Keiki paste is a fun and seemingly magical goo used to clone orchids, create new orchid blooms, and generate new growth on just about any healthy houseplant. Keiki paste works by using a plant growth hormone called cytokinin to bio-hack a plant's dormant nodes, encouraging those nodes to activate and sprout new vegetation.
While you could make your own, we recommend using Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste, a super-formula with precisely tested levels of cytokinins and added vitamins for maximum growth.
Applying keiki paste is simple, but we recommend reading through the instructions to avoid commonly missed steps and to set up your plant for the most successful new growth possible.
In this post we demonstrate how to apply keiki paste and get results on a baby bunny bellies plant and we also provide a video on how to apply keiki paste to orchids.
Assessing your plant's health is the most crucial and overlooked step of using keiki paste. Before applying keiki paste, ensure the plant on which you want it is healthy and in a growth cycle. There should be no signs of disease or pests on the leaves, roots, or soil.
You can still use keiki paste in the winter, but if your plant seems dormant, try adding a grow light, keep your plant in a slightly warmer spot, and pay extra attention to the humidity in the dry winter air.
Do not use keiki paste on a sad, unhealthy plant, as it likely won't have the vitality and resources to support new growth.
Now that you've chosen a healthy plant, the next step is identifying its nodes. Nodes are the part of the plant where leaves and stems emerge and where your new keiki will grow. Depending on the plant, there is usually a thickening or joint in this area. You can check out this article on identifying nodes for a more in-depth explanation and this keiki paste tutorial which shows nodes on many common houseplants.
Choose a bare node without any existing growth. Generally speaking, nodes closer to the soil will have access to more energy for growth, so you may want to focus there.
If you're using keiki paste on orchids, you can apply some paste to the nodes higher up on the flower spike to encourage more blooms and lower down on the leaf nodes to encourage your plant to make a WHOLE NEW BABY ORCHID (aka - a keiki!).
Scoring the node is the other most commonly forgotten step when learning how to apply keiki paste. This step creates a gentle scratch or tiny notch that allows the paste to work deeper and access the cells it needs to interact with to create growth.
Scoring the node is easy, but you must be careful not to damage the plant. If you're dealing with woodier stems, you must ensure the surface of the node is sufficiently abraded. For plants with very thin stems, like a string of hearts you can skip the scoring and just add the paste. Or you can use a pin to just make a tiny hole.
Depending on the heartiness of the stem and node, you can choose your instrument: a clean safety pin, toothpick, sharp knife, or even your fingernail.
Gently remove a tiny layer or make a small hole in the node, and then it's ready for keiki paste application.
Now you're finally ready to apply the paste. Use a cotton swab or toothpick to apply a thin layer of keiki paste to the node. One application should be sufficient, and Keiki paste is water resistant so it won't wash off with gentle care.
Once the keiki paste is applied, you'll want to remember where you dabbed it on so you can monitor growth. The easiest way to track where you applied your node is to grab your camera and snap a few videos and photos. This is also a great way to record a "before" pic to compare to later growth.
Most plants appreciate an extra dose of mild fertilizer directly after applying keiki paste. In addition, continue to provide your plant with optimal conditions of light, water, humidity, air circulation, and regular fertilization while waiting for the keiki to emerge. Keiki paste is water resistant, but if the plant is accidentally sprayed with a pressure wash or heavy rain, you may want to see if reapplication may be necessary.
Check the applied node weekly to see if a new keiki growth is forming. Depending on the plant type, health, and growing conditions, it can take anywhere from one to three weeks for a keiki to appear.
For orchids, keiki paste works best on a plant that is actively growing and will be most effective while blooms are robust but have yet to fade.
As mentioned above, you can use keiki paste on orchids to get more blooms (by applying higher up the flower spike) or to grow new plants (applying lower towards the base). You can read why cloning orchids with keiki paste is superior to growing orchids from seed here.
Within weeks or months, a new baby orchid clone will emerge from that spot on the flower spike and begin growing its own roots and leaves. Allow it to grow larger before removing it. Wait until it has several leaves and well-established roots. Once the keiki has matured enough, you can cut it off and repot to continue growing independently as a clone of the parent plant. The entire process, from paste application to repotting, can take as little as two to three months.
Watch this video below to see how to apply keiki paste on orchids.
Though keiki paste was initially developed to clone orchids, it can stimulate growth at just about any plant node.
We have tested it on many houseplants - you can see some of our experiments in this keiki paste tutorial, which also shows how to identify nodes on many common houseplants. See the new growth on our ficus umbellata below too!
Regardless of the plant you choose for your keiki paste adventures, the most important things to remember are to choose a healthy growing plant, make sure you find its nodes, and remember to score the nodes. Be patient!
Keiki Paste is a fun and easy way to clone orchids or create new growth on just about any healthy plant. Keiki paste works by bio-hacking a plant’s dormant nodes, encouraging those nodes to activate and sprout new vegetation.
Keiki means child or offspring in Hawaiian. Keiki paste is aptly named because it creates new baby shoots from the parent plant.
With our trademarked cloning paste and thousands of happy fans, we consider ourselves THE experts on all things keiki, so let us be your guide on everything you need to know to use keiki paste on your beloved orchids and houseplants.
Now that we answered the question - What is keiki paste? - let's go deeper…
Made in the USA, Southside Plant’s Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste was formulated by our founder - an orchid hobbyist, house plant lover, and biologist. She started off with some grocery store orchids, began collecting rare specimens, and soon started to wonder how she could grow her own.
Turns out, that growing an orchid from seed is a long and tedious process requiring specific temperatures, humidity, and sterile conditions. So she got curious…. How can someone - not in a special laboratory greenhouse - grow a baby orchid at home?
That is when she learned about cloning orchids.
Cloning orchids is a much easier, faster, and more satisfying way to make new orchids. And with the help of some nerdy science - a.k.a. keiki paste, you can clone orchids at home, too.
What is in keiki paste? In its simplest form, keiki paste is made from a waxy base of lanolin and a plant hormone called cytokinin. It’s basic enough that adventurous DIYers could even make their own. That said, the addition of other ingredients can optimize the effects of keiki paste. The original, trademarked Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste contains a highly tested, proprietary blend of lanolin, cytokinins, and vitamins formulated for optimal growth outcomes for your orchid and other plants.
Here’s how these ingredients work together…
Lanolin, a natural wax-like substance obtained from sheep's wool, creates the base for keiki paste. Lanolin helps the paste stick to the plant where needed. It forms a water-resistant barrier that protects the tender new growth areas from environmental stressors as they develop and aids in the healing process during regeneration.
Cytokinins are the magic of keiki paste. These naturally occurring plant hormones play a pivotal role in cell division and growth. When applied to a plant node, cytokinins in the paste send a signal to the plant, telling it to grow. This results in the sprouting of new shoots - the keiki.
Vitamins: Lastly, we've enriched Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste with a unique proprietary vitamins that provide essential nutrients to the developing shoots. This blend enhances the plant’s ability to create rapid, robust, healthy new growth.
Whether you like to grab an orchid from the grocery store occasionally or you're a collector of rare specimens, keiki paste can take your love for this beautiful tropical flowering plant to a new level.
While it's not an exact science, where you put keiki paste on the flower spike (the stalk) will help determine whether it creates new blooms or an entirely new orchid plant. Apply keiki paste on nodes higher up on the spike to encourage more blooms and lower down on the leaf nodes if you want to create a new keiki.
When a keiki left is on its parent plant, both will bloom in sync, creating a spectacular display within about two years. Alternatively, your keikis can be replanted to diversify your orchid collection or shared as unique gifts.
If you choose to clone your orchid to make new plants, once the keiki starts to grow aerial roots about 1-3 inches long, you can remove it by gently cutting it an inch or two down its new stalk. Repot in the same substrate that you would use for any orchid. While it’s not mandatory, it’s best to repot the keiki with its mother for the first year to help maintain the right conditions of moisture.
Go here for a step-by-step photo tutorial for how to clone orchids with keiki paste.
You can read more on how to repot an orchid in this post, and how to choose the right container for your orchid here.
YES! You can apply keiki paste to the node of just about any plant to stimulate new foliage growth. Try it on a leggy vine like a Pothos or succulent like a donkey tail or string of pearls to fill in some of those empty areas. Got a rubber tree or fiddle leaf fig with a bald spot? As long as your plant is healthy and growing, keiki paste can do its magic.
See our tutorials using keiki paste on many different plants here or check out all the videos of customers loving keiki paste on Instagram!
To use keiki paste on your orchid or houseplant, you first must locate a node. Nodes are small bumps where new leaves or stems emerge from a plant. They often look like joints along the stem or trunk. You will be looking for a node that no longer has foliage.
Gently score the node with a clean safety pin or sharp knife. A gentle scratch or tiny notch is all that’s required to allow the paste to work deeper in the plant. Next, dip a cotton swab or toothpick into the keiki paste. Lightly dab a tiny amount - half of a pea size - of the paste onto the scored node.
For a more extensive tutorial read this: How to Apply Keiki Paste
After applying keiki paste to a scored node of your orchid or houseplant, you should expect to see signs of development in one to three weeks. This time may vary, though, due to the health of the mother plant, the type of plant, and growing conditions. Be patient!
You only need to apply keiki paste once to a plant node for shoots to grow. The lanolin-based paste is water resistant, so it won’t wash off. Now, sit back and wait for the magic to happen.
While keiki paste may seem like a strange miracle goo, its remarkable effectiveness is due to the science of its key active ingredient, cytokinin.
Cytokinin is an important plant hormone that works in tandem with another plant growth hormone, auxin, to regulate plant growth. While the relationship between these hormones is complex and interdependent, in short, when it comes to plant propagation, auxins stimulate rooting and vertical growth, whereas cytokinin generates lateral buds and leaves.
Also interesting to note, plants grow taller and longer because there is a constant flow of auxin from the apical bud or top growth area on a plant, which also suppresses growth from dormant buds further down the plant that have branches growing outward. This vertical growth is called apical dominance.
If you cut off the top of a tree or pinched off the bud of your window basil, it will stimulate those lower branches to fight for dominance and grow a bushier, more squat plant.
When keiki paste, rich in cytokinin, is applied to a prepared dormant node on a plant, it triggers new lateral growth - bud, leaf, branch, keiki - without having to remove the apical bud.
By mimicking these inherent hormonal signals, keiki paste effectively jump-starts the development at these plant nodes, facilitating a natural growth process of new leaves and lateral shoot growth in an otherwise dormant node.
You can read more about cytokinin and auxin science in this post.
While keiki paste seems pretty miraculous, it isn't really a magic wand for all of your plant-growth desires. For starters, keiki paste is not a rooting hormone, so if you’re trying to get a cutting to grow roots, you’ll need a different product with auxin, the growth hormone specific for generating roots.
Also, Keiki paste cannot rectify underlying plant health problems. The health of the mother plant will ultimately determine how much potential growth energy is available for keiki paste to be effective. Proper care involving sunlight, water, and fertilizer remains indispensable for plant health.
If you have a leggy vine - ask yourself - Why is it leggy? - before you try to force growth from its tired nodes. Does your plant need more light? Have you been inconsistent with water or nutrients? Does it need to be repotted?
If your rubber plant or fiddle leaf is dropping leaves or not showing signs of new growth, it's not likely to cooperate if you ask it to make new growth elsewhere. Take time to address your plant’s health before applying keiki paste. It's a brilliantly nerdy science tool, but keiki paste cannot fix an unhealthy plant.
Also, keep in mind that everywhere you apply keiki paste, you're basically submitting a request for new growth. So, it's wise to choose your application spots judiciously so your plant can focus its energy on successful, abundant growth where you most want it.
Yes! Keiki paste is safe for humans and pets. The active ingredients are not toxic in such small quantities. The main ingredient that gives it that waxy yellow color is lanolin, which comes from sheep’s wool and is non-toxic. Breastfeeding moms even use lanolin to heal and protect chapped nipples, as it is safe for newborns to ingest. That said, it's always better to keep non-food substances away from pets and kids - save your keiki paste for your orchids and houseplants.
Several versions of keiki paste are available to plant lovers, but we may be a bit biased in saying that our Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste is the best. And over FOUR THOUSAND five-star reviewers agree.
We recommend buying your keiki paste here or on Amazon. You can also ask your favorite local plant shop if they carry it too!
Sure… For those who would rather have all the control, you can try your hand at DIY. Just keep in mind that you will be mixing sticky lanolin with strange white powder - which can be messy and will require a sensitive and precise scale plus proper protective gear to avoid inhaling the chemicals.
For these adventurous souls, we've even posted a keiki paste recipe. If you choose to use a different recipe than this one, make sure it includes the correct ingredients. Others may seem to be on the right track, but if a cytokinin isn’t on the ingredient list, it just won’t work. (Cinnamon stimulates roots, not bud growth.)
Need for a unique gift under $20? Keiki Paste is perfect for all plant and orchid lovers in your life. It includes everything for an engaging plant project: a detailed instruction booklet, a cute glass vial with paste, and applicators. It's not only a fun home experiment but also an educational opportunity for kids to learn about plant biology in a hands-on way. So easy to use and super fun for adults and kids to monitor the seemingly magical growth of new plant "babies".
Now that you know everything there is to know about using keiki paste to make your orchids and other houseplants even more luscious and gorgeous, we can’t wait for you to try it! See other fans' results on our Instagram and tag us - @southsideplants - with yours! #crazykeikipaste
Can you make your own keiki paste? Yes! There are recipes out there that won't work, so be sure to use this DIY keiki paste recipe.
]]>Keiki paste is a fun and seemingly magical goo used to clone orchids, create new orchid blooms, and generate new growth on just about any healthy houseplant.
Can you make your own keiki paste? While it's available for home hobbyists to easily purchase here or here, for those who love DIY, it's also possible to make your own.
Keiki paste allows orchid and houseplant lovers to propagate their collections inexpensively. Using keiki paste, you can even save money by creating more plants (especially orchid keikis!) from the ones you already have.
The most essential ingredients in keiki paste are lanolin and cytokinin.
A cytokinin is the key ingredient in keiki paste. Cytokinins are important hormones that stimulates the growth of lateral buds and leaves on plants. The most common cytokinin used in keiki paste, and the one in this recipe, is called benzylaminopurine (6-BAP). You can read more about how plant hormones work here.
Lanolin is a thick, sticky emulsifier derived from sheep's wool that creates the base and substance of keiki paste, allowing the plant hormones to be evenly distributed and absorbed. It also helps to protect and heal the plant from the tiny wound made when keiki paste is applied.
Addition ingredients: Some pastes (like our wildly popular Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste) also contain vitamins and other proprietary ingredients to enhance growth further, but for the sake of simplicity and cost-effectiveness, this DIY recipe contains only two ingredients.
Applying keiki paste to your orchid or houseplant is quick and easy, and by following a few essential tips, you can ensure that the magic will work on your plants.
For starters, it's essential that you properly locate the node of your plant. This post goes into detail explaining how to locate a node on any plant.
Secondly - and this is a step often missed by those who tend to skip reading instructions - be sure to gently score the node before applying keiki paste. This means you want to - ever-so-slightly - create a wound on the node with a pin, sharp knife, toothpick, or even your fingernail. Take care not to sever or damage the plant. This step ensures that the plant hormones get to the plant's cells they need to interact with.
And finally, but potentially the most important - be sure you apply keiki paste to healthy plants that are currently in a growing cycle. If your plant is not receiving appropriate amounts of light, water, and fertilizer, you may not see the results you're hoping for. Likewise, if your plant is currently dormant (perhaps because of the shorter days of winter), you may want to wait until it's receiving more light.
Keiki paste works because the plant hormones will trigger growth at a node. How successful this growth will be depends on how healthy your plant is and how much energy potential it currently has to grow.
Generally speaking, keiki paste is shelf-stable, as its base, lanolin, does not go rancid quickly. Properly prepared and stored, it should last many years from the production date.
That said, rare signs of spoilage include changes in color or texture, foul odors, and bubbling. Discard any paste that shows these signs of deterioration.
To maximize freshness, store keiki paste in an airtight container. Due to the non-sterile environment of household kitchens, homemade mixes likely won't last as long as commercial pastes. It's best to make DIY paste in small batches that you can use relatively quickly.
While homemade keiki paste can successfully produce baby orchids and new plant growth, it can have some drawbacks. Getting the ratio of lanolin to cytokinin correct can be tricky. Too little hormone won't be effective, while too much may damage plants.
Keiki paste is non-toxic to plants and animals. That said, 6-BAP is a very fine powder which can be toxic if inhaled, so extra care must be taken to ensure it’s not ingested in this way if you choose to make this at home.
Store-bought keiki paste has more precise concentrations and sterilization. They may include other beneficial additives as well. So homemade keiki paste can work but may produce more inconsistent results.
But probably the biggest question you want to ask yourself, is why make your own keiki paste, when it’s so easy - and not more expensive - to buy?
We may be biased, but Crazy Keiki Cloning Paste is the best choice for orchid hobbyists and houseplant lovers, and over 4,000 five-star reviews from happy fans agree!
The founder of Southside Plants, a biologist and fellow plant person, tested and formulated crazy Keiki Cloning Paste to contain the correct concentration of cytokinins with added vitamins to promote optimal growth. When applied correctly to healthy plants, new sprouts are inevitable.
If you’ve been wanting to try keiki paste on your plants - you have options! If you are a die-hard DIYer, you can make your own from scratch with this recipe. Or simply grab a vial of Crazy Keiki cloning paste now, apply, and watch the magic sprout and grow.
]]>Available at just about any grocery store, orchids may seem commonplace these days. But not too long ago, any orchid was considered a rare and expensive commodity because growing them from seeds require years of challenging laboratory cultivation. With the introduction keiki paste, a sticky substance made of lanolin and plant growth hormone, orchids can now be reliably cloned into mature plants identical to the parent within several months.
For most home orchid hobbyists who want to try growing their own orchids, using keiki paste to clone orchids is the now most accessible and efficient way to make more of their favorite plants (and also how your local grocer can afford to sell orchids at a reasonable price). You can learn more about keiki paste in this article.
Orchids have extremely tiny, microscopic seeds that lack their own stored nutrients, making it difficult for them to germinate and grow to maturity without specialized techniques.
In the wild, orchid seeds depend on a symbiotic relationship with certain fungi in their environment to get the nutrients needed to germinate. The fungi colonize the seed and break down nutrients for the plant embryo, allowing it to develop and grow. Without this symbiotic partner, orchid seeds can’t naturally germinate on their own.
For orchids to grow from seed successfully outside their natural habitat, they are typically sown in sterile laboratory conditions onto a jelly-like, nutrient agar medium in containers or flasks. The medium provides the seeds with the nutrients, hydration, and support they need in the absence of their symbiotic fungi. However, the nutrient balance in the agar must be precisely controlled to allow for germination and growth. Too much or too little of certain nutrients can prevent the seeds from thriving.
Once sown onto the agar, additional fungal extracts or specialized nutrient solutions are often applied to the seeds to induce germination with pipettes and microscopes. Orchid seeds can take anywhere from three to twelve months to finally germinate on the nutrient agar, which is only the very beginning of the process of growing an orchid from seed!
Once germinated, the tiny orchid seedlings must be kept in very stable and precisely controlled greenhouse environments to support their slow development. Factors like temperature, humidity, ventilation, water, nutrients, and light exposure must be optimized. If conditions deviate too far from the seedlings’ needs, they can easily die before reaching maturity.
Over several years of meticulous and attentive care, the orchid seedlings slowly grow into juvenile plants. But it typically takes a minimum of five to seven years before they bloom for the first time and reach maturity as adult plants. This prolonged timeline makes growing orchids from seeds a labor of love and patience, even for professional growers. Most home growers do not have the expertise, resources, or even interest to raise orchids from seeds successfully.
In contrast to the precise and fussy process of growing orchids from seeds, cloning mature orchid plants using keiki paste is a much more accessible method of propagation that produces results faster. To clone an orchid, keiki paste (containing the plant hormone cytokinin) is applied to nodes on a flower spike. The hormones stimulate cell growth and division, initiating the development of a new orchid plantlet or “keiki.”
You can learn more about how to apply keiki paste here. (It works to stimulate growth on other plants too!)
Within weeks or months, a new baby orchid clone will emerge from that spot on the flower spike and begin growing its own roots and leaves. Once the keiki has matured enough, you can simply cut it off and repot to continue growing independently as a clone of the parent plant. The entire process, from paste application to repotting, can take as little as 2-3 months.
Apart from the ease and speed of using keiki paste to clone orchids, the clone will have the same genetic identity as the parent, maintaining all of its distinctive features like flower shape, size, fragrance, and colors. On the other hand, raising orchids from genetically variable seeds may produce plants with appearances and traits that differ from the parent.
For home growers seeking to propagate more plants like their favorite orchid, cloning with keiki paste is the simplest method. The paste provides an easy shortcut to producing genetically identical new plants in a fraction of the time it takes to raise orchid seeds.
Read to grow?
Being able to identify plant nodes is essential for successful pruning and propagation. And if you use keiki paste to generate new growth on your plants, locating nodes is a must because that's where all the growth happens.
Nodes are spots along the plant stem where new lateral shoots (either stems, leaves, or flowers) emerge. Lateral shoots refer to any horizontal growth on the plant. It excludes the vertical growth at the very top of the plant, known as the apical bud.
Given the right conditions, nodes can also produce roots, and these are called adventitious roots.
The spaces in between the nodes are called inter-nodes. Stems, leaves, and flowers only emerge from a node, never from an inter-node.
Basal nodes are located at the very bottom of plant stems just above or below the soil. When propagating with keiki paste, you may experience more prolific success focusing on basal nodes, as they have more direct access to nutrients and water in the soil for activating growth.
When taking a cutting for propagation, you must sever just below a node for the plant to generate adventitious roots. If your cutting does not include a node, the stem cannot produce new roots to become an independent plant.
When applied to dormant plant nodes (nodes without growth), keiki paste, made of lanolin and plant hormones, can stimulate the node to activate new growth of stems, leaves, and/or flowers without cutting the stem.
When pruning, you want to cut just above the node to encourage lateral branching and, ultimately, a bushier plant.
All plants have nodes somewhere, but they look very different on different species. Some plants have prominent nodes, while others are trickier to locate, and still others are underground! With practice and a bit of guidance, you'll be able to spot most above-ground stem nodes easily.
For most plants with nodes above ground, the nodes resemble joints dividing the stem into sections. Sometimes, nodes appear as indented rings that occur at somewhat regular intervals along stems. They may appear as pale or dark raised rings around the stem. The stem might change angles at each node. You will usually see leaves or other stems growing out of nodes.
To locate a node, place your fingers on the stem right next a leaf, and then trace the stem backward toward the soil. You will either encounter another leaf, an aerial root, a smaller stem or a nodule. In any case, you have found a node.
In the rubber plant (at the top of this post), you can observe the light and darkened lines on the stems, and in spots where leaves have fallen off, lighter-colored circles appear at the nodes as well.
Here are some more examples of nodes on various plants to get you started.
Plants with branching trunks and stems typically have markings and growth that provide clues to help you locate the nodes.
Nodes on a Monstera are representative of many tropical plant nodes. They look like joints segmenting the stem with a thin line where it appears two stem sections overlap. There are several nodes in the image above which appear thin and pale in color. Aerial roots, leaves, and stems grow from the nodes.
Hoya nodes - Hoya is a diverse genus of flowering plants with 200-300 species. They vary widely in appearance, from their leaves to their nodes. In the photo above of a Hoya Carnosa, you can see the nodes where the stem branches.
Begonia nodes - The nodes on this polka dot begonia appear brown with a thickening of the stem. Not all begonias have above-ground nodes, though - some have nodes under the soil level, a type of node we will discuss later in this post. There are three classifications of begonia that differ based on how they grow underground.
Plants with fragile stems have tiny nodes. These can be easy to miss, so you might need a magnifying glass to find them. The Baby Bunny Bellies (Tradescantia Chrysophylla) above has delicate but pronounced nodes.
Nodes on a String of Hearts look like tiny knots on their stringy and trailing stems.
You can observe the nodes on a Chinese Money Plant (Pilea Peperomioides) on its center stalk.
There are two types of philodendron - climbing (like the common heart-leaf Philodendron hederaceum) and non-climbing. Philodendron Birkin is an upright philodendron with nodes growing out of the center stalk. Both new leaves and aerial roots grow from the center stalk.
Cacti have a unique feature called areoles, where nodes are packed very closely together without internodes separating them. It's as though the entire stem has shrunk into a tiny space. You can spot the areoles by seeing where spines or flowers emerge from the cactus.
Have you ever gone to take a clipping of a plant, and you couldn't find a node? Maybe a giant bird of paradise leaf or a small fern frond. And if you put it into water, sadly, it didn't make roots. Well, here's why...
Some plants can't be propagated using their above-ground stems because they don't have stem nodes. Collectively known as geophytes, these plants have bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, and stolons, all forms of underground food storage for the plant. These special plant parts are all actually modified stems, and the nodes of all these plants are underground.
Let's take a look at how different geophytes propagate and grow.
You may commonly think of ginger or bamboo as rhizome plants. In your houseplant collection, spider plants, snake plants, birds of paradise, ferns (and many more) all have rhizomes.
New stems or roots emerge from nodes in the underground rhizomes, which is why these plants are known to spread. To propagate rhizomes, they must be cultivated to spread and then be divided.
Plants with bulbs, like tulips, daffodils, and lilies, do not have stem nodes and are propagated through division. Houseplants with bulbs include Caladium and Oxalis.
A true bulb is a compressed, underground stem called a basal plate. Roots, shoots, scales, and new baby bulbs emerge from the basal plant. Scales are actually modified leaves that the plant uses to store food when dormant. Bulbs grow new scales from the inside each year.
Bulb plants reproduce by offsets (lateral bulblets) from the basal plate, which can then be divided for propagation.
If you've ever noticed small bulb-like balls in the soil when repotting your alocasia or colocasia houseplants, you've already encountered a corm. Corms look like small bulbs but are structurally plant stems with nodes that produce buds and adventitious roots.
Corms can removed and cultivated into new plants.
When most people think of tubers, potatoes come to mind first. Tubers are actually swollen stems with multiple points of growth called eyes. A tuber contains all the parts of a regular stem (nodes, internodes, buds). Dahlias and peonies are decorative plants with tubers.
Hopefully, you now feel equipped to locate nodes on your favorite houseplants for successful propagation. Still stumped? Let us know in the comments, and we'll help you answer the question, "Where's the node on my plant?"
Moss poles can help you achieve the indoor jungle of your dreams. They give plants the structure and humidity they need for outrageously fun vertical growth and shockingly larger leaves. You will love watching their aerial roots climb up through the pole, and caring for moss poles is easier than you might imagine.
Moss poles are long hollow tubes with a gridded surface filled with sphagnum moss. They are inserted into plant pots to create a vertical growing habitat for vining plants to root. The pole is watered from the top with a very diluted water and fertilizer solution, creating a damp but aerated, nutrient-rich environment that welcomes hungry aerial roots.
Because of this vertical growing environment, moss poles do not require large pots and can grow infinitely tall in their original pots (just larger in diameter than their pole) by simply adding more moss-filled poles. The extra you spend on poles and sphagnum moss will be more than offset by the savings from larger pots and more soil.
A quick internet search will try to fill your head with other ideas of what qualifies as a moss pole. Let's review a few things that moss poles are NOT.
First of all, I love a good trellis, which supports a trailing vine and allows it to grow in whatever direction you choose. But the difference between a moss pole and a trellis is in the stuffing. A trellis only creates a support system for your plant. It does not provide a rooting medium for aerial roots to find a home and thrive. All of the plant's energy must come from the soil below.
Potted plants with a trellis will need to be repotted into large pots when their root systems outgrow their pot, and their leaves will mostly remain the size of the original plant. Depending on the species and conditions, trellised plants may attach themselves to the pole but won't receive much nutrition unless sprayed with foliar fertilizer. Many trellised plants will need continued help to attach to their pole with clips, wire, or twine.
In my humble opinion, coco coir "moss poles" create the most significant misconception about moss poles, and my personal experience of "failing" with coco coir poles backs this claim.
Coco coir is a wonderful product for potting mixes. When added to potting mix, it helps your plants absorb water and nutrients more effectively while reducing oversaturation and preventing waterlogged roots.
If your home has the humidity of a rainforest—with daily intermittent showers—coco coir may work great for your moss poles. However, in the typical home environment, coco coir poles cannot maintain sufficient moisture, even if you regularly spritz and use humidifiers.
My very first "moss pole" was an extendable wooden pole wrapped with coco coir. I paired this pole with an already thriving Philodendron, 'Florida Green,' presoaked the pole, used velcro to strap the vines to the pole, spritzed constantly, and even had a humidifier nearby. I even shoved damp sphagnum moss in some of the spaces between aerial roots and the coco coir. (See the picture above on the right).
Despite these efforts, over the course of many months, exactly zero aerial roots rooted into the pole. Eventually, I decided to repot my Florida Green with a true sphagnum moss pole, and within WEEKS, the eager aerial roots were burrowing into the moss.
The moral of the story: Unless you're growing outdoors in a tropical climate or a botanical garden, coco coir vs sphagnum moss poles is no contest. Only use coco coir as a trellis, not a moss pole.
Any tropical rainforest species with aerial roots - like monstera, philodendron, and pothos - will thrive on a moss pole. Rainforests are competitive habitats with space, light, and resources at a premium. Many of these plants are epiphytic - they have adapted to climb up surrounding vegetation to reach toward the light by growing aerial roots above the soil, seeking new places to grow. Moss poles recreate structures the aerial roots would cling to in the wild, letting your epiphytes vine upward to their heart's content.
The easiest way to insert a moss pole into a pot is when repotting a plant, but I prefer to start with a freshly rooted cutting or a baby plant from the nursery. For these smaller plants, you can choose a pot just larger than the pole itself.
Moss poles retain moisture well, but you must regularly water them. Depending on the humidity in your home and the height of your pole, this is approximately once per week. Fill a 500ml water bottle (1L bottle for larger plants) with water (I prefer conditioning mine with this water conditioner, which removes chloramines and chlorine). Add a few drops of gentle fertilizer and quickly invert the bottle onto the top of the pole. The water will slowly release into the moss. There is no need to water the base pot; check to ensure your tray does not accumulate water.
While it's not necessary, moss pole plants can be sprayed with water or foliar fertilizer like our AirPlant Spray regularly. These humidity-loving tropical plants also love to sit near a humidifier, but typically, the moisture of the pole will be sufficient.
If your moss pole plants grow like mine, you may be surprised by the speed and vigor with which they climb! Adding new segments to extend a moss pole is simple, but at some point, you may want to chop your pole and propagate it.
Once your plant starts to creep to the top on its moss pole, it's time to extend it. Simply assemble a new section of pole as before, leaving room at the top for the hydrating vessel. The new pole will nest inside the first one with a bit of wiggling and tucking the edges of the plastic inside the top of the other pole.
Continue to encourage your plant's nodes to contact the moss. As the lower aerial roots grow securely into the soil the velcro or twine can be relocated further up the pole.
At a certain point, your pole will grow to unmanageable heights. One of the coolest things about moss poles is propagating a mature plant like this. Because the plant roots vertically, you can separate at any section of the pole, first chopping the main vine.
Put the "cutting" in a new pot - it will not have any ground roots. Add an extension to your pole, and as long as there are healthy roots, your plant will continue to grow upward with larger and large leaves. You will be expanding your collection in a new and leaf-a-licious way!
I have been experimenting with moss poles for over a year. I've tried DIY moss poles. I've purchased everything from coco coir poles (imposters!) to every version available online. I even designed a 3D printable pole that I have yet to pull the trigger on. Needless to say, I'm a low-key moss pole expert. Here's what I found:
DIY enthusiasts will promise you that moss poles are easy to make at home, and they're right in theory. The most basic homemade moss pole is made by rolling a sheet of wire mesh into a column and securing it with basic zip ties. You then stuff the pole with moss, set up your pole in the pot with your plant, and you're good to go.
I attempted a DIY moss pole with much less favorable results than I had hoped. For starters, I could not find the type of mesh I wanted even after visiting THREE different major home improvement stores. When I finally sourced the mesh, I managed to scratch and slice open my hands while cutting, rolling, and securing it into a cylinder shape.
Finally—and let's face it, I may just be bad at DIY—the resulting moss pole dried out way too fast because it was exposed to air on all sides.
Ultimately, I found the best moss pole on the market today, which I have used for over a dozen plants. While it's not perfect, this moss pole has a mesh grid on only one side to maintain moisture in the sphagnum moss and make watering less messy. They attach easily, balance well in even the smallest pots, and, most importantly, my plants thrive on them. Stay tuned for Southside Plants moss poles coming soon!
Be sure to check out my monstera moss pole before and after - coming soon. In the meantime, have you tried moss poles? Let's hear about it! Got questions? Leave them below!
]]>One of the most common questions we receive is - What plants can I use keiki paste on? Does it work on houseplants? Does it work on my ficus tree? Can I use keiki paste on outdoor plants?
The short answer is YES! Keiki paste is not plant-specific, and while it is not made or sold for food crops, the biology of keiki paste works the same on just about any plant.
GET CRAZY KEIKI CLONING PASTE HERE
You can read an in-depth explanation of what it is and how keiki paste works here. But in short, keiki paste is a specialized substance originally developed to clone orchids because growing orchids from seeds is challenging. It was soon discovered, that keiki paste can stimulate growth at any plant node. The paste consists of water-resistant lanolin plus cyctokinins, a plant hormones that give the plant a boost to stimulate lateral growth of vegetation when applied to the nodes.
Applying keiki paste to the right parts of your plant can encourage it to grow new shoots, stems, and leaves more quickly than it would otherwise. More shoots mean a bigger plant and more parts to snip off for propagation to grow even more plants.
Before we show you specific plants you can use keiki paste on, here are some basics you must follow to apply keiki paste correctly:
Now let's get into some specific plants to answer the question - What plants can I use keiki paste on? Let's find out...
Yes! Fatsia or the Paper Plant (Fatsia Japonica), known for it's shiny, lobed leaves, is unfussy and fast-growing, both indoors and outdoors.
Finding nodes on a fatsia - The leaves of a paper plant have very long petioles that extend from the main stems. A petiole is the stalk that attaches the leaf to the stem. There won’t be nodes along the petiole. Nodes on smaller, younger Fatsia tend to be on the lower reaches of the plant, along the main stems. Follow the petioles down to the stem and you will find them.
Here is a closeup of a Fatsia Japonica node. You can see younger leaves emerging outwards from the node:
In Fatsia, new shoots will be fuzzy and slightly paler than the rest of the plant.
Preferred conditions for Fatsia - Because they can grow outdoors, Fatsia prefer drafty, cooler spaces in the home between 60-70°F. This plant likes soil that is slightly damp at all times.
Yes! Keiki paste can help you get bushier growth on your ficus tree.
For this example, I'm showing you my weeping fig (ficus benjamina), a popular, easy-care houseplant. Its variegated, slightly rippled leaves fall from the stems in a slightly drooping habit, lending the plant its common name. Although it grows to a limit of three to six feet in a container, it can reach up to 60 feet tall outdoors.
Finding nodes on ficus trees
Different species of plants have different kinds of nodes. Smaller ficus will have very fine stems which can make node identification difficult so use a magnifying glass if necessary. Weeping fig nodes look like tiny joints. You may see brand new, green shoots already emerging from some of them (like in the two right-most nodes marked in the photo below)
Applying keiki paste to woodier stems
To prepare tougher, woodier stems for keiki paste like you’ll find on a many ficus plants, scoring is especially important. Make you must score the nodes you have selected very gently with a needle or sharp knife, making sure you're not severing the stem completely. This will reveal the juicy green tissue beneath the tough outer exterior. Apply the paste as usual.
Optimal conditions for ficus plants
Ficus love bright light but never place them in the direct path of the sun. This will scorch the leaves. Make sure you position the plant in a draft-free place where the nighttime temperature is always between 65 to 70°F and the daytime temperature is between 75 and 85°F.
Your ficus will respond much quicker to the Keiki paste if you place it in high humidity conditions. Ideally, the humidity should be 70 percent and should be a minimum of 60 percent. Your plant will do its best in a warm greenhouse.
In terms of watering, ficus appreciates soil that is always slightly moist but never soggy. When you do water, dip the whole pot in a filled sink or run the pot under a tap for thirty seconds. Then, leave the pot out on a dry surface for any excess moisture to seep away. Never let your ficus sit in water.
Yes! With the help of Keiki paste, you can grow new shoots and leaves on your Inch Plant.
Also known as Tradescantia Zebrina, Inch Plants are among the easiest plants to propagate. Inch plants are popular for their stunning foliage marked with green, silver, and purple stripes.
Their trailing habit makes them ideal hanging basket plants. Their tendency to root readily means that they are ideal for growing in water. Mine is growing happily in a glass vase filled with water and a few drops of fertilizer. They are so vigorous that in South Africa they are classed as an invasive species. Given the right conditions, this plant will easily reward you with masses of striking foliage.
Locating nodes on inch plants
Inch Plant nodes are easy to find. Here is a closeup of two Inch Plant nodes. They show up as small bumps on the stem.
Optimal conditions for inch plants
The inch plant does best in very bright filtered light. The purple queen variety loves full direct sun.
Inch plants prefer humid air. This is especially important after you've applied Keiki paste. Place in a bright bathroom, mist regularly with a bottle spray, or place on a tray containing gravel or pebbles with water up to half the depth of the gravel or pebbles.
As for watering, try to keep the soil evenly moist at all times though not waterlogged.
Add a dose of fertilizer right after you use the paste to help the plant push out new growth. Soon, you will see new shoots and leaves emerging from the nodes you applied the paste to.
Yes! Marantas are a delightful plant that come in several different color variations. My Maranta leuconeura pictured here has fine red veins threaded across patterned pale and dark green oval leaves. If you want it to produce more foliage, Keiki Paste can speed up growth.
The best time to apply Keiki paste to your Maranta is during the spring and summer season. With maximum sunlight and warmth, it is more likely to respond to the paste as it is already primed for new growth.
Finding nodes on marantaa
Different plant species have different kinds of nodes. On the Maranta, they show up as knobby joints every couple of inches along the stem. The photo below highlights just two nodes on this Maranta plant, although there will be plenty more.
Optimal conditions for marantas
Marantas need medium to bright indirect light in a temperature range between 65°F to 85°F. Never place the Maranta in direct sunlight as this will scorch its leaves and eventually kill it. Although it prefers higher air humidity (above 65 percent), it will be fine in normal indoor humidity.
The Maranta is generally easy to take care of but it does not tolerate tap water due to its chemical content. You must only use distilled water or rainwater on the plant. Keep watering to a minimum, about every one to two weeks. Only water when the top half of the soil is completely dry.
Yes! Monstera are a favorite of houseplant lovers. The most popular varieties are Adansonii which have hole-y leaves and Deliciosa which has leaves with toothed edges.
Larger monstera are pricey. It’s cheaper (and more rewarding) to nurture a smaller Monstera into leafy splendor. Keiki paste will help by encouraging new growth quickly.
Locating nodes on a monstera
On Monstera, nodes show up as faint rings. Often, shoots grow just above or below these rings. Sometimes, a dark dot will mark the spot as in the photo below.
Yes, you can use Keiki paste to encourage new leaves on a baby rubber plant (Peperomia obtusifolia), however, its thick and slightly woody stem require extra care in preparing the node for application.
Finding nodes on a Peperomia obtusifolia
This plant has quite a thick stem so finding nodes should be easy.
Some nodes will be sprouting tiny leaflets already.
Nodes can also be found in the crevices just above or below existing leaves, as below. You can already see a tiny leaf emerging here.
Best conditions for a baby rubber plant
Your baby rubber plant does best with direct morning light and full, indirect light for the rest of the day. An east facing-window is ideal.
Maintain at least 60% humidity around your plant with regular bottle-sprays or by placing it on a tray of moist gravel. You should also use high nitrogen fertilizer to give your plant the extra nutrients to push out new growth.
Yes! You can enliven your Peperomia Verticillata Red with the magic of Keiki paste.
Peperomias are low-maintenance plants so I tend to leave them to their own devices. However, this means they can end up looking a bit ropey after a few months of neglect. I decided to see whether Keiki paste can perk them up with fresh foliage.
This lanky specimen grew tremendously over the summer, from 1.9 inches (5 cm) tall to now 13.7 inches (35 cm). The Latin ‘Verticillata’ (the root for the English word ‘verticillate’ or whorl-like) means a concentric pattern. At its healthiest, this plant should have leaves stacked closely on top of one another, circling the entire stem.
After my plant’s growth spurt, its foliage leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a lot of bare stem relative to the leaves. Not much verticillate action going on here.
This is where the Keiki paste comes in. I applied it to selective parts of the plant to encourage new growth and balance the silhouette.
Finding nodes on Peperomia Verticillata
Finding nodes can be tricky, especially on thin stems like these. A magnifying glass can help. Here are some close-ups of nodes on my Peperomia Verticillata.
Optimal conditions for Peperomia Verticillata Red are bright indirect light. A window just next to a tree would be ideal. Maintain at least 60% humidity around your plant with regular bottle-sprays or by placing it on a tray of moist gravel. Use high-nitrogen fertilizer to give your plant the extra nutrients to push out new growth.
Yes! When I got my Pepper Prayer Plant from the shop, some leave fell off in transit. With the summer a while away, I wanted to speed up the re-growth process. Using Keiki paste, you can get your plant looking bushier even while dormant, so I had high hope it would be a success.
Preferred conditions for Peperomias are bright light and at least 60% humidity.
Yes! A philodendron is a vigorous vining plant with luscious heart-shaped leaves, and you can encourage your Philodendron to grow new shoots, stems and leaves with keiki paste. This will leave you with a bushier plant with plenty of extra material for stem cuttings.
Locating nodes on Philodendron
Stem nodes are very easy to find on Philodendron's long, segmented stems. The nodes will show up as raised, pale rings or woody notches around the stem. Usually, stems will be bent slightly from where the node is. Younger plants with shorter stems (as in the photo) will have fewer nodes, and they may be nearer to the soil.
It may be tempting to apply keiki paste to every bald node on your leggy vine - and you can - but also consider whether your plant's health and conditions are optimal for it to be able to support the growth you'll be requesting.
Best conditions for Philodendron
Philodenron like dappled light like a window facing a tree or on a windowsill behind net curtains.
Philodendron are a rainforest plant and needs lots of humidity. This is even more important while you are waiting for new growth.
Water philodendron only when the top two inches of the soil is completely dry.
Add one extra dose of a balanced fertilizer right after you use the paste to help the plant push out new growth. If you have applied Keiki paste to many nodes, add a few more drops of fertilizer to your usual amount each time you fertilize.
Soon, you will see new shoots and leaves emerging from the nodes you applied the paste to.
Yes! You can use keiki paste to get lustrous new foliage on your pothos for spilling over hanging baskets.
For this example, I'm showing you my Satin Pothos (Scindapsus pictus ‘Argyraeus’) also known as silver philodendron or silver vine. Unlike the more common Devil's Ivy Pothos, the Satin Pothos (Scindapsus pictus ‘Argyraeus’) is a darker green with silvery green variegation. It is a bit rarer than the a usual pothos and makes a striking addition to your houseplant collection.
Finding nodes on a pothos
Pothos and Monstera stems and nodes look very similar - the nodes of both these plants show up as raised rings around the stem, as highlighted in the image below. Scoring the nodes is essential when a plant has slightly fleshy or thick stems like the Pothos.
A new bud on the Pothos will unfurl into a leaf. This is the same plant as above, just transferred to a hydroponic setup.
Best conditions for a Pothos
Pothos like indirect or filtered light – never place in direct sunlight, and Pothos do not need water unless the soil is completely dry.
Your pothos will like a balanced fertilizer, containing equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (10-10-10 or 5-5-5).
Yes! You can grow new shoots and leaves on your String of hearts or Rosary vines (Ceropegia woodii) with keiki paste.
String of hearts is a succulent vine from Southern Africa. I found mine at a local garden center looking thin and straggly, so I’m nursing it back to health.
Finding nodes on string of hearts
In the wild, the stem nodes of String of Hearts put out roots once covered with soil. Keiki paste will work like a dream on its thin stems.
The nodes of String of Hearts show up as raised bumps along the stem. They look like tiny elbow joints and you might need a magnifying glass to find them. You may see tiny shoots already growing out of them. A String of Hearts node is highlighted in the image below.
Optimal conditions for string of hearts
The more light your String of hearts receives, the more nodes it will produce on its stem. Place your String of Hearts in a position that receives bright indirect sunlight. Ideal places would be next to a frosted window that faces East or West, or a South facing window shaded by trees.
If it gets enough light, it will produce nodes that are closer together along the stem and the plant will look bushier as a result. If your plant is not receiving enough light, it will conserve energy by growing nodes spaced further apart.
You will need to fertilize your String of Hearts after applying Keiki paste with a nitrogen fertilizer to help it push out new growth.
String of Hearts does not need water unless the soil is completely dry. When you water, make sure none of the leaves get wet.
Yes! You can boost growth on a String of Buttons (Crassula perforata) using Keiki Paste.
String of Buttons is a slow-growing succulent with leaves that are generally green but with a lot of sunlight will tinge red around the edges.
A String of Buttons has a vertical growth habit as the stems are quite rigid. If exposed to enough sunlight, the triangular leaves stack closely on top of one another.
Locating nodes on a String of Buttons
Stem nodes on the crassula perforata will be found tucked just above existing leaves where they meet the stem. You can also apply the paste to the center of the uppermost leaves right at the tip of the stems.
A String of Buttons stems are somewhat thick, so scoring them is important for the paste to work as quickly as possible, especially on the lowest parts of the stem which turn brown and woody.
The photo below marks some of the stem nodes on this String of Buttons.
Optimal conditions for a string of buttons
A String of Buttons thrives in temperatures between 65 to 80°F. Make sure temperatures don’t approach freezing.
This plant prefers bright light, and if your plant’s leaves are growing further apart on the stem, it means the plant could do with a brighter situation.
Water only when the soil is completely dry. When you water, make sure you flood the roots so that the water starts running through the drainage holes of the pot. In summer you may be watering every few days, especially if you keep your plant outside. In the winter, you may only need to water once a month.
Like most succulents, String of Buttons do not need a lot of fertilizer, but give an additional dose mild dose after keiki paste application.
Yes! You can achieve more of those beautiful dark leaves on your Green Ti plant using Keiki Paste.
The Green Ti plant looks very similar to the Dracaena, so much so that botanists used to classify them as part of the same Cordyline genus. However, the Dracaena has orange to yellow roots where the Green Ti has white roots.
The Green Ti Plant is extremely important to many indigenous cultures in Austronesia, the Pacific, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea. Many cultures in these regions believe they hold souls inside them. Some believe that the Green Ti is a symbol of peace and healing. In New Guinea, they are planted to indicate property boundaries. The Ok-speaking people use it as a totem to represent their ethnic group.
The Green Ti plant is not as popular but it is very easy to care for, with bold elegant lines understated enough to suit any interior space.
Finding nodes on your Green Ti plant
Green Ti Plant nodes show up as slightly raised rings around the stem. These rings are a slightly paler green than the rest of the plant. Green Ti stems are quite thick so scoring them is important for the paste to work as quickly as possible.
The photo below below shows a wounded node applied with Keiki Paste.
Best conditions for Green Ti Plant
A green Ti Plants prefers bright, indirect light. A good position would be a South, East, or West-facing window with net curtains that filter the light. The temperature should be between 60°F and 75°F.
The soil should always be slightly damp - don’t ever let the soil dry out completely. This does not mean that you should constantly saturate the soil, however. Just stick your finger into the soil occasionally to check the uppermost levels are still moist.
As with most tropical houseplants, Green Ti prefers high humidity for optimal growing conditions.
Yes! You can use Keiki Paste (Heptaplerum arboricolum) to achieve a bushier Umbrella Plant ready for pruning and training.
With its sprightly bursts of foliage, the umbrella plant will bring cheer into any home. The Dwarf Umbrella plant used for this tutorial is a variegated variety with pale yellow markings on the leaves. The variegated plant is indistinguishable from the normal non-variegated variety except for the foliage color.
Locating nodes on an umbrella plant
Stem nodes on the Dwarf Umbrella Plant appear as little notches or indentations along the stem. You will see stems already growing from some of them. The photos below mark some of the nodes on my plant.
Optimal conditions for an Umbrella Tree
The umbrella tree prefers bright, indirect light. A good position would be a South, East, or West-facing window with net curtains that will filter the light. The temperature should be between 60°F and 75°F.
The Umbrella Tree is a tropical plant and prefers high humidity around 60 percent. This plant needs soil that is always slightly damp - don’t ever let the soil dry out completely. This does not mean that you should saturate the soil though - just stick your finger into the soil occasionally to check that the soil has some moisture in it.
While we likely haven't covered every plant in your collection, hopefully you're starting to get the picture. When it comes to what plants can you use keiki paste on, the answer is ALL OF THEM!
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Their main difference lies in their two most important respective functions.
]]>What is auxin? What is cytokinin? Whether you're a budding botanist or a curious gardener, these questions arise when trying to under exactly how plants grow.
Auxin and cytokinin are classes of plant hormones that regulate plant growth. Their main difference lies in their two most critical respective functions. Plant cells require auxins for the elongation and growth. Cytokinins drive cell division (producing new cells) and cell differentiation (determining what part of a plant a cell will become).
Auxin and cytokinin collaborate in concert, and these hormones can each only carry out many of their functions if the other plant hormone is present. The effect their interactions will have depends on the exact ratio between auxins and cytokinins in a particular area of the plant. Also, the impact of different concentrations and relative ratios of auxins or cytokinins will vary depending on the plant species.
Before we go further, let's back up and learn more about plant hormones in general.
Plant hormones are natural chemicals present in tiny amounts inside plants. They are an internal chemical signaling system that dictates the plant's actions. Without plant hormones, plants would not grow, produce differentiated organs, metabolize, reproduce, or adapt to changing environmental conditions. From stems reaching toward the light to flower production, everything a plant does depends on the correct hormone combinations being present in certain parts of the plant in the correct ratios.
Nine classes of plant hormones have been discovered so far, and auxins and cytokinins are the best-understood classes.
Plant hormone molecules are so small that they can diffuse through cell walls. They are easily transported to other parts of the plant when and where needed. Plants can inactivate particular hormones when they are not required. The roles of different plant hormones are complex and also vary between species.
Auxins are generated in growing stems and roots and move throughout the plant. They are found everywhere but are concentrated in areas of active growth.
Auxins play an essential role in a plant's life cycle, from root growth and development to leaf senescence - when living plant tissues age and die.
The ratio of auxin to other plant hormones will determine whether new roots, buds, or existing cells will develop. For example, a high auxin-to-cytokinin ratio will prompt root formation, while a high cytokinin-to-auxin ratio will prompt new shoot formation.
One visible effect of auxin that many gardeners would be familiar with is its role in suppressing lateral bud growth. Looking at the end of a shoot, you will see a bud right at the tip, called the apical bud. Apical buds release auxin to inhibit the growth of lateral buds and drive the plant to grow vertically. When the apical bud is pinched off – a practice recommended to encourage bushier plant growth - the lateral buds, which sit right below the apical bud, will start growing. Removing the apical bud stimulates cytokinin activity to generate this lateral growth.
Another observable effect of auxin is how plants curve toward a light source. When light hits a plant at an angle, auxin accumulates on the side that receives the least light. This auxin build-up in the shaded part of the plant causes cells to elongate on that side only, causing the stem to bend toward the light.
Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is the best-known natural auxin present in all plants. Chemical synthetic auxins include indole—3-butyric acid (IBA), 2-methyl-4-cholorophenoxy aectic (MCPA), Indole-princpionic acid (IPA).
The primary function of cytokinin is to produce new cells through cell division. These cells are differentiated to become callus cells (the cells that grow over a plant wound), roots, or shoots. The type of cell that will be produced, and hence the plant organ that will emerge, will depend on the exact ratio of cytokinin to auxin present.
Cytokinins are mainly produced in roots. From here, they are transported to different parts of the plant and are found primarily in areas of active growth in roots, young leaves, developing fruits, and seeds. The functions above usually involve auxins.
There are over 200 natural and synthetic types of cytokinin. Many have unpronounceable names based on their molecular makeup: some common ones are N6, N6-dimethylallyIaminopurine or N6 (Δ2– isopentenyl) adenine (i6ADE) and its ribosyl derivative N6 (Δ2-isopentenyl) adenosine (i6A).
While the biology of plant hormones like auxins and cytokinins can seem overwhelmingly complicated, understanding the basics can help gardeners and houseplant hobbyists garner a deeper understanding of how roots, branches, leaves, and fruit develop and grow.
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If you're new to the world of gardening, or perhaps you're a houseplant lover who recently realized your babies need food too (not just water and sunlight!), you may be feeling a bit confused about the topic of fertilizers and choosing an NPK ratio that's right for your plants.
Too much or too little fertilizer can devastate plants, so it's essential to understand how to choose fertilizer for your garden or crops.
A note for houseplant collectors - Because of indoor heating (and optional grow lights!), most houseplants do not go through true dormancy like your outdoor garden. For your indoor collection, we recommend using a very gentle organic nitrogen-based fertilizer, which is safe for most houseplants every time you water all year round. Check out our air plant fertilizer - a spray-on foliar food great for most houseplants!
Ready to learn about how to feed your babies? This guide will help you understand everything you need to know about fertilizer NPK to have healthy, happy plants.
NPK stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Although plants need thirteen other elements to grow and develop, they need these three in the greatest amounts.
We will go into deeper detail on each, but in short, here's what N, P, and K do for plants:
The ratio figures on commercial fertilizer packages are called NPK ratios, indicating the fertilizer's nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium percentages. The rest of the product is filler material that does not impact the plant.
Plant fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in varying proportions since different plant species and developmental stages require different nutrition levels. A. 5:5:15 ratio would indicate a potassium-forward fertilizer. A 15:2:2 fertilizer would be nitrogen-dominant.
5-5-5, 10-10-10, or 12-12-12 fertilizers contain nutrients in a 1:1:1 ratio to one another, indicating a balanced fertilizer containing equal amounts of each macronutrient. The only difference between a 12-12-12 fertilizer and a 5-5-5 fertilizer would be that you need to use less of a 12-12-12 product than a 5-5-5 product since the first contains 7 percent more nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Use fertilizers with lower macronutrient percentages on smaller plants and those with higher macronutrient percentages on larger ones.
Long before the scientific world discovered the roles of N, P, and K, farmers incorporated practices that enriched the soil with these essential nutrients without fully understanding the chemistry behind their actions.
Crop rotation with legumes naturally kept the soil "fertile" by naturally infusing it with nitrogen from the legume roots. Adding bones to compost contributed phosphorus, and farmers applied manure and wood ash to soil, which maintained natural potassium levels.
The Industrial Revolution has been a double-edged sword, both helping to alleviate world hunger and wreaking havoc on our environment by discovering ways to mass produce and use fertilizers.
That said, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium remain essential to plant life. While we advocate for natural, organic choices that beneficial for our environment and heath, for the purpose of this article, we will step aside from any debating and instead discuss what these nutrients do for your plants.
Nitrogen boosts stem and leaf growth and is essential to plants' green color. After carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, nitrogen is the most abundant element in plants.
Nitrogen is a major component of chlorophyll, a molecule essential for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process through which plants turn light into energy to grow. Chlorophyll also gives plants their green color.
Concentrations of nitrogen in the plants fluctuate depending on the season. During the early growth season, nitrogen concentrations will peak, and this is an ideal time to focus on nitrogen supplementation.
Chlorophyll gives plants their green color, so nitrogen deficiency turns leaves pale. If the plant is deprived of nitrogen as it grows, the lower leaves on the stem will become pale. This is because nitrogen reserves from the base of the plant will be transported to younger leaves at the very top if their nitrogen levels are low.
Nitrogen also deficiency restricts plant organ growth, affecting roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. It also causes chloroplast disintegration and, eventually, death. If the plant has been deprived of nitrogen since it was a seedling, it will look pale, weak, and spindly overall.
While insufficient nitrogen creates problems, excess nitrogen should also be avoided. Nitrogen can boost plant growth, but too rapid growth makes a plant weak and more susceptible to disease. Excess nitrogen can accumulate in the soil, damage leaves, and kill the plant.
The main sign of nitrogen toxicity in plants is leaf discoloration, as excess nitrogen accumulates, turning the leaf yellow while the veins remain green. This will start on the very outer edges of the leaf and spread inwards. After this, the veins on the leaf will start to collapse. Too much nitrogen also increases the plant’s susceptibility to bacterial and fungal diseases.
Nitrogen toxicity is common in winter months when over-zealous gardeners stick to a heavy summer fertilizing schedule even though the plants have stopped growing. New store-bought plants are also at risk of over-fertilization because the soil might already contain slow-release fertilizer.
Always err on the side of caution, especially with chemical fertilizers. Make sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions, and if your plant is small, dilute the fertilizer more than recommended on the packet.
At the level of the whole plant, phosphorus is essential for root growth, fruit, stem and seed development, and disease resistance - phosphates are the building blocks of plant tissue. At a molecular level, plants use phosphates to create and store energy.
Like other mineral plant nutrients, phosphorus is found in tiny amounts in plants. Usually, between 0.1-1 % of plant tissue is phosphorus. Phosphorus is essential, but plants need less of it than the other two macronutrients.
Fertilizers containing a higher proportion of phosphorus are intended for flowering plants.
Signs of phosphorus deficiency are mostly indistinguishable from signs of other nutritional deficiencies.
Leaf drop may occur starting with the oldest leaves. However, unlike in nitrogen-deficient plants where leaves go pale green or yellow, phosphorus-deficient plants will turn a darker green, perhaps even red or purple, because chlorophyll formation is unaffected by phosphorus depletion, while cell and leaf expansion are. The concentration of chlorophyll increases while the ability of chlorophyll cells to conduct photosynthesis decreases.
Seedlings will display reduced height, stem diameter, and leaf size. Phosphorous deficiency will also limit fruit size.
To learn about phosphorus toxicity read this post.
From algae and moss to roses and monstera, all plants need potassium for cell metabolism and to grow and develop. It is the mineral nutrient that plants require in the most significant amount after nitrogen.
Fruits and tubers need particularly high doses of potassium. Any deficiency will affect harvest quality. Plants with large flowers like roses, hibiscus, and orchids will also need lots of potassium just before and during their flowering period.
At the level of the whole plant, potassium regulates leaf transpiration - where water and oxygen in the plant are released into the air and carbon dioxide is taken in. Potassium also maintains turgor pressure - the water pressure that keeps cells taut and the plant upright.
Plant organs that need a heavy supply of potassium will be young growing leaves, reproductive organs, storage cells in roots, and fleshy fruits. Fruits high in water need potassium because potassium is necessary for maintaining osmotic balance - the optimal pressure required to balance the entry and exit of minerals and water from the fruit.
We discuss potassium toxicity in this post but what about when the soil does not have enough?
Potassium deficiency symptoms are very similar to symptoms of nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency. Plant growth will slow when they are low on potassium. Leaves will discolor around the edges and tips at an advanced stage of potassium deficiency. Leaves will also droop. Because potassium forms leaf cuticles that retain moisture, plants will lose water through the leaves at a higher rate. This is why plants suffering from potassium deficiency have a high water demand.
Because a plant deficient in potassium will be less able to maintain high water content in its tissues, it will be more susceptible to frost damage and stress from drought. Without potassium, plants are at greater risk from fungal diseases.
Without potassium, the plant will eventually die.
Now that you have a thorough understanding of NPK fertilizers, you’re equipped to decide the best fertilizer for your gardening needs. Interested in making your own? Try these:
]]>Crushed oyster shell is an underrated soil supplement with multiple benefits for soil and plant health. As organic gardening gains popularity, this natural conditioner is starting to be favored over synthetic options.
Oyster shells are made from protein polysaccharides, 95 percent calcium carbonate (chalk), and smaller amounts of magnesium, sodium, copper iron, nickel, and strontium.
Horticultural oyster shells can be sourced from the shells of any species in the mollusk family Ostreoidea. Whelks, a type of sea snail, have shells with a similar mineral profile.
Oyster shells' calcium content makes them so valuable for the gardener. Calcium-enriched soils encourage better root development, which ultimately leads to a bigger, healthier-looking plant.
Calcium is an alkali substance that can be used to increase soil pH. While some acid-loving houseplants (like azaleas, African violets, and Begonia) appreciate low-pH soil and shouldn't be given oyster shells, many others need an alkaline environment. Alkaline soils tend to contain more beneficial soil bacteria, which turn nutrients like nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium into forms the plants more readily take up.
If your plant isn't doing well, the soil environment may be to its liking. You can buy simple pH meters to easily measure the alkalinity or acidity of your soil. Low numbers (anything below 5) indicate acidity, while higher numbers indicate alkalinity.
If your soil is too acidic for your potted plants, this is very easy to fix. It's simply a matter of mixing up a new potting medium with alkaline elements to rebalance the pH. Many gardeners add powdered Dolomitic lime (a mined mineral) to alkalinize soil, but this substance can cause skin and respiratory problems. Dolomitic lime also contains much more magnesium than oyster shells, which can add unnecessary minerals to soil that is already well-fertilized.
Oyster shell is an equally effective alkaline agent but is less concentrated and works more slowly, reducing the risk of overloading your soil. Mix 1-2 tablespoons of oyster shell per gallon of soil. Calcium carbonate is one of the most stable minerals, meaning it will stick around in your soil for a long time, and you won't need to top up constantly.
Oyster shells contain minerals that plants need in minimal amounts, like magnesium and copper. These are known as plant micronutrients. However, oyster shell cannot replace plant fertilizer because it lacks nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus—the three minerals that plants need in the greatest amounts. You can use oyster shell in conjunction with plant fertilizers, however, as it helps your plants take up nutrients like nitrate better.
Sustainable gardeners will appreciate the fact that oyster shells are highly renewable materials. In fact, most farmed crustaceans bring net positive environmental benefits. Oyster shells are also cheap since they are sourced as a by-product from the seafood industry. You can buy in bulk and store them for as long as you like. If you need smaller amounts, check your local pet shop. They normally sell small bags of the stuff as a food supplement for caged birds.
For those who eat oysters and other crustaceans regularly at home, save any shucked shells to make your own shell-based soil conditioner.
Don't feel like saving shells, baking them, and grinding them? Give your houseplants and garden all the benefits of oyster shells with Southside Plantss finely ground horticultural oyster shell flour.
]]>DIY fertilizer may seem like an unnecessary chore, but a bit of effort can reward you with an organic plant food solution that's better for the environment and makes your plants happy. We have shared recipes for homemade fertilizers for plants requiring nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This post will show you two different ways to make homemade fertilizers with balanced NPK ratios.
Before we get into how to make homemade fertilizer, we will first review some basics about plant nutrition.
All commercial plant fertilizers contain nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), the macronutrients found in the largest quantities in plants. Plants require thirteen other micronutrients in smaller quantities, which usually already exist in sufficient amounts in the soil. While some nutrients can enter the plant through the leaves, the roots absorb most nutrients and transport them throughout the plant.
In this post, we explored the NPK ratios and the roles of these macronutrients in plant growth and development. Here's a summary of their roles.
Choose a balanced fertilizer when you are feeding your plant to aim for overall health. Choose a fertilizer with more of any of the macronutrients when you are trying to encourage specific aspects of plant growth.
Homemade fertilizers use natural rather than synthetic materials. This lessens the chance that you will over-fertilize and accidentally damage your plants. In addition, with homemade fertilizers, you have control. Hoping for more lush growth? Add some nitrogen. Want to support your plant through flowering? Increase the potassium. Also, pound-for-pound, homemade fertilizers are typically less expensive. Some of them—including our recipe below—are even free.
When making homemade fertilizer, you can choose your ingredients to focus on one or more macronutrients. However, understanding NPK ratios will be more of an art than a science without special laboratory equipment. You can also incorporate other amendments, such as probiotics to improve the soil biome or oyster shell flour to adjust pH.
If you bought your plant at a Big Box Store, remember they often load their plants up with high-nitrogen, high-salt fertilizers to make them look their best for sale. Soak these plants and their soil thoroughly to remove excess fertilizer and ease into your new routine, whether commercial or homemade fertilizer. Or, after your plant has had a few weeks to acclimate to its new home, remove your nursery soil and replant it in our Trail Mix or Granola potting soils to start your plant fresh.
To create this balanced fertilizer recipe, we approximated the NPK ratios of kitchen scraps using eggshells, coffee grounds, and dried banana peels. You can put this mild fertilizer directly on your houseplants without concerns about burning or over-fertilizing.
After processing, you can store these ingredients for future use, but they must be mold-free before you dry them and then thoroughly dry and kept in a dry sealed container. Consider popping a left over desiccant package into the container to be sure that it stays free of moisture.
Homemade fertilizer Ingredients:
For the eggshells: Rinse them well in a colander. If you live in a dry climate, you can just put them out in the sun to dry. If not, put them on a cookie sheet and toss them in your oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then, toss them in the food processor to make eggshell flour.
For the coffee grounds: Similar to the egg shells, you can leave them in the sun for a few days or put them in the oven to dry. Heat them low and slow coffee grounds to prevent your house from smelling like burned coffee at 250 degrees until very dry. Do not use unused coffee grounds because the steeping process neutralizes the pH. When the grounds have no more moisture, store them in an airtight container until needed. If you coarse-grind your coffee, you can toss it into a food processor to make the nutrients more readily available to your plants.
Banana Peels: Preparing the banana peels is easy, too. The same rules apply. Some people just put them in the sun. In March, where I live, mine turned to a moldy mush. So, I put them in my oven at 400 degrees until they were dry. It took about 30 minutes. They looked crisp, and then I gave them just a little more time to be sure. Put them in a food processor and make banana peel flour.
If you're putting table scraps to good use in your compost pile but still want to make DIY fertilizer, here is a balanced fertilizer recipe that you can make from ingredients from your local garden store. You can adjust this recipe's ratios to fit your plants' unique needs.
Easy Balanced homemade fertilizer ingredients:
Mix this together in a resealable container and sprinkle it on your houseplants for a balanced fertilizer. You can also play with the levels throughout the year to optimize your plant care game.
By using organic homemade fertilizers, you will reduce waste and have more control over what goes into your plant's soil. Do you prefer the convenience of store-bought fertilizers? Or will you try DIY?
Looking for an organic nutrient-dominant DIY fertilizer? Try one of these:
]]>Charcoal’s unique properties work wonders on soil quality, which is why we include it in our chunky potting mix for tropical plants and our potting mix for plants with delicate roots.
Understanding the different types of charcoal can be confusing, and conflicting opinions on the internet don’t help. What’s the difference between regular charcoal vs activated charcoal? Is horticultural charcoal for plants the same as biochar?
The following guide explains the different types of charcoal and how and why to include charcoal in your potting soil mixtures to benefit your garden and houseplants.
Before we discuss the different types of charcoal, it’s important to summarize why charcoal plays a role in soil and plant health. In the garden or for houseplants, charcoal:
Charcoal is the carbon and ash left over when wood or other organic material undergoes pyrolysis - a process that heats at extremely high temperatures rapidly. Different types of charcoal have the same chemical structure but differ in their physical properties because they are made in different ways.
Charcoal production releases polycarbonate into the atmosphere, so it is not carbon neutral (it pollutes). It is unlikely to have significant nutrient charge when added to soil because it’s usually just burnt wood, and the pH is alkaline - to the point where it can be very toxic to plants if used in soil.
Regular charcoal is primarily used for heating as in coal as a heating source or charcoal briskets for grilling. Charcoal briskets for grilling should never be used for your plants because it contains added chemicals that improve burning, like sodium nitrate or limestone, which can damage your plants.
You may have come across activated charcoal at either the pharmacy or garden store, as this product can be used for both human and plant application to pull toxins and other impurities out of the digestive tract or soil, respectively. Filtration systems for aquariums and drinking water take advantage of the purifying capabilities of activated charcoal as well.
Activated charcoal is regular charcoal than has undergone a second process of quick heat at high temperatures but with the presence of gasses such as oxygen. The activation process makes the charcoal extremely porous, increasing its surface area and adsorptive capacity. This can be helpful to correct an abundance of a pathogen or toxin that needs to be drawn out, but it can also leach essential nutrients from the body or soil over time.
Biochar is a processed carbon made from a mixture of food waste, plant residue, and wood chips. Like regular charcoal, biochar is also made with pyrolysis but the process is faster, hotter, and oxygen is restricted.
Through this process, biochar becomes porous than charcoal but less porous than activated charcoal. The resulting biochar holds the carbon and does not let it off into the atmosphere, making this product carbon neutral - not bad for the environment.
Because of the diverse materials that are in it, biochar may already be nutrient charged, and the pH is usually alkaline but typically much less so than charcoal.
Biochar is engineered specifically as a soil amendment for long-term carbon soil improvement. Its highly porous structure and large surface area allow retains water, nutrients, and beneficial microorganisms in the soil. It helps sandy soils retain moisture and nutrients while it increases air pockets in clay soils with poor drainage.
Biochar can enhance soil fertility, increase crop yields, and improve the soil's capacity to store carbon. Many believe biochar can play an important role in climate change mitigation.
For home gardens or houseplants, biochar is the ultimate choice when looking for a charcoal soil amendment that will hold and release nutrients as your plant needs them. This material breaks down very slowly, does not need to be replaced often, and both removes impurities and provides nutrients to the soil.
Horticultural charcoal has been produced and marketed for garden and agricultural use. Unfortunately, there is no industry standard defining what horticultural soil is. Every producer’s charcoal is going to differ, so you should get curious about how different products are created and tailored to do different things when making buying decisions.
Some sources will tell you that horticultural charcoal has gone through the same process as activated charcoal but is less porous. Other consider horticultural charcoal, activated charcoal, and biochar the same thing.
The most essential point to glean here is that you need to decide what factors are important to you when choosing charcoal for soil - porosity, additional nutrients, carbon footprint. And, of course, see what type works best for your specific garden, pots, and plants.
If you want to add charcoal to your potting mixture without diluting the soil's nutrient content, you can infuse the charcoal with nutrients yourself. Such enhancement can be done to regular charcoal, activated charcoal, or biochar.
You can also mix charcoal with beneficial microbes and other nutrients in a 1:1 ratio. Add water to keep it moist, and let it mingle for a couple of weeks before applying to the soil.
Use charcoal as a soil supplement in conjunction with other potting mediums. Here are some examples of how to use charcoal in your houseplant soil.
Charcoal mixes are ideal for creating succulent potting mixes because they keep the soil from getting soggy. Mix two parts soil, one part perlite, and one part activated charcoal.
Use charcoal for tropical houseplants that need richer soil loaded with organic material. Add three parts coco chips, three parts coco peat, one part charcoal, and one part worm castings. Or get our chunky potting mix for tropical plants!
Like tropical plants with ropey roots, these need great drainage but prefer a more peaty, fine soil. Substitute some coconut peat for the coco chips. Or get our potting mix for plants with delicate roots!
When choosing charcoal for orchids, use be sure to use charcoal chips rather than powder. You can get charcoal chips from gardening stores or specialist orchid supply companies. Add four parts medium-grade fir bark or coco husk chunks, one part medium charcoal chips, and one part horticultural perlite.
You can also place a 2-inch layer of activated charcoal at the bottom of your pots, below your usual potting mixture, to add drainage and reduce the risk of fungus developing.
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This guide explains how to correct nitrogen deficiency in soil using natural nitrogen sources for plants. Nitrogen is the mineral a plant needs in the most significant amounts, and a healthy plant will contain three to four percent nitrogen in non-root tissues.
Scroll to the bottom for two simple homemade organic nitrogen fertilizer recipes - one with grass clippings and urine and the other with leftover coffee grounds.
Long before the scientific discovery of the element nitrogen and its role in plant nutrition, farmers noticed that planting legume crops like clover made soil fertile. Uniquely among plants, legumes produce their own nitrogen and replenish the soil's nitrogen content. This is thanks to a bacteria (Rhizobiaceae, α-Proteobacteria) in legume roots.
Although nitrogen gas makes up 80 percent of the earth's atmosphere, man-made nitrogen was rare before the beginning of the 19th century. This was until the invention of the Haber-Bosch process in the early 20th century - a method to obtain nitrogen from the air.
Cheap synthetic nitrogen fueled the 20th-century revolution in global food production, creating a massive ecological crisis. Synthetic nitrogen run-off from agricultural land into the wider environment constitutes a significant pollution problem.
Homemade, organic fertilizer recipes tend to contain less concentrated amounts of the target nutrients than commercial, chemically synthesized ones. The lower potent concentration reduces the chance of damaging plants by over-fertilizing. They are also more environmentally sound because they have less chance of releasing excess fertilizer into the wild.
Instead of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, opt for organic alternatives. You can also make your organic version at home. Opting nitrogen from organic sources means you won't introduce surplus nitrogen into the ecosystem, and you'll be protecting and nurturing your plants at the same time.
All plant fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These are the macronutrients, the elements found in the most abundant quantities in plants. Different types of fertilizer contain these macronutrients in different amounts and ratios.
While plants also require thirteen other elements in smaller quantities to carry out essential physiological maintenance and achieve growth, these micronutrients are usually found in sufficient quantities within the soil. Plants need all three macronutrients and thirteen micronutrients.
Nitrogen-rich fertilizers contain a higher nitrogen ratio than the two other macronutrients (phosphorus and potassium). You can identify commercial brands of nitrogen-rich fertilizers by looking for nutrient ratios like 10-5-5, which means that the macronutrient content is two parts nitrogen to one part phosphorus and one part potassium.
Learn more about fertilizer NPK and NPK ratios in this guide.
Because nitrogen builds amino acids, they are important in developing cell membranes and chlorophyll, essential for photosynthesis. Houseplant collectors will find that nitrogen fertilizers are their plants' best friend for big, healthy leaves.
Like all fertilizers, nitrogen-rich fertilizers should only be used in the immediate lead-up to and during a plant's growth season. But when it comes to houseplants, this rule can be stretched when using a very gentle, natural nitrogen-dominant fertilizer on plants that get optimal light, warmth, and water. That's because the indoor conditions mimic a year-round growing season of tropical plants.
In vegetable gardens, nitrogen benefits leafy vegetables like kale, lettuce, and spinach in their growth season. Beets, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower also need high nitrogen levels. Underground veggies and legumes (such as carrots, fava beans, peas, radishes, parsnips, and turnips) do not need nitrogen supplementation.
Nitrogen deficiency restricts plant organ growth, affecting roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
Chlorophyll gives plants their green color, so nitrogen deficiency turns leaves pale. If the plant is deprived of nitrogen as it grows, the lower leaves on the stem will become pale. This is because nitrogen reserves from the base of the plant will be transported to younger leaves at the very top if their nitrogen levels are low.
Both of these recipes will produce fertilizers high in nitrogen with little of the two other macronutrients - phosphorus and potassium. Use only when the soil is deficient in nitrogen.
This is the easiest fertilizer to make at home - both ingredients are readily available: grass and urine! Urine is an overlooked nutrient source that is too often wasted. Grass clippings are a good source of nitrogen, with an NPK ratio of 4:2:1 (4 % nitrogen, 2 % potassium, 1 % phosphorus).
If using urine for your homemade nitrogen fertilizer feels out of your comfort zone, this recipe may be less intimidating and better smelling, and it still uses natural waste - coffee grounds.
For plants that like a lower acid content, use decaffeinated coffee grounds.
If you would like to experiment with your own organic fertilizer recipes, here's a helpful guide for NPK ratios in many organic materials. You can use it to figure out which ingredients you need to create a perfect NPK ratio mixture for your plant.
]]>Phosphorus is an essential mineral nutrient required for vital plant life functions. Legume crops, fruit trees, and lettuce need higher phosphorus levels and often benefit from phosphorus-rich fertilizers. By contrast, most houseplants only need high-phosphorus fertilizer if the soil is deficient.
Phosphorus is the chemical that allows the plant to turn sunlight into energy for all its life functions. It typically makes up between 0.1% and 1 % of its tissue.
The types of phosphorus plants can absorb are called phosphates. These phosphates produce substances involved in energy storage, energy transfer, and photosynthesis.
Phosphate also provides the building blocks for plant components like phospholipids (in the membrane of plant cells), nucleic acids (that carry genetic material between cells), nucleotides, coenzymes, and phosphoproteins.
As with anything, however, you can have too much of a good thing.
Excess phosphorus will kill plants, but too much of this mineral is rare in the wild. Soil levels of phosphorus tend to stay normal unless humans have intervened - in the form of excess phosphate fertilizer run-off from agriculture or from directly adding too much fertilizer.
Excessive phosphorus especially becomes a risk to plants with indoor gardening, where small soil volume plus the need to supply nutrients for optimal growth makes it easy to add too much.
The main effect of excess phosphorus is that the plant is unable to absorb other essential nutrients—first zinc and copper, then calcium.
Different species require different levels of phosphorus for peak health and have varying thresholds for phosphorus toxicity. Generally, however, most species will suffer if they have over one percent phosphorus in their leaf tissue.
Plants have some capacity to deal with an excess of phosphorus by storing it until needed. If this excess reaches critical levels, however, the plant will be damaged. Excess phosphates accumulate in older leaves, encouraging more nitrogen to be taken and delaying the formation of reproductive organs—the flowers. Excess phosphates reduce the size and quality of harvest for fruit plants.
The main sign of phosphorus toxicity in plants is leaf discoloration due to the resulting mineral deficiencies. The leaf will turn yellow or dark between the veins.
Most studies of phosphorus toxicity have been conducted on economically valuable crop plants; however, these symptoms also apply to houseplants.
In cucumbers, leaf discoloration tends to happen when phosphorus makes up 1.50% of the leaves. The upper level of phosphorus in tomato leaves is 0.60%. In soybeans, you get a reddish-brown color on the margins of leaves, reddening on leaf veins and between the leaf veins, followed by darkening.
Plants with excess phosphorus will also display symptoms of calcium deficiency. These symptoms include the browning and dying of new growth at the tips of leaves and roots, disease susceptibility, and poor-quality fruit and seed production.
These symptoms of phosphorus toxicity are very similar to those of other nutrient toxicities. Based on the nutrients that you have been supplying your soil, you will need to judge whether your plant is suffering from phosphorus or some other mineral toxicity. Read more about nitrogen toxicity and potassium toxicity to learn more.
Too much phosphorus in houseplants usually occurs with flowering plants because many gardeners try to encourage blooms by adding high-phosphorus fertilizer to plants like azaleas, roses, and rhododendrons.
Additional phosphorus is only needed if the soil is deficient, but most soil already contains enough. Unlike nitrogen, phosphates are much less likely to leach out of soil or be taken up and used by plants.
Brand-new store-bought plants are also at risk of over-fertilization because the soil might already contain slow-release fertilizer that will last a few weeks or months.
A laboratory would be needed to determine precisely how much your particular houseplant species needs. This is why you must always err on the side of caution when applying fertilizers. As a rule, don't use a high-phosphorus fertilizer unless you know that your soil is deficient in phosphorus.
For small plants, use fertilizers with a low NPK ratio, which indicates a low percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. A balanced 5:5:5 fertilizer that contains 5% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus, and 5% potassium is suitable.
A fertilizer with a higher NPK ratio of 15:15:15 would be better for larger plants since it contains more of the three macronutrients. Always read the manufacturer's instructions for how much fertilizer you should add to your plant's water.
Remember only to fertilize regularly just before and during the growth and flowering period for your plants. In the non-growing months, keep fertilizing to a bare minimum.
Organic fertilizers, either bought or made at home, can reduce the risk of over-fertilizing with phosphorus. Organic ingredients tend to have lower concentrations of the mineral than synthetic versions. See our recipe for organic, homemade phosphorus fertilizer.
For your most prized plants, perform a soil nutrient test before applying fertilizer. By testing the amount of each nutrient in the soil, you can determine exactly how much and what kind of fertilizer to apply.
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We've previously discussed phosphorus's essential role in plant health and development. In this post, we will provide you with a simple tutorial for making your own natural phosphorus fertilizer with leftover bones.
Before the Industrial Revolution, farmers enriched soil with animal bones, providing natural phosphorus for plants. Today, most of the world's phosphorus comes from mined phosphate rock because inorganic rock phosphorus is much more abundant than organic sources of phosphorous in animal and plant tissue. Phosphate rock mining pollutes the air, contaminates our water sources, and destroys wildlife habitat.
Home gardeners and small-scale farms can opt to use DIY phosphorus fertilizers by repurposing meal scraps into homemade phosphorus fertilizer for plants.
All plant fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These are the macronutrients, the elements found in the largest quantities in plants. Different types of fertilizer contain these macronutrients in different amounts, known as the NPK ratio.
Phosphorus-rich fertilizers contain a higher phosphorus ratio than nitrogen and potassium. You can identify commercial brands of phosphorus-rich fertilizer by looking for nutrient percentages like 15-30-15, which means that the macronutrient content is 15% nitrogen, 30% phosphorus, and 15% potassium.
Homemade, organic fertilizer recipes tend to contain less concentrated amounts of the target nutrients than commercial, chemically synthesized ones, lessening the chance of damaging plants with over-fertilizing. It is also more environmentally sound, as there is less chance of releasing excess fertilizer into the wild.
Every plant needs some phosphorus to carry out essential physiological functions. However, high phosphorus fertilizer aids the production and maintenance of flowers and promotes more vivid coloration in non-flowering foliage plants.
High phosphorus fertilizer should only be used before and during your plant's flowering season. Usually, plants that like phosphorus fertilizers will also appreciate high potassium levels. These include outdoor flowering plants like dahlias and verbenas, indoor flowering plants such as African violets, and many root vegetables like carrots and turnips. Hydrangea fertilized with phosphorus will produce pink rather than blue flowers.
Signs of phosphorus deficiencies are purple streaks on the leaves or an overall purple appearance. In soils with a pH level below six and above seven, phosphorus forms in compounds that are difficult for your plant to use. If your soil is very alkaline or acidic, you may need to modify it to prevent phosphorus deficiency.
Be wary of over-fertilizing with phosphorus. Unless the soil is highly deficient in phosphorus or contains none, a flowering plant should still be able to bloom without supplementation. Too much phosphorus can lead to iron and zinc deficiencies and excess salts in the soil.
The soil in your potted houseplant usually contains sufficient phosphorus, so there is no need to add a high-phosphorus fertilizer. Phosphorus deficiencies in the soil are more common in intensively farmed tracts of agricultural land than in non-agricultural soils unless the soil is quite sandy. If you need clarification on the nutrient levels in your soil, you can do a soil test.
Making homemade phosphorus fertilizer - a.k.a. bone meal fertilizer - is simple and cost-effective. You only need one ingredient: bones.
You now have homemade phosphorus fertilizer! Scatter the bone dust on your soil to boost phosphorus levels. You can also add this bone meal to other organic fertilizer recipes to provide the phosphorus component.
If you would like to experiment with your own organic fertilizer recipes, here's a helpful guide for NPK ratios in many organic materials. You can use it to figure out which ingredients you need to create a perfect NPK ratio mixture for your plant.
Along with phosphorus and nitrogen, potassium (a.k.a. potash) is one of the three macronutrients plants need in the most significant amounts. Plants quickly die without potassium, and while potassium toxicity is rare, an excess of the mineral can also be problematic.
To understand how to avoid too much potassium in plants and why this is so important, let's first answer the question, "What does potassium do for plants?"
Potassium is a multitasking mineral involved in various plant processes that keep them growing strong and healthy.
One of the key things potassium does is help plants regulate the opening and closing of their stomata, which are like tiny pores on the surface of leaves. By controlling these pores, potassium allows plants to optimize photosynthesis and manage their water balance, especially during stressors like drought, frost, or heatwave.
Potassium is also a key player in activating essential enzymes for plant growth and development. These enzymes affect everything from protein synthesis to carbohydrate metabolism and energy transfer. Basically, potassium helps keep the plant's internal machinery running smoothly.
Additionally, potassium helps move sugars and other nutrients from the leaves to other parts of the plant, like the roots, fruits, and storage organs. This is crucial for ensuring the plant gets all the nourishment needed to thrive.
Potassium also helps to strengthen cell walls and improve stem robustness, making plants more resistant to drooping and falling over and better able to handle various environmental stresses.
Lastly, potassium helps plants ward off diseases and pests by promoting the production of compounds involved in defense mechanisms.
Potassium toxicity in plants is actually rare because plants regulate the uptake of potassium ions well and tend to have a high tolerance to potassium.
At normal levels, potassium concentration in plants varies between 0.2 and 2.5% but can reach as high as between 3-8%. This means plants won't immediately die if they take up more potassium than they expend on performing life functions.
That said, only give potassium-rich fertilizers to plants that need high levels of this nutrient, and always follow manufacturer instructions on the amounts you should use.
Although extra potassium may not damage plants immediately or rapidly, it will eventually have indirect, severe effects on overall plant nutrition.
Excess potassium affects overall plant nutrition by preventing the plant from taking up other mineral nutrients, particularly magnesium, iron, zinc, and calcium. This phenomenon is called ion antagonism or cation competition (cation refers to positively charged ions), where the presence of one element limits the absorption of others.
While a potassium deficiency encourages plants to absorb substitute minerals at a high rate (especially magnesium), a potassium excess will stop other minerals from being taken up.
Excess potassium in grazing pasture can be problematic for sheep and cattle farmers because their animals may become magnesium deficient by eating plants too high in potassium.
The overall nutrient imbalances caused by excess potassium will limit plant growth (particularly in the stems and roots) and fruit yield. Excess potassium will affect the most mature tissues first because this is where the mineral has had the most time to accumulate.
Another damaging effect of excess potassium is lipid peroxidation, a chemical reaction that produces free radicals. These free radicals react with, injure, and eventually kill cells.
Excess potassium also increases electrolyte leakage, the loss of minerals from cells through their membranes, a typical stress response by plant cells. Scientists often use electrolyte leakage to measure plant industry, for example, freezing temperatures and other stresses.
Potassium toxicity is very difficult to notice as the plants won’t display specific symptoms because of the excess itself. The likely to lead to nitrogen and calcium deficiency, so look out for symptoms like leaf tissues turning yellow between the veins and brownish spots.
Potassium is already quite abundant in soils, so overzealous gardeners can easily add too much in the form of liquid fertilizer. If you need help determining whether or not to add potassium fertilizer to your soil, get a testing kit to know precisely what nutrients are in your soil.
When adding potassium fertilizer to your soil, remember that clay soils generally have higher potassium content while sandy types have less. The structure of clay soil particles allows them to retain the potassium ions much more effectively, meaning you won't have to fertilize as frequently.
All plants need potassium to grow and develop. This guide explains when you need to add it to plants and how to make your own homemade potassium fertilizer.
]]>Potassium (along with nitrogen and phosphorus) is one of the key essential nutrients for plants. All plants need potassium - also called potash - to grow and develop. It is the mineral nutrient that plants require in the most significant amount after nitrogen.
When your plants need a potassium boost, it can be easy and fun to make DIY potassium fertilizer. This guide explains what potassium fertilizer does and how to make organic versions at home.
Potassium regulates leaf transpiration (a plant’s version of breathing) - where water and oxygen in the plant are released into the air and carbon dioxide is taken in.
Potassium maintains turgor pressure - the water pressure that keeps cells taut and the plant upright. It also controls osmotic equilibrium - the transfer of nutrients and water throughout the plant.
Young growing leaves, reproductive organs, and storage cells in roots all require potassium to thrive, and it is particularly crucial in growing juicy, fleshy fruit.
Use potassium fertilizers for plants that produce flowers and fruit. This mineral improves fruit size, appearance, color, acidity, taste, and vitamin content by activating enzymes that produce proteins and sugars. Tomatoes require high levels of potassium to produce lycopene. Any deficiency of potassium will affect the harvest quality of fruits and tubers.
Plants with large flowers like the lipstick plant, roses, hibiscus, African violets, and orchids, will also need lots of potassium just before and during their flowering period. For that phase, a nitrogen-to-potassium ratio of 1:2 is recommended.
Potassium can also be used to increase the alkaline content of the soil. Acidity and alkalinity are measured in pH, which runs on a scale of 1 to 10. PH numbers over 7 indicate alkaline soil, and anything below that indicates acidic soil. Some plants strongly prefer alkaline soils, such as winter jasmine and Boston ivy.
Plant growth will slow when they are low on potassium. Leaves may discolor around the edges and tips at an advanced stage of potassium deficiency. Leaves will also droop. Because potassium forms leaf cuticles that retain moisture, plants will lose water through the leaves at a higher rate. This is why plants suffering from potassium deficiency have a high water demand.
Because a plant deficient in potassium will be less able to maintain high water content in its tissues, it will be more susceptible to frost damage and stress from drought. Without potassium, plants are at greater risk from fungal diseases. Without potassium, the plant will eventually die.
On the other end, excess potassium affects overall plant nutrition by preventing the plant from taking up other essential nutrients, in particular magnesium, iron, zinc, and calcium.
Read more about how to avoid potassium toxicity in plants. As with all fertilizers, feed less than you think is required if you are unsure of the correct amounts.
Potassium-rich fertilizers contain a higher potassium ratio than the two other macronutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus). Read more on what potassium does for your plant here.
The ratios on commercial fertilizer brands are called 'NPK' ratios. Each number indicates the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium percentage in the fertilizer. You can identify commercial brands of potassium-rich fertilizers by looking for nutrient percentages like 10:12:22, where the third number is the highest.
Homemade, organic fertilizer recipes tend to contain less concentrated amounts of the target nutrients than commercial, chemically synthesized ones. These natural alternatives lessen the chance of damaging plants by over-fertilization. It is also more environmentally sound, as there is less chance of releasing excess fertilizer into the wild.
Alternatively, you can create potassium-infused compost by adding banana peels to your compost bin.
If you are lucky enough to live near the coast, foraging for potassium-rich kelp may be an option. Be sure to collect kelp rather than seaweed - the latter contains much less potassium.
To make concentrated liquid kelp fertilizer, fill a bucket with foraged kelp, cover it with rainwater, and leave it to soak for a month, stirring every few days.
To add nitrogen, add a few stinging nettle stems into the mixture.
If you would like to experiment with your own organic fertilizer recipes, here's a helpful guide for NPK ratios in many organic materials. You can use it to figure out which ingredients you need to create a perfect NPK ratio mixture for your plant.
We've gone over how to solve for spots on leaves. Next let's answer, "Why is my plant drooping?"
Like wilting leaves, drooping leaves hanging limply from the stem indicate the plant is distressed. However, a drooping plant is not necessarily dry or browning like a wilting plant. Heat and under-watering often cause wilting, but other factors can contribute to droopiness. In addition, apart from its sad-looking leaves, the drooping plant otherwise looks quite healthy.
The good news about drooping plants (as opposed to once the leaves are brown and crisp) is it's not too late to save them. Your plant's leaves should be turgid and held upright by water tension, and range of factors can cause limp leaves. With some trial and error, you should be able to pinpoint what is making your plant droop and fix the problem.
Plants with broad, waxy leaves attract household dust to their surfaces. Dust on your plant poses more than just an aesthetic issue. It can interfere with the physiological processes that keep your plant healthy.
Dust prevents light from hitting the leaf's surface, decreasing photosynthesis.
Dust accumulation on the leaves prevents the plant from regulating its moisture content. Depending on the species, dust may prevent or increase transpiration, a process by which plants release excess water through their leaves.
Increased transpiration can cause droopy leaves because of the mechanics of water transport in a healthy plant. Moisture loss is the primary way water is drawn up through the plant from its roots. When one cell is depleted of moisture, it draws the deficit from the neighboring cell and so on, right from the roots through the xylem to the leaves. Water loss through transpiration is, therefore, critical to maintaining water transport through the whole plant.
Keeping your leaves clean and dust-free makes for shinier, prettier plants and allows for optimal transpiration to prevent drooping plants. Wipe leaves' upper and lower surface regularly with our House Plant Cleaning Wipes!
Droopy leaves may also be caused by the plant not receiving enough sunlight to photosynthesize, a common issue for plants variegated with pale patches. The pale sections of the leaves do not contain chlorophyll and cannot photosynthesize. As a result, the plant requires a much brighter situation than its non-variegated cousins.
On the other hand, if your drooping plant is a shade-loving species, it is likely receiving too much light and is pouting. Fiddle leaf figs are famously fussy for drooping due to too much light. Move them to another location or further away from the window. (While you're at it, buy a second Fiddle leaf fig. Sometimes, it can take a few tries to find the ideal location in your house!)
Both under and over-watering can cause drooping leaves. Check your plant's watering requirements to determine which is more likely.
With moisture-loving species like the fern, droopy leaves may indicate you are not providing enough water or humidity. Water little and often, ensuring the soil never dries out completely.
Drooping may also result from overwatering. Too much water in the soil eliminates any air pockets from which the root can draw oxygen. Once this happens, the roots stop being able to absorb any moisture and nutrients. You may need to change the soil to a better draining mix by adding coir or gravel.
If you suspect overwatering is causing drooping, inspect the root for root rot. Signs of root rot are mushy roots and a foul odor. By comparison, healthy roots will be firm and white.
Root rot can be treated with horticultural hydrogen peroxide, which gives the roots concentrated oxygen. First, remove the plant from the pot, gently remove as much soil as possible, and cut off any damaged roots. Then, make a solution of one quart water (at 66 degrees Fahrenheit) to 1 ounce hydrogen peroxide. Soak the roots in this solution for an hour.
Alternatively, you can add 2 ½ teaspoons of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water and only use this solution to water the plant until it revives.
Droopy leaves may indicate that your plant craves humidity, especially for species from tropical rainforests, such as Anthurium, Alocasia, and Fittonia.
When there is not enough moisture in the air around humid-loving plants, the plant loses much more water through its leaves via transpiration. The roots cannot supply enough moisture to replace it, resulting in sad, limp leaves.
If humidity is the problem, place the plant on a tray full of gravel half-filled with water, and aim to mist the leaves at least once a day. To boost humidity further, you can get a humidifier to run near the plant or add a fine spray misting fertilizer to your routine. Houseplants love our Air Plant Fertilizing Spray!
To fix your drooping plants check for dust and the correct light, water, and humidity! Before you know it your sad plants will be happy and upright again.
]]>The Mass Cane Plant (Dracaena fragrans "Massangeana" also known as the Mass Cane floor plant) is an air-purifying tropical houseplant. They're grown for their gorgeous long leaves that emerge in a dense cluster and droop gently to the floor. Mass cane plant care is so easy that it is a great beginner plant.
The Mass Cane is a variety of the species Dracaena fragrans. The original Dracaena has deep green leaves, but the "Massangeana" variety has yellow bands through the center.
If you're patient, the slow-growing Mass Cane will develop a thick woody stem in maturity, adding attractive height to the plant. When grown indoors, they can reach up to 10 meters tall.
Dracaena fragrans originate from Ethiopia, Guinea, and Nigeria and belong to the Agavaceae family of plants. You won't find the yellow-striped Massangeana variety in the wild, however. This cultivated variant was created for the horticultural market.
The broad, strappy leaves of the Mass Cane collect house dust very easily. Clogged leaves prevent oxygen and carbon dioxide from moving in and out, so it's important to wipe them down often with a wet sponge. An excellent way to keep leaves dust-free is to use Southside Plant's houseplant wipes.
Your Mass Cane will need temperatures between 60 – 75 degrees Fahrenheit. It can survive a temperature minimum of 50 degrees Fahrenheit but only for very short periods. Only plant it outdoors if you live in USDA climate zones 10B to 11.
The Mass Cane variety needs a brighter position than the Dracaena fragrans because the yellow center in the leaves cannot photosynthesize. That said, this plant doesn't need vast amounts of light. Too much direct sunlight will scorch the leaves, leading to brown patches. Give your Mass Cane a west or east-facing window that receives bright filtered light.
The soil should always be slightly moist, but your Dracaena will hate being over-watered—only water when the top two inches of soil feel dry. You can check soil moisture levels by poking your finger in. Make sure the soil never gets soggy or waterlogged. A well-draining potting mix will help achieve the right balance.
Water by running the soil under a tap until the water is running through the drainage holes. Make sure you get the leaves wet too as these plants thrive on humidity.
How often you water will depend on the temperature and sunlight your plant is getting. Always cut back on watering during wintertime when your plant stops actively growing. Lower temperatures and light will mean less moisture evaporates from the soil and leaves.
Your Mass Cane needs some humidity to grow at its best. Between 40 and 50 percent is fine. Spraying the leaves with water every couple of days should keep it happy. A more permanent way to increase humidity levels around your plant is to place its pot on a tray of pebbles with water halfway up the depth of the pebbles.
Ensure the bottom of the pot doesn't touch the water, as this will make the soil too soggy. The idea behind the pebble tray is that the pebbles give a larger surface area for water to evaporate off of. Placing other plants in close proximity is another easy way to increase humidity in their immediate surroundings.
The potting mix for your Mass Cane should be well-draining, rich in nutritious organic matter, and slightly acidic. To achieve this balance, blend one part of regular houseplant potting soil, 1 part of coarse horticultural sand, and 1 part of sphagnum moss. The sand keeps the soil porous so that water will run right through instead of accumulating and risking root rot.
The sphagnum moss will add a slightly acidic touch to your potting mix, which your Dracaena will love. Ideally, it requires soil that is 6 to 6.5 pH. You can check the pH of your soil using a purpose-built soil tester device. These are relatively cheap, with the Kensizer 3-in-1 going for less than twenty dollars on Amazon.
The Mass Cane is a slow grower, so it doesn't need much fertilizer. To keep the leaves brightly colored, you must feed your plant during the growing season between spring and summer.
Use a balanced houseplant fertilizer diluted to half strength of the manufacturer's instructions every two weeks between spring and fall. A balanced fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in equal proportions.
Don't fertilize your new Mass Cane for a month after bringing it home to let it adjust to the shock of new surroundings.
You should provide an acidic potting mix for your plant to absorb maximum nutrients. You can achieve this by mixing sphagnum moss into the soil.
The slow-growing Mass Cane won't need repotting every season. Every two or three years will do. Choose a new pot that is 2-3 inches wider in diameter than the old one.
You can propagate mass cane from stem cuttings. Cut 3-inch sections of healthy stem in late spring or early summer using a clean, sharp blade. Stick them in a tray of perlite or peat moss slightly moistened. Place in a bright position and always keep the perlite or peat moss slightly damp.
Learn more
Ficus yellow gem care guide
Ficus elastica ruby care guide
Rubber plant varieties & care guide
Glacier pothos care guide
We've discussed how to solve the mystery of drooping plants. Spots on leaves of your houseplant are another good sign that something needs to be fixed, but figuring out the cause is not always straightforward. This article discusses the six most common causes of leaf spots, explains how to identify them, and offers suggestions on how to treat them.
Don't despair! Once you know what is causing the unsightly blemishes, just a few changes to your plant regime can get your plant on its way to perfect health again. Since many of these symptoms look similar, it may take some sleuthing to uncover the culprit of your plants' defects.
Do you have a plant in your south-facing window, and you suddenly notice amorphous brown blotches? Possibly with a yellow halo?
Although all plants need light, many of our most common tropical house plants, like monstera, philodendron, and pothos, naturally grow up from the rainforest floor and spend their lives reaching for the light. To replicate this in your home, these plants prefer to be pulled a bit from the harsh light of the south-facing window.
You can prevent sunburn spots by placing these plants in bright but filtered sunlight. Move them away from direct light full-sun windows, use net curtains or blinds, or place them next to a window facing a large tree.
If you describe your leaf spots as amorphous and brown with a yellow halo, but they are NOT kept close to a window or light, you can be sure they are not sunburned. In this case, they are likely due to a fungal or bacterial infection.
Similar to a sunburn, a fungal infection is marked by small dark brown or rusty colored spots, often with yellow outlines. So if you are seeing that but are sure your plant is not getting enough light, your spots may be caused by a fungal infection.
Many different types of fungus can infect your plant. One of the most common is rust, most commonly seen on garden roses. This fungus can also sneak onto your houseplants, and one plant can infect another. Other plants, like the Dracaena, are infected by their own species of fungus, and you do not need to worry about cross-contamination.
Fungus infections typically occur in humid spots with little air circulation. Houseplants thrive in well-ventilated (but not drafty) locations. If fungus is becoming an issue in your home, try giving your plants a little breathing room. Avoid pushing them extremely close together, and even try to keep the air moving with a gentle fan.
If a fungal infection has taken hold, make sure to remove all infected leaves and dispose of them away from your plant. Use a rag with disinfectant as you prune to keep your shears clean and prevent the spread of the infection. If fungus is still infecting your plant, try spraying it with a mild mixture of 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1 quart of water in the morning, when your plant will have the warmth of the day to dry completely.
Also, remember that not all fungus is bad. Mushrooms growing in your planter can often be a sign of healthy soil and a vibrant mycelial network. A good rule to follow is that most fungus in the soil is normal and can live in harmony with your house plants. When you start to see fungus infecting your leaves, the crown of your plant, or the roots of your plant, you need to take action.
Similar environmental issues often cause leaf spots caused by bacteria and can be treated similarly.
Bacterial infections happen when bacteria enter the leaf, rotting the tissue from the inside. This typically presents as small round spots that first appear translucent and sometimes can form that typical yellow halo.
Because we often create a humid environment for plants like staghorn ferns and lady's slipper orchids- these plants are frequently infected with bacteria.
Just like fungal infections, to prevent bacterial infections, make sure your plants are in a well-ventilated area, free of drafts, and that they have a little breathing room from other plants.
Although it can be challenging to determine if bacteria or fungus caused brown spots on leaves, the good news is that you can treat both with the same mild baking soda and water mixture.
Bacteria more commonly spread from plant to plant, so be sure to quarantine and change your regime to prevent an outbreak. If you have been keeping it in a heavily humid environment, move it to a drier space. Stop misting the leaves, and keep the plant as dry as possible to prevent recurrence.
You can spray the plant with bacterial fungicide or baking soda as you would for a fungal leaf infection. You should also cut off any infected leaves and disinfect your shears between each use.
Overwatering is one of the most common problems in house plant care. It can cause leaves to look as if they are melting and drop off or lead to edema, a plant condition presenting as raised corky bumps on the underside of the leaf that cannot be removed. These blister-like spots occur when environmental conditions are unsuitable for the plant, especially when over-watering is combined with high humidity. It can also happen when slow-growing plants receive too much fertilizer.
Overwatering typically does not mean that you drenched your plant with too much water at once. It means that you are watering too frequently. Most plants want to dry out a bit before being watered again. Make sure that you check your drip trays. Sometimes, overwatering occurs because plants are just sitting in the moisture.
While the bumps are permanent, edema is much less serious than the pest-related spots. If the edema is unsightly, remove the leaves and find a watering routine that works for your plants.
Did you ever hear the advice - "Just drop a couple of ice cubes in each of your plants to slow water them and prevent over-watering"? For the love all of things green, DO NOT DO THIS. It's equivalent to your plants hanging out on a nice, balmy spring day, and then suddenly, the soil turns to winter temperature.
If your plant has white or yellow spots and rings on the foliage and you have been watering with leftover ice water or the coldest water from your tap, you may be seeing the effects of cold water damage. Orchids are particularly fussy about water temperature.
Make sure you water and mist your plants with room-temperature water. And please leave ice cubes out of it.
If you see small white spots on your leaves, the first thing to do is see if they can be wiped off. If they are a little smaller than a grain of rice and you can easily remove them, you are likely dealing with mealy bugs. This probably doesn't qualify as a leaf spot, but they are so common that it feels important to address them.
Mealybugs are tiny insects that produce a sticky, cotton-like substance on the leaves. If you leave this untreated, the insects will feed on the sap of your plant until it dies.
Mealybugs are persistent but can be eliminated, and the damage they cause is typically very slow. To treat:
If you attempt to wipe off the white spots, but they require a little scrubbing, you may be dealing with water stains on your leaves. Humidifiers and regular misting often exacerbate this problem, leaving behind white, crusty minerals when the water dries.
Although this is not a pathological condition, leaving the water spots on your leaves will prevent transpiration and photosynthesis, stunting your plants' growth and maybe even killing them.
Regularly inspect leaves for hard water marks, and keep your plant wipes handy to remove buildup, dust, or grime easily. Just remember to change your rag between each plant to prevent the spread of disease.
If you notice leaf discoloration but it doesn't seem to be any of the above issues, you may be dealing with a mineral deficiency. Mineral deficiencies are more common in outdoor plants and neglected older plants.
Houseplants usually come from garden centers in fertilizer-enriched soil, but they may have been living in that pot for months or even years before they got to you. Houseplants cannot spread their roots beyond their pots to find the nutrients they need, so it is essential to ensure that you feed your plant regularly.
We've covered the most common answers for how to treat brown spots on leaves and other plant blemishes. Like many plant symptoms, leaf spots can have several causes. Figuring out what lies behind the blemishes will require a little detective work to determine which situation is targeting your plant.
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The glacier pothos (Epipremnum Aureum Glacier) is a rare treat for the indoor plant collector. With its bright white and soft green variegation, this characterful little plant is much sought after and relatively hard to find. The glacier pothos plant is a variety of the pothos or Devil's Ivy (Epipremnum Aureum), a tropical vining plant famous among indoor gardeners for being almost impossible to kill. Like all pothos, the glacier pothos is very easy to grow.
The glacier pothos looks very similar to two other variegated pothos varieties: the Njoy and Snow Queen, which also have white and green leaves. What makes the glacier pothos different are its smaller, rounder leaves. Overall, the glacier pothos is one of the more compact variegated pothos varieties, making it perfect for desks and small spaces. Its white markings are also slightly different. The Pothos glacier features three colors. Looking closely at its leaves, you'll see an intermediate silver between the white and green areas. The white markings on the glacier are a different shape, too, being streaky rather than patchy, as on the NJoy or Snow Queen.
The glacier pothos plant will do spectacularly in the right climate when planted outdoors. In the wild and outside the confines of a pot, the stems can grow up to six feet. Only plant your pothos glacier outside if you live in USDA plant hardiness zones 10-11. Never plant your pothos glacier outside where there is a risk of freezing weather. If you live in a colder climate, you can always pop your potted pothos glacier outdoors during the summer when temperatures get warm. Your plant will love a bit of outdoor sunshine.
Your pothos glacier needs brighter lighting than the ordinary pothos because of its variegation. The plant cells in the white patches do not contain chlorophyll – the molecules that a plant needs to photosynthesize.
Position your pothos glacier in an area flooded with medium bright but indirect light. Positioning it in the direct path of the sunlight will scorch the leaves and eventually kill the plant. Ideally, pick a place where it can soak up lots of filtered light – for example, an east or west-facing window with some shadow from trees outside. Net curtains are an excellent way to moderate the light in a very bright position. Don't place it right next to a south-facing window. If you use a bright south-facing window for your pothos glacier, keep it about six feet away.
The pothos glacier will do well in a temperature range of 60-90°F. You won't have much problem here since most indoor spaces average a range of 68 to 76 °F
Your pothos glacier plant won't need much watering. It's likely to bounce back even if you forget to water it occasionally.
Water your glacier pothos plant only when the top two inches of the soil is dry. When you water, run the pot under a tap until the water is dripping from the drainage holes at the bottom. Set the pot on a dry surface for any excess moisture to escape. Only place the pot back in the planter (if you use one) once the excess has run out. The pothos glacier will hate soggy soil.
Remember that the biggest killer of houseplants is over-watering, not underwatering. Cut back on watering in the fall and winter when your plant is not growing.
The pothos glacier is a tropical plant, but it does not need excessive humidity to thrive like many other rainforest species. 50 to 70 percent air humidity is ideal, but the pothos glacier is forgiving: slightly lower humidity won't kill it.
That being said, the pothos glacier plant will grow quicker in humidity at the higher end of the scale. Here are three ways to boost local air humidity:
During the spring and summer, fertilize your pothos glacier with a balanced liquid fertilizer every two weeks. A balanced fertilizer contains phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen in an equal proportion. Only add a little; your soil should give your plant some essential nutrients.
A well-draining potting mix is best for the glacier pothos plant because it allows water to run freely and prevents waterlogging. African violet soil mixes work well for glacier pothos. Alternatively, use two parts of cactus soil mixed with one part of bark and perlite. The bark and perlite will keep things extra airy in the potting mix.
We recommend Southside Plants Trail Mix, a chunky potting mix perfect for tropical plants with ropey roots.
You will know when to repot your pothos glacier when you see white roots forming around the sides of the soil or creeping through the drainage holes. Aim to upgrade your pot size before it reaches this point. Usually, once the plant has doubled in size, it's time to repot. Choose a new pot about two inches wider than the old one – if the pot is much bigger, the extra soil can lead to waterlogging and root rot.
Control the size and shape of your plant by pruning. You won't have to do this often as the glacier pothos does not grow as fast as other pothos varieties. You might even want the stems to grow out if you've placed the pothos in a hanging basket or on a high shelf. When you do prune, only snip above leaf nodes to encourage branching and new growth.
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The Ficus elastica ruby is an attractive, rose-tinted variety of the Ficus elastica. Like the more common Ficus elastica, the ruby Ficus elastica has glossy, ovate leaves and a vertical growth habit. The only difference is that their leaves display in red, dark pink, and cream. The vividness of the red varies between plants.
The ruby Ficus looks so impressive that you might suspect it requires advanced gardening skills, but this is far from the case. Read on for how to keep your ruby Ficus happy.
The best way to keep your ruby Ficus looking its finest is by getting the lighting conditions right. While the ordinary Ficus elastica appreciates shaded spaces, you must give your ruby Elastica much more sun.
Your Ficus elastica ruby will be happiest in an area flooded with bright but indirect light. Direct light will scorch the leaves, but the red markings will fade without enough light. Not only will you end up with a much less dramatic-looking plant, but it will also start to drop its leaves. A south-facing window will work if you have net curtains to moderate the light. West and east-facing windows are best.
The temperature range of most indoor spaces will suit the ruby Ficus. It needs anywhere between 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Never let temperatures drop below 60.
Like all tropical plants with large glossy leaves, the ruby Ficus will attract dust. Wipe your plant clean regularly with our Plant Wipes made from biodegradeable plant fibers.
Keep the soil consistently slightly moist (not waterlogged), and never let it dry out completely. A suitable soil mix will help maintain the correct moisture level – read more about this below.
When you water, run the soil under a tap for 30 seconds. Then, place the pot on a dry surface for half an hour to drain any excess moisture.
This plant prefers relatively high humidity. Here are tips for keeping the air around your plant moist.
During the spring and summer, fertilize your ruby Ficus every six weeks with a balanced liquid fertilizer. A balanced fertilizer contains phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen in an equal proportion. Don't add too much; your soil should give your plant some essential nutrients. It can be a good idea to dilute the fertilizer more than the manufacturer's instructions tell you to, as over-feeding your plant can be more harmful than under-feeding. Don't fertilize during winter.
The Ficus elastica's natural habitat is rainforest undergrowth. Here, the soil is made up of decayed organisms and is rich in nutrients. Recreate this habitat for your plant by providing soil heavy in organic matter. But it would help if you also ensured the soil didn't get too heavy and retain excess moisture. Keep your soil well-draining by adding looser, coarser material to keep the soil mixture full of air pockets.
The best soil mix for your ruby Ficus elastica is one part coco chips or pine bark, one part perlite, and one part houseplant potting soil.
When repotting your Ficus elastica, we recommend Southside Plants Trail Mix, a chunky potting mix perfect for tropical plants with ropey roots.
How often you give your ruby Ficus a bigger pot depends on how fast it grows. You can estimate whether it needs a bigger pot by eye – if the plant is getting much wider than the pot, it may be time for an upgrade.
The Ficus elastica does not like to be rootbound, so keep an eye on this. You can check whether its roots have outgrown the pot by removing the plant and seeing if many roots wrap around the soil. You should aim to upgrade the pot before you reach this point.
Spring or summer is the best time to repot. The plant will be actively growing during this time, meaning it can easily repair any tissue damage during the pot transfer.
The Ficus has a vertical growth habit, meaning it tends to be taller than it is wide. Once your plant reaches the desired height, you can prevent more vertical growth by pruning the top of the plant. Prune off any branches that might be emerging from the main trunk.
If you want a bushy, wider plant, you should encourage branches emerging from the main trunk to branch into further smaller branches. Prune any branches emerging from the main trunk just above one of its growth nodes to simulate more branching. Eventually, you will achieve a broader, more voluminous plant.
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]]>The Ficus yellow gem is a rare variety of the Ficus altissima. They were cultivated relatively recently, so consider yourself lucky if you find one at your local plant shop.
The leaves of the original Ficus altissima come in an even green color, but the yellow gem has two-tone (variegated) leaves patterned in lime green and dark green.
All ficus altissima grow vertically with ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, just like the more common ficus elastica.
If you want to take on this unusual species, bear in mind that they are easy to cultivate as long as you stick to a regular care regimen. This plant is sensitive to neglect and sudden environmental changes. Let's discuss the details of Ficus yellow gem care.
The Ficus altissima belongs to the Ficus genus, which contains around 1000 species. Many ornamental houseplants, including ficus elastica and ficus benjamina (weeping fig), belong to this group. Ficus altissima has a few common names, including lofty fig, false banyan, and council tree.
This species is highly adaptable. Its original habitats are the mountains and plains of Southern China, where it grows between 100 to 2000 meters above sea level. They've traveled far and wide since and are now considered an invasive species in many parts of the world.
The Ficus altissima is technically a tree. It reaches 25 – 30 meters tall and 40-90 cm in diameter in the wild. However, your houseplant will not reach these lofty heights indoors and confined to a pot. At a maximum, the potted plants will grow to 1.82 meters.
The yellow gem thrives in bright, indirect sunlight. Direct sunlight will scorch the leaves, but a low-light spot will make for an unhappy plant. West or east-facing windows are best, while north and south-facing windows will be too dark and bright.
You'll know you're giving your yellow gem enough light if it maintains a pronounced color contrast between the lighter and darker parts of the leaves. If your plant is not getting enough sunlight, the two-tone colorway will fade.
Keep your yellow gem away from drafts during the winter. In the summer, place it outdoors for optimal health.
Make sure the room is between 68 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Both dry and waterlogged soil will kill the Ficus yellow gem. Never let its soil dry out completely. A good rule is to water every time the top 4 inches of the soil feel dry to the touch.
When you water, run the soil under a tap for 30 seconds. Then, place the pot on a dry surface for half an hour to drain any excess moisture.
Remember to keep a regular watering routine, as this plant is sensitive to neglect. Your Ficus yellow gem may require water every few days in high summer and every week or two weeks in the winter, depending on your local climate.
Feed half-diluted general-purpose houseplant fertilizer once a month during spring and summer, cutting back to once every two months in the winter.
This plant prefers relatively high humidity. Here are tips for keeping the air around your plant moist.
The potting mix should be full of nutrient-rich organic matter but not so heavy that it retains all the moisture. Use regular indoor houseplant soil mixed with one part perlite or coco coir for draining. You can even add a two-inch layer of coarse gravel to the bottom of the pot to aid drainage. This layer will remove any excess moisture from the potting mix above it.
We recommend Southside Plants Trail Mix, an ideal chunky potting mix for tropical plants with ropey roots like the Ficus yellow gem.
You should repot your Ficus yellow gem yearly since it does not like being root-bound. The new pot should be about 2 to 3 inches wider than the diameter of the root ball to prevent root rot.
Repot during the active growth season in spring or early to mid-summer. During this period, the plant grows vigorously enough to recover from any tissue damage suffered during the move easily. This timing is vital for the Ficus yellow gem because it can react badly to sudden environmental changes.
You only really need to prune your yellow gem when you want to limit growth. You can also spruce up your plant by removing dead leaves. Don't take more than 10 percent of healthy leaves when you prune.
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]]>Plant lovers adore collecting the various types of rubber plants with their array of different colors. And no wonder - the huge, glossy, leathery leaves of the Rubber Plant (Fiscus elastica) make it an attractive and unique addition to the home. Rubber plants are tolerant of many growing conditions, and their care is simple. The opposite of finicky and acclimate well to new environments, The rubber plant is an excellent choice for new plant parents!
This plant is also known as a rubber tree, rubber bush, or rubber fig. It gets its name from the white “rubber” sap that oozes from the leaves and stems if cut. The sap has a milky and latex-like consistency. It may irritate the skin, so be mindful when tending this plant.
The rubber plant originates from southern Asia, specifically China, Nepal, Malaysia, and India. In the wild, it grows up to 100-feet tall. Forty years ago, it was an extremely popular houseplant. It grew out of popularity for a while, but now it is making a comeback with many intriguing and attractive cultivars.
There is a lot of confusion in garden centers, online, and among plant experts on the naming of various cultivars. The ficus you obtain may have a different name than those listed, but still be one of them. Or, more likely, it is just being sold as a rubber plant with no designation of type. It's complicated because garden centers often mislabel them. Don't stress about it, though. The care is the same for them all, and they are all beautiful.
Ficus elastica Robusta – A hardier, more robust cultivar of the original type popular 30 years ago. This is the one most commonly available today. It has broader leaves, tolerates lower humidity, and is more compact than the original.
Ficus elastica Decora – Only slightly different from Robusta, this cultivar has wider and larger dark-green leaves. The center vein of the leaves is red underneath and slightly white on top. The casing around the new leaves is also deep red.
Ficus elastica Burgundy or Abidjan or Black Prince – The leaves on this variety are so dark that they look purplish-black. The midrib is red and stands out contrasted against the dark leaves.
Ficus elastica Doescheri – This rubber plant has narrower leaves and a dramatic variegated pattern. The leaves are green, yellow, white, and grayish-green and have a pink midrib.
Ficus elastica Sophia – A rubber plant with all green leaves, which are rounder and smaller than the classic Robusta.
Ficus elastica Ruby – The cultivar features dark, wine red leaves, which are accentuated in full sun.
Ficus elastica Tineke – A newer cultivar, this rubber plant showcases variegated green and white leaves with burgundy overtones.
Avoid placing in direct sunlight. Rubber plants prefer lots of indirect sunlight. The red varieties specifically benefit from lots of indirect light. Variegated varieties must have abundant indirect light, or the many-colored patterns won't appear. Green cultivars withstand a bit more shade and poorly lit locations. If left in the shade too long, though, they will become spindly.
A south-facing window with sheer curtains that light can shine through is ideal. The glossy leaves attract dust and need to be wiped down regularly. Dirty leaves inhibit the plant's ability to absorb sunlight, and the overall growth will suffer.
Only add water when the top inch of soil is completely dry. Rubber plants suffer greatly from overwatering. If the roots are frequently damp, they can rot. Give the soil a thorough soaking, then wait for it to dry out again. This will likely take 2-3 weeks. Once you learn the habits of your rubber plant, set a schedule for checking the dryness of the soil.
Do not let water sit longer than 30 minutes in the drip tray, or it will cause soggy roots. If your rubber plant displays yellow, dropping leaves, it is being overwatered.
In the winter, when the plant is resting, water it once a month. You don't need to do the full soaking, just give it enough water to keep the soil moist.
In the spring and summer, add a diluted balanced fertilizer once a month. This helps the rubber plant produce it's large, glorious leaves. Do not add fertilizer in the winter months.
While not super picky about temperature, the rubber tree will struggle a little bit when outside its preference. The ideal range is between 50F and 85F, which is quite a vast range for a houseplant. Anything hotter than 85F will stunt the large, showy leaves. They will still grow but will not be anything close to their potential size. If the temperature is below 39F, the plant will likely not survive.
Rubber plants are hardy in USDA zones 9-12. Rubber trees benefit from summering outside and many people in southern states keep rubber tree outside all year long.
Use a well-draining, balanced potting soil mix. A mixture of potting soil, peat, coarse sand, and pine bark is ideal.
For repotting rubber plants, we recommend Southside Plants Trail Mix, a chunky potting mix perfect for tropical plants with ropey roots.
If you want your rubber plant to grow larger, you'll need to repot it every 1-2 years. Only go one pot size up at a time, or the roots will struggle to adapt. Once it reaches the desired size, keep it in the same pot, but be sure to replace the soil every year to replenish the nutrients.
The rubber plant is toxic to cats and dogs because the milky sap it emits causes gastrointestinal issues. This plant is not deadly but should be kept away from house pets as much as possible.
This article goes through the science of leaf propagation. Find five different leaf propagation methods to try below.
Once severed from the main plant, and given the right conditions, certain parts of plants will grow a new root system so that it eventually becomes an independent organism. New root tissues put out by plant cuttings are called adventitious roots. The term refers to any new root tissues that emerge from the stems or leaves of a mature plant, rather than from an existing root system or within a plant embryo.
Putting out adventitious roots is a process of regeneration. By forming its own root system, the cutting attempts to independently acquire the nutrients and moisture that it no longer receives from the mother plant. Mature, woody cuttings put out adventitious roots less readily than young, supple green cuttings.
Plant growth hormones auxin and cytokinin are responsible for the formation of adventitious roots. Root tissue formation occurs when there is proportionately more auxin to cytokinin in the part of the plant where it has been severed. Rooting powders encourage root formation because they contain auxin. Although the major naturally occurring auxin is indole 3-acetic acid, many different synthetic auxins have been developed. Plants vary in their capacity to put out new roots because auxin to cytokinin levels are influenced by day length and season.
Interestingly, plant cuttings ‘know’ which end was closest to the roots while it grew on the mother plant. When cuttings are taken from the mother plant, auxin will move towards the end of the cutting that was growing closest to the ground, accumulating there to form new roots.
Leaf cuttings take one of two forms, depending on the plant species. You can take just the leaf or the petiole and the leaf.
Most succulents can be propagated from just the leaf.
For succulents, simply detach a single leaf from the plant using your hands. Leave the leaves out to dry for a few days before inserting them into a rooting medium.
With the Snake Plant (San Seviera), cut the main leaf into length-ways portions and insert the end nearest to the roots on the original plant into the rooting medium.
Plants that propagate from leaf cuttings:
Cheveria
Hens and Chicks Sempervivum
Snake Plant Sansevieria
Plants that propagate from petiole-and-leaf cuttings:
Other plant species will root from a petiole with a leaf attached. Petioles are small stems that support a leaf. To take a petiole-with-leaf cutting, snip the bottom of the petiole just where it emerges from the main stem. Make the cut at an angle so the tip of the petiole makes a sharp point. Then, split the very tip of the petiole.
African Violet Saintpaulia spRooting powders or Keiki paste contains growth hormones that make the rooting process quicker and more reliable. These substances are applied to the ends of cuttings, where the roots will grow. You can also try honey or cinnamon powder to boost rooting.
Rooting hormones are not strictly necessary - with the right conditions, plants can put out new roots without them.
The rooting medium is any material into which leaf or stem cuttings are inserted.
Most propagation guides advise you to insert cuttings into sandy soil. This is actually a less reliable rooting medium than sphagnum moss, water, or perlite. Sphagnum moss and perlite retain moisture but also hold a lot of air pockets that prevent cuttings from rotting.
Different species will root better in different mediums. Experiment with several mediums at the same time for comparison.
For propagation methods where the plant cuttings are actually in contact with water (methods 2 and 3 below), you can add a miniscule amount of fertilizer to the water.
Once severed from the mother plant, cuttings still seek out nutrients. Providing them with too much fertilizer will discourage the plant from putting out adventitious roots since it can absorb all the nutrients needs via the cut on the stem or leaf.
One drop of balanced fertilizer per 500 ml is enough. Never add fertilizer in the concentrations advised on manufacturer packaging - they will be too much for propagation purposes.
People often underestimate how long it takes plant cuttings to form new roots. You might begin to see roots as early as seven days after insertion into the medium, but it will likely take longer. The speed at which roots appear will depend on whether it is the plant’s growing season and how much humidity and sunlight the cuttings receive.
You should wait until roots are two to four inches long before transferring the cuttings into their own pots with a potting medium. Many succulents and cacti do very well in just perlite, so you may not need to change the medium at all for these.
Method 1. Humidity propagation
A very effective method for both petiole-and-leaf or just-leaf cuttings
Method 4. Sphagnum moss propagation
Works for leaf or petiole cuttings, especially for San Seviera leaf cuttings
Method 5. Perlite propagation
Works for leaf or petiole cuttings
After you’ve prepared your cuttings using one of the above methods, give your cuttings as much indirect sunlight as possible, for example, next to a south-facing window with net curtains. Adding growth hormones like rooting powder or Keiki Paste will also help. Increase humidity around cuttings by placing their container inside a tray full of pebbles with water coming up to half the depth of the pebbles.
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