ground it dies. But in the summer, the pike tail is taken out into the garden, while protecting from rainfall and providing diffuse lighting.

Breeding

Sansevieria propagates in several ways:

• By dividing the bush.
  1. The rhizome connecting the mother plant with the appendix is ​​cut with a sharp knife.
  2. The place of cut is sprinkled with ash.
  3. Put the separated bush in a container with soil.
  4. The shoot is occasionally watered and not fed.
• By sheet. This method is more complicated than the previous one, but with the help of it you can get several new plants.
  1. Leaves are chosen by adults and healthy.
  2. They are cut and dried in the open air day.
  3. After the cuttings of the leaves will be placed in moist peat soil, deepened by 2 cm.
  4. Cover with foil and put in a well-lit place.
  5. Ventilate daily and moisturize as it dries.
  6. After three weeks, the roots appear, and after a month and a half babies.
  7. In the third month, the processes are planted in separate containers.
• The seeds. Seeds are rarely sold in stores.
  1. You can get seeds by collecting from your plant.
  2. After flowering, the fruit appears, it is dried and seed is taken out.
  3. Sown in wet sand, pressing a little.
  4. Cover with a film from above and watered only through a pallet.
  5. Periodically ventilate.
  6. Seedlings sprout for several months. Then they are dived into separate containers.

In more detail about the reproduction of the flower "Pike tail" and about caring for it at home and in the open ground, we wrote in a separate material.

Video on how to propagate sansevieria leaf:

Diseases and Pests

The plant is very rarely affected by diseases and pests. But with improper care, the following problems may occur:

1. Dark spots on the leaves due to excessive moisture at low temperatures. Correct the watering mode.
2. Leaves turn yellow due to lack of lighting and low temperatures. The flower pot is rearranged in a warm place and additional lighting is installed.
3. Leaves curl due to drying out of the soil. The plant is urgently watered.
4. White spots appeared on the leaves due to the attack of the spider mite. To get rid, the leaves are wiped with a damp cloth or treated with insecticidal preparations.
5. On the lower part of the leaf there are many larvae, and on the outside there are light spots, which means that the plant was attacked by thrips. The only cure is regular spraying with insecticides.
6. The flower is bent, the leaves turn yellow due to the attack of a mealy tick. The pest is removed manually, the socket is wiped, and the plant is sprayed with karbofos.

You can find more details about the diseases and pests of this beautiful plant in this article.

Sansevieria is an unpretentious and hardy plant, which is suitable for growing even a beginner grower. It is enough to water and fertilize it on time, as well as provide the necessary lighting. And she will delight with her decorative look for many years.

Watch the video: Sansevieria AKA Snake Plant Care: The Diehard Houseplant Joy Us Garden (December 2024).