The majority of plants of the genus Dracaena, including the corn plant, thrive in partial shade or soft, filtered sunshine. If it’s too light, the leaves will scorch, and if it’s too dark, the new leaves will be rather little and the stripe(s) may not resemble those on the older ones at all.
Watering
There should be some “drying time” for these plants in between waterings. So, water thoroughly and then refrain from adding further water until the top inch of the soil has dried off. You can maintain the soil’s moisture at all times if your corn plant is put in a decent location with adequate sunshine and warm temperatures (apart from winter).
No matter where you are, limit watering in the winter like you would for practically any houseplants, but don’t let the soil become completely dry.
Dracaena fragrans, does it require sunlight?
Although it can tolerate in low light, your dracaena fragrant prefers medium to bright indirect sunshine. The presence of brown patches or pale, bleached leaves on a plant typically indicates that it is receiving too much light. Small new leaves, limited growth, and less variegated leaves are signs of inadequate light.
After giving your plant a good soak, wait until the top 75 percent of the soil has dried before giving it another watering. Before watering in dim light, let the soil entirely dry up. In the winter, when light levels are reduced and development has slowed, water your plant less. Overwatering will result in root rot, yellowing and eventual loss of leaves, as well as the final death of the plant.
In areas with ordinary humidity, your dracaena will thrive, but it will benefit from routine misting.
The ideal indoor temperature for this plant is between 65 and 80 degrees. When it is below 55 degrees, they struggle. The leaves might be harmed by chilly winter drafts and blowing heaters.
Very little plant food is necessary for Dracaena Fragrans. Use a basic houseplant food diluted to half the suggested strength to feed your plants once or twice a year in the spring and summer. The burnt leaf tips can result from using too much fertilizer.
Pets and humans both become sick from eating Dracaena Fragrans leaves. Usually, eating will make you feel sick to your stomach and mouth, and you might even vomit.
You should check your tap water for chemicals if you see that the tips of your Dracaena’s leaves are starting to turn brown. To allow some of the toxins in tap water to evaporate, use filtered water or put it in an open container overnight before planting.
How frequently do I need to water my dracaena fragrans?
Dracaenas don’t need a lot of water, and they thrive best in mildly wet, never waterlogged, soil. Water your dracaena once or twice a week, letting the soil dry in between applications. Additionally, spraying your dracaena’s leaves once or twice a week will help it stay hydrated. Dracaenas might receive more water during the growing season and less during the dormant seasons of fall and winter.
Avoid overwatering your dracaena since this might cause root rot and even cause the plant’s death. Insufficient drainage in the soil can also lead to overwatering. Yellowing or drooping leaves are typical indicators of overwatering. Adjust your dracaena’s watering schedule and think about transplanting it in soil with improved drainage if you think overwatering is the cause of its stress. If your dracaena is outside, keep an eye on when it rains and only water it after there has been a dry spell.
Purified water, distilled water, or rainfall are the three types of water that will make dracaenas the healthiest. Dracaena plants can react adversely to tap water since they are sensitive to flouride and salts. Yellow blotches and brown tips on the leaves are indications that your dracaena plant is unhappy with the water you are giving it.
How can you cheer up Dracaena?
You can find this large plant in homes or businesses all around the United States since it can thrive in a wide range of temperatures. Create a mixture of peat moss and well-drained, loamy soil, and be sure to water it frequently throughout the active growing season. But once you’ve established the ideal conditions for growth, this plant will proliferate and flourish year after year with little assistance from you.
Fertilizer
With this plant, you won’t need a lot of fertilizer. A controlled-release fertilizer can be added twice a year, or you should give it a small fertilizer meal at the beginning of spring. In the winter, avoid fertilizing your plants. For the first month after planting your dragon tree, you should feed it once a week to give it a nutritious boost and to help it grow. Apply the fertilizer directly to the soil in the pot; after doing so, lightly water the plant to help the fertilizer penetrate the roots.
When you repot or replant your Dracaena, fertilizer and compost can provide your plant a much-needed nutrient boost. You shouldn’t overfill your pot, but you should at least scatter a few handfuls of material into the soil.
Lighting
Although this plant prefers natural light, if you are unable to provide it with enough natural sunshine, it can still thrive under artificial grow lights. They like strong light, but they may still function in less intense illumination. Your plant will develop much more slowly if you place it in an environment with less light. You’ll get smaller leaves and much less vibrant, washed-out colors on the foliage. It will burn if you place it in the direct sun. Put your plant in a somewhat shaded area where it will receive three to six hours of direct sunshine each day for the greatest results. Better than the hot afternoon sun is the chilly early sun.
Soil
With this plant, it’s crucial that you choose a loose, well-drained potting mix. If you don’t, a buildup of water near the roots may stimulate the growth of mold or root rot. Add a tiny amount of peat moss to your loamy soil to improve drainage. These plants have enormous root systems, so there should be enough space for them to spread out and grow. You might be able to find one imported directly from Hawaii with lava rock depending on the species. If so, you can take out about a third of the rock and replace it with a mixture of peat moss and potting soil.
Temperature and Humidity
For this plant, the ideal temperature range should be between 65 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Since this plant is vulnerable to cold and frost, your overnight temperatures can drop by about 10 degrees, but they shouldn’t fall much lower than that. Your Dracaena will suffer if the temperature falls below 55. Because air conditioners and infrared heaters can produce significant temperature changes that are bad for plants, you should place your plant away from any of these appliances.
This plant can tolerate normal room humidity, but it actually prefers slightly higher humidity levels. It enjoys having surroundings that mimic its natural habitat in the rainforest. If you’re concerned, you can put your plant on a tray on pebbles with water just below the tops of the pebbles to boost the immediate humidity around the plant.
As this plant prefers warm, muggy climates, they thrive in greenhouses as long as they are shielded from direct sunshine. Low light levels will cause them to grow, but considerably more slowly.
Water
It’s incredibly simple to unintentionally overwater these plants. Always wait until the top half of the soil in the pot is dry to the touch before watering it to prevent this from happening. This could translate to watering the plant once every three weeks if you have it in lower lighting conditions. If you are watering your plants excessively, the tips of the leaves will become brown.
Consider spraying the leaves directly to prevent this, and keep the soil just barely damp. Remember that these plants are particularly sensitive to any fluoride in the water as well. You can get around this by misting your plant with filtered water or by collecting rainfall in your garden. The presence of dark brown leaves with yellow edges indicates that the plant is suffering from fluoride toxicity.
Do Dracaena fragrans require little maintenance?
- the corn plant, Dracaena fragrans. This slow-growing plant, sometimes known as mass cane, is simple to maintain and fares well in a range of environments. D. fragrans matures at a height of 15 to 50 feet and can have solid green or variegated leaves, depending on the cultivar. Corn plants can tolerate mild shade or indirect sunshine and are hardy in USDA Zones 10 to 12. Give them well-draining soil and keep them mildly moist.
- Dracaena relexa “Variegata,” also known as “Song of India.” This dracaena can reach a height of 18 feet and a width of up to 8 feet. However, it requires little care and often grows to a height of three feet in pots. The leaves have a variety of colors, including green cores with yellow or cream borders that get more yellow as they grow.
- ‘Janet Craig’ variety of Dracaena deremensis. This plant can withstand neglect and has glossy, solid green leaves. Give it soil that is evenly moist, well-drained, and low to medium light. While the original Janet Craig may reach heights of up to a foot, the compact variety only reaches 4 to 6 inches.
- Despite its name, lucky bamboo, also known as Dracaena sanderiana, is not a bamboo. Its young stems can be braided or woven into a variety of patterns. It can be raised in a gravel-filled container or in water.
- The dark green, strappy leaves of the Madagascar dragon tree, Dracaena marginata, with a thin border of dark crimson. Dragon tree stems can either grow as individual stems in a pot or be braided together.
Where should a dracaena plant be placed?
These growth advice are here to help if you’re unsure how to take care of dracaena. Care for dracaenas is typically not too difficult.
Light: A spot with filtered inside light is good (for example, through a sheer curtain in front of a sunny window). A dracaena plant should never be placed in direct sunlight as the rays will scorch the leaf.
Dracaenas demand less water than the majority of houseplants. By lightly sprinkling the soil (never saturated) and the leaves with water, you can keep the plants hydrated and ensure proper drainage. Before watering, the top soil should always be allowed to dry off. Avoid overwatering to prevent root rot.
Overwatering or poor drainage may be the cause of drooping or yellowing leaves, but if you observe that the bottom leaves are starting to fall and turn yellow, you shouldn’t be alarmed. It is typical for dracaena to lose leaves so that new ones can grow.
It is crucial to use filtered water when caring for these plants because they are sensitive to fluoride, which can be found in tap water. Fluoride toxicity may be indicated by leaves that are dark brown and by dead patches that have yellow borders.
Dracaena loves daytime temperatures between 65 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Even if nighttime lows can drop by approximately ten degrees, the plant will suffer from chilly drafts and temperatures below 55 degrees. Make sure to keep any heaters or air conditioners away from where you display your dracaena. Although the dracaena is a hardy indoor plant, it does prefer the higher humidity of its native rainforest home. Natural room humidity is fine. A commercial humidifier can increase humidity, as can setting the plant on a tray of pebbles with water just below the tops of the pebbles.
Toxicity: If consumed, toxic to cats and dogs. Dogs and cats can both exhibit symptoms including vomiting, excessive salivation, and lack of appetite. Cats may also have dilated pupils. Being aware of the plants that are poisonous to our furry friends can help you choose your indoor plants carefully as a pet owner.
Pests and issues: Serious insect or disease issues rarely affect dracaena plants. Scale, spider mites, and mealybugs are things to be cautious of. Scale and mealybugs are both treatable with pyrethrin-containing insecticides.
If you reside in a subtropical location, dracaena is a flexible, low-maintenance house plant that thrives both indoors and outside in partial shade. If you’re ready to grow a dracaena plant in your own house now that you know how simple it is to take care of one, check out our variety here.
How can Dracaena fragrans be made to bloom?
Use a pair of pruning shears or scissors that are very sharp for this, but just cut the flower stalks at the base. The plant will focus more energy on generating more blossoms as a result of this pruning. Leaves and stems should not be removed. Repotting them when their roots become too big is another approach to encourage them to bloom more frequently.
What does a dracaena that is overwatered look like?
- The dracaena’s leaves become pallid and lose its green hue.
- They start to feel soft and limp and lose their clear, rather stiff bearing.
- They drop down and droop towards the floor instead of rising for the sky.
- At the center and borders of leaves that wither and dry out, yellow-brown patches appear.
- Compared to older, lower leaves, the highest, younger dracaena leaves are less impacted.
- The roots are swollen, transparent, and mushy or squishy to the touch when you remove the plant out of its pot. This is the beginning of root rot.
- Even the stems of the dracaenas begin to become floppy and pliable if nothing is done.
These alarming symptoms typically appear over the course of a few weeks to a month.
Be aware that plant necrosis caused by fluoride and salts in water is another issue unrelated to overwatering that may be causing the browning of the tips of dracaena leaves.
The full sun won’t harm Dracena.
In Mauritius, one can find the old dragon tree species Dracaena marginata flourishing in the wild. It is a lovely plant with lovely sword-like leaves. However, another kind is grown only for its foliage. Its scientific name is Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’. The major draw of this plant is its ornamental foliage, which is cream, green, and pink-striped and looks wonderful all year long.
It grows rather slowly and finally reaches a height of 3 to 4 meters. It looks best when placed in groups because of its striking, robust foliage. It has been paired with Phormium ‘Yellow Wave’ in this garden to create a stunning contrast. However, it also has a lovely morphology that looks beautiful in big tubs on a balcony or patio.
In tropical and subtropical gardens, Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’ thrives. Further south, it can withstand moderately cold winters, but not frost. It prefers healthy, well-drained soil with direct sunlight. One of the simplest plants to maintain is this one. To encourage a lovely branching habit, simply clip out a few of the cane-like stems in the spring. Watch out for mealy bugs if you’re growing these plants inside.
Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’ is one of those must-have leaf plants that looks amazing in every season, whether it is grown in striking groupings or as a lovely interior plant.