Caring for a prayer plant - arrowroot tricolor
The rainforests of Central and South America are replete with bright extraordinary plants that have become indoor inhabitants in the middle lane. Such is the three-colored arrowroot depicted in the photo - a prayer plant, as this flower is called among the people.
With the brightness of colors, it can compete with any flowering species. But the main advantage of arrowroot is not flowers, but variegated foliage. On the outside, it has an asymmetrical colorful pattern, and on the back it is painted in an elegant purple hue. On this topic:arrowroot care at home!
Arrowroot tricolor - a plant from the rainforest
Like most of the tribesmen belonging to the Marantovaya family, Maranta leuconeura erythroneura is a spectacular ornamental deciduous plant that naturally lives under the canopy of a tropical forest and pleases lovers of such crops with a cap of painted leaves throughout the year.
The wild arrowroot tricolor is an indigenous inhabitant of the rather moist shady undergrowth. And this feature of the leaves is very handy if the plant falls under the rays of the scorching southern sun for a long time, or a dry period sets in.
Moisture evaporates from the raised leaves much less, and sunburn is not so terrible. But finding itself in comfortable conditions, the flower lowers the foliage, and everyone around them manages to admire the bright ornament that combines all shades of green, white-yellow and crimson colors.
Conditions for keeping arrowroot tricolor
Attracted by the beauty of the tricolor arrowroot, growers should remember that this decorative native of the tropics needs special conditions for active growth and well-being. First of all, this concerns the location of the flower.
If most indoor crops claim well-lit areas of the windowsill, then arrowroot is better to take the corner away from direct sunlight, but in a thick shade, where the leaves will lose their brightness and acquire a grayish tint. In the summer, the arrowroot tricolor, as in the photo, has enough natural light, but from mid-autumn it is better for the florist to take care of additional lighting.
Arrowroot needs warmth and moisture. Drying out the soil in a pot, like staying in a cold room, is a serious risk for a plant that is accustomed to something completely different in nature.
The combination of cold and excessive moisture of the substrate is especially dangerous. The coolness is perceived by the arrowroot tricolor as the beginning of a dormant period, so the plant reduces the intake of moisture and nutrients. With an excess of non-consumed and poorly evaporated moisture in the soil, harmful microorganisms multiply, putrefactive processes develop on the roots.
Plants of the rainforest not only relate well to moisture in the soil, but also cannot exist in the dry air of apartments. To provide a prayer plant or arrowroot tricolor, as in the photo, complete comfort, you will have to take care:
- about frequent irrigation of the crop;
- maintaining high humidity using all available means;
- about protecting the flower from hot air from heating radiators or cold drafts.
The culture feels best when it is in a home greenhouse. But caring for a bright native of the tropics does not end with the creation of acceptable conditions of detention.
Caring for arrowroot tricolor at home
Due to the complexity of fulfilling all the requirements of arrowroot, flower growers consider this culture to be capricious. But if you find an approach to the flower, it will respond with rapid growth, the constant appearance of all new tricolor foliage and even flowering.
Compared to the leaves of the arrowroot prayer plant, the tricolor photo of its flowers does not cause a storm of admiration. Some growers do not even suspect that their favorite forms spike-shaped sparse inflorescences with whitish or lilac small flowers towering above the rosette of leaves.
The tricolor arrowroot care at home must include:
- watering;
- plant feeding in spring and summer;
- spring transplants carried out at two-year intervals;
- hygienic processing of foliage from dust and removal of dead or damaged parts of the plant;
- maintaining air humidity.
Watering should be regular and abundant, and it is beneficial to use soft water at room temperature. The substrate should dry out a little between waterings. In the summer and when the heating is operating in winter, the soil is moistened more often. If the room is cool, the irrigation schedule is adjusted.
Arrowroot tricolor perfectly perceives fertilizing with mineral compositions and organics. Such procedures to maintain the growth rate and decorative foliage are carried out in the warm season with an interval of two weeks. At the same time, they take care of the cleanliness of the leaves, regularly wiping them with a damp cloth. This will give the plant brightness, help maintain the required air humidity and activate foliage respiration.
If the flower is in dry air for a long time, the risk of infection of arrowroot with tricolor spider mite significantly increases. The pest settles on the back of the leaf plates and leads the pet to exhaustion.
As the arrowroot grows, they are transplanted. For a moisture-loving culture, choose wide plastic pots, from which irrigation moisture does not evaporate longer, and surface rhizomes are comfortably placed. In order to avoid rotting of the root system, powerful drainage is made at the bottom of the container, and for planting tricolor arrowroot, a nutritious weakly acidic mixture is taken from equal parts peat, humus and leafy ground. To acidify the substrate, crushed coniferous bark and charcoal are added to it.
During transplantation, arrowroot can be propagated by dividing an adult plant so that the resulting rosettes have their own roots and a healthy growing point.