Dracaena - a plant, somewhat resembling a palm tree, in nature grows to enormous size. At home, you have to make some efforts in order to maintain its decorativeness and prevent excessive pulling up. And this requires knowledge of the ways in which the propagation of room dracaena can occur.
Plant description
Dracaena is a shrub that belongs to the agave family and is often called the dragon tree. She has a pleasant appearance with a shock of narrow long leaves of different colors and widths on a lignified bare trunk. In this way, it resembles a palm tree, which in essence has nothing to do with it.
Some types of indoor dracaena can grow up to 3 meters in height, while their trunks are exposed, and the leaves remain only at the very tops of plants. Therefore, the natural tallness of dracaena in the conditions of apartments and offices limited by ceilings should be timely and correctly adjusted.
Varieties of indoor dracaenas
There are about 60 species of dracaena, differing in the length and width of the trunks, as well as the color and size of the leaves. At home in the Asian and African tropics and subtropics, these plants grow to enormous size.
Dracaena are long-lived trees. Outwardly, they resemble not only palm trees, but also yuccas. And they are often confused with cordilins. But dracaena can always be recognized by its roots, which differ in an orange tint.
Over time, the lower leaves on the trunk of this plant die and fall off, which is very natural for them. However, if many foliage immediately fall off and sharply, then it is worth the alarm, because this means that the dracaena is sick or it lacks nutrition.
Common types of indoor dracaenas
The most common types of domesticated dracaena are:
- Dracaena Derema. In nature, it grows up to 5 m and has dark green leaves of a narrow and pointed shape that grow upward in young animals and hang down with age. Its varieties differ in color and leaf shape. (Varieties of the species: Sriveriana, Bausei, Warneckii.)
- Dracaena Canary, it was also called the dragon tree. At home, in the Canary Islands, reaches 10 meters in height. In apartments, however, it does not grow more than 1.5 m. Its leaves are bluish-colored with sharp spikes at the ends. With sufficient light, the edge of the sheet becomes reddish. (Varieties of the species: Shirmonosaya, Sander.)
- Dracaena Godzeff is a low-growing, well-branched shrub characterized by shiny leathery oval leaves up to 10 cm long. This species blooms with yellow-green flowers with a pleasant smell. The leaves of some varieties of this species resemble the leaves of Dieffenbachia. (Variety of species: dracaena Aletriformis, she is cordilina Rumfa, she is dracaena Hooker, she is dracaena Rumfa.)
Care Features
The most unpretentious and shade-tolerant species that are not demanding for watering are the dragon tree, dracaena dracaena and fringed dracaena.
Most of these plants prefer that the room is warm (not lower than +16 ° C), and do not like drafts and sudden changes in temperature. Dracaena, whose foliage is painted in darker colors, feel calm in the dimly lit areas of the apartment. But the brighter the foliage, the more light is required for such a plant, however, all dracaena cannot tolerate direct sunlight.
In order to prevent root decay, it is better to water the bushes less often, but you need to spray more often. Half an hour after watering, the water from the pan must be drained. Dry air calmly carry the Canary dracaena and Gorzef. Others will prefer moisture.
In the heat and when the batteries are running, spraying is necessary three times a day. But the Derema dracaena should be irrigated especially carefully, making sure that water does not accumulate in the leaf sinuses.
Breeding methods
When the dracaena grows too much, it ceases to look like a neat compact bush, similar to a palm tree. There remains only a long bare trunk, often curved, and a bunch of leaves somewhere under the ceiling.
But do not rush and get rid of the overgrown plant. After all, if you competently approach the matter, then you can easily return it to its previous form.
You only need to know about the methods of propagation of dracaena and be able to put this knowledge into practice. In an apartment, these plants bloom extremely reluctantly, so getting seeds will not be easy. Lateral shoots and new plants from the root also grow very rarely.
But the reproduction of dracaena can be achieved by other methods that work flawlessly. In addition, this does not require any serious efforts and time costs from the owner.
So, the easiest way to propagate dracaena at home is with apical or stem cuttings. Also for these purposes, suitable methods of reproduction by air layering and seeds. However, the latter method is the most laborious.
Propagation by apical cuttings
Propagation of dracaena by apical cuttings is most easily tolerated by bamboo-type dracaena. Such as Sandera, Bordered, Derema and Fragrant. This method will allow you to rejuvenate the plant and remove the ugly and unnecessary part of the bald trunk.
Garden secateurs are best suited for propagating dracaena by the apex, but you can also use a knife with a sharply sharpened blade. The tool must be treated with an alcohol solution or held in boiling water for disinfection.
Then, using the prepared tool, the upper part of the shoot must be cut off, removing the lower leaves from it, and left to dry for 40 minutes, after which the seedling is placed in a vessel with water for rooting.
To propagate dracaena in this way, you will need clean water, in which a biostimulant for root formation or a crushed tablet of activated carbon is added, which will not allow the water to cloud and rot.
The roots will appear in a week or two, after which the seedling is placed in a pot, where there is a drainage layer and a nutritious, moistened soil. In this case, it is better to spray the leaves at least once a day, and preferably twice. And it would be nice to place the newly planted plant under a film, glass or transparent plastic greenhouse.
Care must be taken not to overfill the young plant, which can lead to rotting of the roots, and to prevent excessive drying of the soil, which will not allow the plant to take root.
Propagation by stem cuttings
Propagation of dracaena by stem cuttings can be used when the apical part of the plant for some reason cannot be used for these purposes.
The stem must be healthy and have a diameter of at least 20 mm. The stem part of the plant, used to propagate dracaena, is cut into cuttings with dimensions of at least 5 cm and no more than 20 cm. Slices are performed with disinfected tools.
Cuttings can be rooted both horizontally and vertically. In the vertical method, the lower section is placed in nutrient soil by 2-3 cm and sprinkled with medium-grained clean sand by 5 cm.
The method with a horizontal arrangement of the cuttings is performed with a slight indentation of the cuttings in a moist substrate. In this case, the temperature regime must be maintained in the range of 20-24 ° C.
As the shoots grow, the stem part is destroyed, giving food to new plants. After 1.5 months, new shoots will form, and they can be transplanted to a permanent place. With this method, it is also better to use greenhouses, ventilating three times a day and removing accumulated condensate.
Propagation by air layering
Propagation of dracaena by means of air layers is used infrequently, since this process is a bit more labor-consuming as compared to cuttings. In this case, the sequence of actions should be as follows:
- Carefully inspect the dracaena trunk.
- In the place where the sheet is located, with a clean and sharp knife, make a transverse incision to the middle of the trunk.
- Insert a toothpick into the incision to prevent splicing.
- To wind the place of the incision with sphagnum moss, moistening it with distilled water from the spray gun.
- Wrap the moss with polyethylene, making sure that under the film it always remains wet.
- When the root system appears, remove the film, and cut off the young plant and plant it for permanent residence.
Seed propagation
Reproduction of dracaena (photo below in the text) by seeds is the most uncomfortable and rarely used method. To do this, you must:
- Choose a shallow container.
- Place a drainage layer at the bottom.
- Pour soil consisting of peat, humus and sand.
- At a depth of 1 cm, place the seeds by treating them with warm boiled water from a spray bottle.
- It is advisable to pre-soak the seeds by adding a growth stimulator to the water.
The first shoots will appear within three months. For the faster emergence of the first sprouts, it is possible to provide easy heating of the soil from the bottom of the container and maintain the indoor temperature of 25 ° C. It is also necessary to moisten the soil with seeds in a timely manner and to prevent its overflow and drying out. The use of the greenhouse will also help here.
Whichever method of propagation of dracaena is chosen by the grower, the process of growing a new plant will not be less exciting from this. And when a flower planted with his own hands begins to grow and develop, then the pleasure of observing these transformations will be worth all the effort.