Dracaena: How to Grow It at Home and Key Care Tips
Soil
Dracaena is highly adaptable and not demanding about soil, but it grows best in loose, fertile, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. You can grow it in a mix of loam rich in humus from under pine and cypress trees blended with river sand, or a mix of leaf mold and river sand. During cultivation, Dracaena needs ferrous sulfate applied about once a month to keep the soil pH suitable and slightly acidic for normal growth.
Water and Fertilizer Management
Watering: It likes high temperatures and humidity and fears blazing sun. There is no fixed rule of watering every few days. It grows lushly in spring, summer and autumn and needs more water; do not wait for the soil to dry out before watering; water when the potting soil is slightly moist.
In winter, reduce watering frequency appropriately. But the potting soil must not dry out, to ensure sufficient nutrients and encourage spring blooming.
Fertilizing: Growing Dracaena mainly involves applying a nutrient solution. If you are growing only a few plants, you do not need to specially mix a nutrient solution. Dracaena has a well-developed root system and grows vigorously, so fertilizing does not need to be too frequent.
Temperature and Light
Dracaena likes warm, humid, sunlit environments and can also tolerate shade. However, when grown indoors, if it is placed in too shady an environment for a long time, the leaves will fade in color. So it is best to put the pot on a southeast-facing windowsill so it receives plenty of sunlight.
If the Dracaena is grown on a balcony, when the summer sun is too intense, move the pot indoors, especially at noon, and provide appropriate shading; generally a light level of 40-50% is sufficient, to avoid the scorching sun burning the leaves. Dracaena likes warmth and cannot tolerate cold.
Propagation Methods
For home propagation, Dracaena is usually propagated by cuttings, done together with pruning. It can be done from April to August each year, and indoors it can be done year-round, but the temperature needs to be kept between 20-30°C to promote new root growth.
Dracaena: How to Grow It at Home and Precautions
How to Grow Dracaena at Home
Soil
Dracaena is highly adaptable and not demanding about soil, but it grows best in loose, fertile, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. You can grow it in a mix of loam rich in humus from under pine and cypress trees blended with river sand, or a mix of leaf mold and river sand. During cultivation, Dracaena needs ferrous sulfate applied about once a month to keep the soil pH suitable and slightly acidic for normal growth.
Water and Fertilizer Management
Watering: It likes high temperatures and humidity and fears blazing sun. There is no fixed rule of watering every few days. It grows lushly in spring, summer and autumn and needs more water; do not wait for the soil to dry out before watering; water when the potting soil is slightly moist.
In winter, reduce watering frequency appropriately. But the potting soil must not dry out, to ensure sufficient nutrients and encourage spring blooming.
Fertilizing: Growing Dracaena mainly involves applying a nutrient solution. If you are growing only a few plants, you do not need to specially mix a nutrient solution. Dracaena has a well-developed root system and grows vigorously, so fertilizing does not need to be too frequent.
Temperature and Light
Dracaena likes warm, humid, sunlit environments and can also tolerate shade. However, when grown indoors, if it is placed in too shady an environment for a long time, the leaves will fade in color. So it is best to put the pot on a southeast-facing windowsill so it receives plenty of sunlight.
If the Dracaena is grown on a balcony, when the summer sun is too intense, move the pot indoors, especially at noon, and provide appropriate shading; generally a light level of 40-50% is sufficient, to avoid the scorching sun burning the leaves. Dracaena likes warmth and cannot tolerate cold.
Propagation Methods
For home propagation, Dracaena is usually propagated by cuttings, done together with pruning. It can be done from April to August each year, and indoors it can be done year-round, but the temperature needs to be kept between 20-30°C to promote new root growth.
Precautions for Growing Dracaena at Home
How to Get It Safely Through Winter
During the winter dormant period, stop fertilizing and control watering. Generally, place it indoors to overwinter, and you can water it once every ten days to half a month, keeping the potting soil slightly dry-moist, so it gets safely through winter.
If there is no sunlight for a long time, you can turn on a light at night and place the Dracaena under a 40-watt light for supplementary artificial lighting, to keep the leaves looking attractive.
At night, place the Dracaena inside the curtains and use thick curtains to block cold air, or place the pot in a warm corner of the room, so it gets safely through winter.
Common Pests and Diseases
Common diseases of Dracaena: Alternaria leaf spot. It mainly harms Dracaena leaves.
Common pests of Dracaena: red spider mites. Red spider mites really are the most annoying pest in the world, bar none!
What Is the Method for Growing Dracaena at Home?
Dracaena is also called: the bleeding tree, the holy medicine for invigorating blood, and the plant longevity star. It is the precious Yunnan red medicine——dragon's blood, also known as qilinjie, which ranks alongside Yunnan Baiyao and is also the main ingredient of the famous medicine “Qili San”. So, what is the method for growing Dracaena at home?
How to Grow Dracaena and Precautions
1. Soil: Dracaena is highly adaptable and not demanding about soil, but it grows best in loose, fertile, well-drained, slightly acidic soil. You can grow it in a mix of loam rich in humus from under pine and cypress trees blended with river sand, or a mix of leaf mold and river sand. During cultivation, Dracaena needs ferrous sulfate applied about once a month to keep the soil pH suitable and slightly acidic for normal growth.
2. Fertilizer and water management: Dracaena likes loose, fertile, well-aerated substrate, and soilless cultivation methods can be used for growing and managing it. The substrate can be a thorough mix of vermiculite, perlite and peat soil. This kind of substrate has good aeration, is clean, and is sterile and odorless. When Dracaena is grown in this substrate in a premium container, it can go several years without repotting or changing the soil, and the plant's root system is well developed and grows vigorously. For fertilizer and water management in soilless cultivation, the main thing is applying a nutrient solution. If you are growing only a few plants, you do not need to specially mix a nutrient solution.
3. Temperature and light: Dracaena likes warm, humid, sunlit environments and can also tolerate shade. However, when grown indoors, if it is placed in too shady an environment for a long time, the leaves will fade in color. So it is best to put the pot on a southeast-facing windowsill so it receives plenty of sunlight. If the Dracaena is grown on a balcony, when the summer sun is too intense, move the pot indoors, especially at noon, and provide appropriate shading; generally a light level of 40-50% is sufficient, to avoid the scorching sun burning the leaves. Dracaena likes warmth and cannot tolerate cold.
4. Propagation: For home propagation, Dracaena is usually propagated by cuttings, done together with pruning. It can be done from April to August each year, and indoors it can be done year-round, but the temperature needs to be kept between 20-30°C to promote new root growth. For the stump type, it is best to break it off by hand, remove 1/2-2/3 of the lower leaves, insert it directly into clean river sand and water thoroughly, and just avoid strong light temporarily; for the whole-plant type, after cutting it short, also remove the leaves first, then insert it into clean river sand and water thoroughly. Afterwards, keep the air humidity at about 70%, and in a month it will grow new roots and become a new plant.
Precautions:
Dracaena likes warmth and fears severe cold, likes light but fears blazing sun exposure, and grows best in a warm but not scorching environment. Spring, summer and autumn are the seasons of vigorous growth for Dracaena. During this period, the grower must fully meet its needs for water, nutrients and temperature so it grows robustly.
During the winter dormant period, stop fertilizing and control watering. Generally, place it indoors to overwinter, and you can water it once every ten days to half a month, keeping the potting soil slightly dry-moist, so it gets safely through winter. If there is no sunlight for a long time, you can turn on a light at night and place the Dracaena under a 40-watt light for supplementary artificial lighting, to keep the leaves looking attractive. At night, place the Dracaena inside the curtains and use thick curtains to block cold air, or place the pot in a warm corner of the room, so it gets safely through winter.
The Titles of Dracaena
Dracaena is called: the bleeding tree, the holy medicine for invigorating blood, and the plant longevity star.
The precious Yunnan red medicine——dragon's blood, also known as qilinjie, ranks alongside Yunnan Baiyao and is also the main ingredient of the famous medicine “Qili San”. Li Shizhen praised it in the “Compendium of Materia Medica” as the “holy medicine for invigorating blood”. It has excellent effects in invigorating blood and resolving stasis, reducing swelling and relieving pain, and astringing and stopping bleeding, and can be taken both internally and applied externally. It is a specific medicine for treating traumatic injuries, invigorating blood and stopping bleeding. Dragon's blood is extracted from the evergreen tree Dracaena, of the family Agavaceae, as the raw material.
As a precious traditional Chinese medicine, dragon's blood has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for at least 1500 years. But before 1972, when domestically produced Dracaena had not yet been discovered, the dragon's blood used was always imported from Southeast Asia and Africa, and the price was extremely high, consuming a large amount of the country's foreign exchange every year. Abroad, dragon's blood is mostly called dragon's blood (DRAGON, S BLOOD). Africa has a history of more than two thousand years of cutting dragon's blood from the trunks of plants of the genus Dracaena in the family Agavaceae, while extracting dragon's blood from the fruit of the palm-family plant Daemonorops margaritae is only a modern development. But our country recorded the dragon's blood plant as early as more than a thousand years ago. Su Song wrote in the “Tang Bencao”: “The original plant of dragon's blood, the tree is several zhang tall and gracefully lovely. Its resinous liquid flows out from the wood, dripping down like glue syrup; over time it hardens and congeals, becoming dragon's blood, red like blood color; it is collected at no fixed time.”
When it comes to domestic Dracaena and domestically produced dragon's blood, we must start with a legendary figure——the famous Chinese botanist and founder of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Professor Cai Xitao. Professor Cai's ancestral home was Dongyang, Zhejiang. He was born in 1911 into a doctor's family, loved nature from childhood, and in his youth was admitted with outstanding grades to the Beijing Jingsheng Biological Survey Institute, where he studied botany under the famous botanist Mr. Hu Xiansu. In the early 1930s, Professor Cai went deep into Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places to investigate plants and collect plant specimens. In order to enter the Daliang Mountains, he swore a blood oath of alliance with a Black Yi chieftain; in order to reach southern Yunnan, regardless of the risk of miasma and banditry, he clung to a horse's tail and forced his way through no-man's-land. Professor Cai loved plants and was also passionately fond of literature. The novels he wrote while collecting plant specimens in Yunnan, such as “Puji——A Miao Girl”, “Climbing the Ladder——The Diary of a Horse Driver” and “The Bapu Liangshan People of Sichuan”, were highly praised by Mr. Lu Xun. However, his profound literary attainments brought him unfortunate disaster. In 1960, the words “dismissal from office” in the new historical drama “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” written by Professor Cai's good friend Wu Han were added according to Professor Cai's opinion. During the Cultural Revolution, “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” was criticized, and the words “dismissal from office” were a key focus, so Professor Cai was implicated and suffered cruel persecution. In the 1970s, the United States invaded Vietnam, and “comrade plus brother” China gave Vietnam selfless aid. Botanists throughout the country, especially in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and other provinces, searched everywhere for a specific hemostatic medicine. Although they wore out iron shoes in the search, it was all in vain and they found nothing. At that time, Professor Cai had just been “liberated” and returned to work. Already past the age of sixty, with a broad mind and without regard to personal grievances, based on his memories of collecting specimens in his youth, he led a group of young scientific and technical personnel and in 1972 first discovered a large stand of Dracaena on the limestone mountains within Menglian County, Simao Prefecture, Yunnan Province. From then on, domestically produced dragon's blood came into being, and its curative effect was superior to the imported dragon's blood processed from palm-family plants as raw material, filling a gap in our country's medical history. For this reason, after Professor Cai passed away, half of his ashes were buried in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Dracaena he had planted with his own hands, and the other half were buried in the Kunming Institute of Botany at Heilongtan, Kunming, under the dawn redwood he had planted with his own hands.