A Detailed Guide to Growing Snake Plants

The snake plant is a perennial herbaceous foliage plant with a creeping rhizome and linear lanceolate leaves. It has strong adaptability and is not demanding about its growing environment, making it very suitable for decorating living rooms, studies and similar spaces. Besides being ornamental, its greatest feature is its ability to purify the air. According to experts, the snake plant can absorb more than 80% of harmful gases indoors, and its ability to deal with formaldehyde in particular is extremely strong, which is especially useful in newly renovated homes. The snake plant can also protect against radiation. Based on these characteristics, we can roughly sum up the methods for growing snake plants:

First: Choosing the soil

The snake plant needs loose soil with good air permeability, so when mixing soil for it, be sure to use 2/3 leaf mold plus 1/3 garden soil. Remember that the soil must be loose and breathable, otherwise moisture will not evaporate easily, causing the rhizome to rot.

Second: Sunlight requirements

The snake plant loves light, so be sure to let it come into contact with sunlight often. It is best to place it somewhere it can be directly exposed to the sun; if conditions do not allow this, then place it somewhere close to the sunlight. Being kept in a dark place for a long time will cause the leaves to turn yellow.

Third: Temperature

The snake plant has fairly high temperature requirements. Its suitable growing temperature is 20-30°C, and in winter it should not drop below 10°C, so be sure to pay attention, especially in northern regions.

Fourth: Watering

The snake plant also has fairly high water requirements. Generally speaking, if the soil is relatively loose, it needs watering twice a week, while in winter, because of the climate, only once is enough.

Fifth: Pruning

Compared with other houseplants, the snake plant grows relatively fast, so once the pot is full, manual pruning is needed. This mainly means cutting away old leaves and overly dense areas to ensure it gets sunlight and growing space.

Sixth: Repotting

The snake plant is a perennial plant, and generally it needs repotting once every two years. When repotting, be sure to add nutrients to the new soil so its nutritional supply is guaranteed.

Seventh: Planting method

The snake plant is a root-propagated plant. Generally you only need to plant a few plants, and after a year you can harvest a full pot. When planting, first put part of the soil at the bottom of the pot, then start planting from one side of the pot, planting evenly within the pot.

Eighth: Fertilizing

The snake plant has low fertilizer requirements. You only need to fertilize twice a month during the growing season. Be sure to use a diluted liquid fertilizer so that it grows lushly.

Ninth: The threat of pests and diseases

The common diseases of the snake plant are mainly leaf spot and anthracnose, which can be treated by spraying 50% carbendazim; the common pest is damage by weevils, which can be killed by spraying a 1000-fold dilution of 50% fenitrothion emulsifiable concentrate.

How to Grow Snake Plants

The snake plant, a perennial foliage plant, is also known as hu pi lan, huang wei lan and so on. It is a herbaceous plant of the Liliaceae family and is often used as a potted plant in offices, studies and living rooms. Because it has many varieties, the leaves formed by different varieties also differ. The underground stem of the snake plant is a single stem with no forks or branches, and the leaves grow clustered from top to bottom. The whole plant is generally about 60cm tall, and the common snake plant grows with light yellow and green alternating. According to leaf type, it can be divided into golden-edged snake plant, short-leaved snake plant, stone-pencil snake plant and so on.

In fact, if the snake plant is grown well, it will also bloom. Its flowers are mostly pale white, some slightly green, and the flowering period is generally around December. The leaves of the snake plant are relatively firm and the color is attractive. It not only brings vitality but is also a good helper for purifying the air in home decoration. So many people like to grow snake plants. When growing them, you need to know the habits of the snake plant to grow them better.

The snake plant, like the clivia and the peace lily, prefers a warm and humid environment, but it also has drought tolerance similar to that of the maidenhair fern. In daily growth it prefers light, but rainy and cloudy days will not have a particularly bad effect on it, and its light requirements are not very high. It generally grows at around 35°C, and in winter it can overwinter safely if the temperature stays above 10°C. The soil it generally grows in is sandy soil, and spring and summer are its rapid growth periods. The snake plant is mainly propagated by cuttings and division, and seeds are not easy to keep alive.

How to Grow Snake Plants

1. Soil requirements: Like houseplants such as the bromeliad, cyclamen, epiphyllum and peace lily, the snake plant requires loose soil, and air permeability also has certain requirements. Ordinary potting soil is generally used, and after the plant matures, a dedicated fertilizer soil can be chosen for cultivation.

2. Temperature requirements: The snake plant's other requirements are actually not strict, but temperature is a rather tricky point, because its environment for growth and development is around 25°C. Lower temperatures inhibit growth, and higher temperatures cause it to stop growing. In winter, be sure to keep the temperature above 10°C, otherwise it will suffer frost damage.

3. Water requirements: As with other plants, just keep the soil moist, but it must not be too wet, especially not waterlogged. Water less in winter, generally 1-2 times per winter is enough.

4. Light requirements: The snake plant quite likes sunlight. Even direct sunlight will not cause it to die from too-rapid transpiration. On the contrary, if it is kept in a shady place for a long time, the leaves will turn yellow. So give it as much light as possible.

5. Pruning requirements: Generally the snake plant can mature in a few months, so at this time, to ensure appearance and growth needs, the main thing is to prune the areas that grow too densely. Ensure the extent of sunlight exposure.

6. Repotting requirements: When it grows into its second or third year, the snake plant needs its soil changed to ensure normal intake of nutrients.

7. Pest damage requirements: The diseases the snake plant generally suffers from are leaf spot caused by pests or weevils and so on. Some pesticide can be applied appropriately.

8. Fertilizer requirements: The snake plant only needs sufficient soil nutrients. Generally no fertilizing of the soil is needed, but when repotting, a large amount of nutrients needs to be added.

How to Grow Snake Plants, Snake Plant

The snake plant, also known as hu pi lan and jin lan, is a plant of the Agavaceae family and the genus Sansevieria. Its varieties include the golden-edged snake plant and the silver-veined snake plant. The underground stem has no branches, and the leaves are clustered, tubular in the lower part, flattened in the middle and upper parts, with stiff upright sword-shaped leaves. The plant height is 50 cm to 70 cm, and the leaf width is 3 cm to 5 cm. The leaf margins are entire, and the surface is creamy white, pale yellow and dark green in alternating horizontal banded markings. The golden-edged snake plant has golden yellow leaf margins, 1 cm to 1.6 cm wide. The silver-veined snake plant has longitudinal silvery-white stripes on the surface. If managed well in a home pot, the whole plant's leaves can reach more than 1.2 m tall. The flower scape emerges singly from the rhizome, in a raceme, with pale white and light green flowers, 3 to 5 in a cluster, borne on the inflorescence axis.

There are more than 60 species of perennial herbaceous (Sansevieria) plants, native to tropical Africa and Asia. Plant height varies by variety, ranging from 10-odd meters to 1 m. The leaves are fleshy, with cylindrical, sword-shaped, broadly lanceolate and other forms, clustered on the underground rhizome, and the leaf surface has various different patterns. Mature plants can bloom every year and are fragrant, but they are mainly grown for foliage. These plants are drought-tolerant, moisture-tolerant and shade-tolerant, can adapt to various harsh environments, and are suitable for garden landscaping or pot cultivation. They are high-grade cut-flower and indoor plants.

They are generally placed in a shady or semi-shady spot, but they also quite like sunlight; only when the light is too strong will the leaf color become darker and whitish. They like warm temperatures. Their suitable temperature is 18-27°C, and below 13°C they stop growing. In winter the temperature also must not stay below 10°C for long, otherwise the base of the plant will rot, causing the whole plant to die.

Watering should be moderate, not too wet. The snake plant is a desert plant and can withstand harsh environments and long droughts. If watered too frequently, the leaves turn white and the markings and color also fade. From spring to autumn it grows vigorously, so it should be watered thoroughly. During the winter dormant period, watering should be controlled, keeping the soil dry, and watering should avoid pouring into the leaf clusters. When using plastic pots or other decorative flower pots with poor drainage, be sure to avoid waterlogging, so as not to cause rot that makes the leaves bend and fall below.

Fertilizing should not be excessive. During the peak growing period, fertilizer can be applied 1-2 times a month, and the amount should be small. If only nitrogen fertilizer is applied for a long time, the markings on the leaves will become dull, so a compound fertilizer is generally used. You can also evenly bury 3 holes of cooked soybeans in the soil at the edge of the pot, 7-10 beans per hole, being careful not to let them touch the roots. Stop fertilizing from November to March of the following year.

It has no strict soil requirements and can grow normally even in a very small volume of soil. It likes loose sandy soil and humus soil, and is tolerant of drought and poor soil. It grows very robustly, and even when the pot is full it does not inhibit its growth. Generally repot once every two years, in spring, and standard compost can be used when repotting.

1. Leaf-cutting propagation: This can be done from May to August. Cut mature leaves from the base, cut them into sections 6-10 cm long, insert them into plain sandy soil to a depth of about 3 cm, and place them in light shade after inserting. Keep the temperature at 18-25°C, and roots begin to form in about 20 days. When the young plant grows 2-3 leaves, it can be potted. After the golden-edged snake plant survives by leaf cutting, the golden edge often easily disappears, so division is mostly used for propagation.

2. Division propagation: Because the underground creeping stems often emerge above the soil surface, there is no need to take the plant out of the pot when dividing; simply cut the rhizome apart, lift it out and pot it, and it can survive even without fibrous roots. When the leaf clusters fill the whole pot, you can take the plant out of the pot, shake off all the soil, cut the rhizome with one leaf cluster as a unit, and pot them separately. After a year, 4-5 new leaf clusters can sprout.

Under poor ventilation or fluctuating conditions with excessively high temperatures, leaf spot is prone to occur. The diseased spots are oily-looking soft rot, yellowish brown, with a grayish-white center. In the early stage of the disease, spray 50% carbendazim or a 800-fold dilution of thiophanate-methyl.