5 Best Soil for Snake Plant to Grow Well and Thrive
Various types of ornamental plants are being loved by many people nowadays starting from aglonema, monstera, hydrangea, queen photos to mother in law tongue.
Mother in law tounge or known as snake plant is one of the adorable for ornamental plant lovers. Apart from the relatively high selling price, snake plant plant care is pretty enough.
Snake plant can still grow well even in a less supportive environment. Therefore, this plant, also known as Sansevieria, can grow indoor and outdoor of home.
Actually, the Mother-in-Law Tongue requires a porous planting medium, which is containing organic materials, so that the plant roots are protected from rotting.
The level of acid in soil of mother in law tongue must also be considered, because if it is too acidic, the risk of being exposed to pathogenic fungi are possible that cause rotting roots.
The type of soil that is good to use as a planting medium for snake plant is sandy soil because it has a very good level of porosity. Avoid using soils that have low porosity levels, such as clay.
Soil mix you can choose for snake plant:
- Compost
This one material is very useful when mixed into planting medium because it contains complete macro and micro nutrient elements, therefore this planting medium is good for choice for snake plant.
- Manure
As same as compost, which is often used as a mixture of planting media for snake plant. Manure contains nutrients needed by plants even though they are relatively lower in comparison to compost.
- Humus soil
Humus soil can be said its quite good if used as a growing medium for snake plant, why? because this humus soil comes from the weathering of leaves, stems, and animal manure which makes this soil loose and contains many nutrients.
- Sand
The best soilmix material for other planting media for the Mother-in-Law’s Tongue is sand. Feel free to add sand to the growing media for the Mother-in-Law’s Tongue because this material has excellent porosity. And you can add red brick pieces that can be very useful if used as a mixture for the planting medium of snake plant. Place a 1-2 cm piece of red brick at the bottom of the planting medium so that the excess water in the pot can be absorb immediately.
- Organic materials
The next good material to use as a mixture for the planting medium of the Mother-in-Law’s Tongue is organic materials, such as chopped ferns, cocopit, or roasted husks. And another best material for a mixture of the In-law Tongue plant growing media is soil. As is well known, the soil can provide the micro nutrients needed by the mother-in-law tongue plant.
Good planting media requirements
- Planting medium must be spindle
- Good air exchange
- Can store water
- Can raise plants
- Available nutrients
- Sterile from parasitic fungi
Easy Ways to Grow In-Law’s Tongue Plants
Before you start planting this snake plant, there are number of things you should pay attention to, which include these below:
Pot Selection
The choice of this pot must be adjusted to the shape and type of snake plant, if the size of the plant is getting bigger, the bigger and taller the pot you are using because doubling the size of the plant pot makes the plant grow up to 40 percent bigger. The pots that you can use also vary, from plastic, cement, clay to ceramics. Each potting material has its own advantages. Clay or cement pots have advantages in water absorption, so they are better for plants, but these types of pots are relatively more expensive. Meanwhile, plastic pots are cheaper but less absorbent, so a drain hole is needed to remove excess water. There is also a lack of water absorption in ceramic pots, it’s just that ceramic pots offer a beautiful and charming appearance.
Growing media
Generally, snake plant ornamental plant has dry characteristics and does not like excess water. So that the selection of this planting medium must pay attention to these characteristics and pay attention to sufficient nutrients. For planting media, there are two compositions based on the grouping of plant types, consisting of planting media for snake plant that require sufficient water, and dry varieties. For the first variety, you can prepare sand, roasted husks and organic fertilizer with a composition of 1: 1: 1. As for dry varieties such as mother tongue in law with cylindrical leaves, you can mix sand, roasted husks and organic fertilizers with a composition of 2: 1: 1.
Watering
As has been stated above, snake plant ornamental plant is a plant that likes dry media, so you don’t need to water them daily, for more details of how watering snake plant you can read here.
Fertilization
Apart from watering, fertilizers are also needed to accelerate growth. For the fertilizer used is a type of fertilizer that does not dissolve easily, you can use 15-15-15 NPK fertilizer every three months with the size of 1 spoon for a 15 cm diameter pot. In addition to NPK fertilizer, you can also provide compost or foliar fertilizer once a week. Or else you can have organic fertilizer,the ornamental plant lovers, especially snake plant, certainly know the benefits of organic fertilizers for plant growth. Organic fertilizers containing NPK elements are needed so that the plant can grow well and thrive.The organic fertilizer you can have for soilmix is manure which made from goat or cow manure. Fertilizer must be processed first into compost, then give it to plants for every two months.
Repoting Plants
Snake plant is a plant that reproduces by shoots, if this plant keep reproducing, the pot will look full and crowded with plants. For this reason, it is necessary to repot by changing the soil and separating shoots.
These are some of the techniques of planting and cultivating snake plant that you can do at home.How easy it is to plant and has the rich benefits, aren’t you interested to have this at home?
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