Can star jasmine be grown in water or hydroponically? Care methods explained

  Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegatum') is an evergreen vine, but it also has woody stems, and its stems and vines are dotted with faintly visible lenticels. Its leaves are rich in color and vivid in hue, giving a brilliantly multicolored visual experience, making it a rare foliage plant. Because the plant is richly colored, robust in constitution, and highly resistant to stress, it is not only suitable as a landscaping plant but can also be grown as a household potted plant, offering good ornamental value in both cases.

  Star jasmine usually prefers to grow in acidic or neutral soil, but it is inherently robust with strong cold and disease resistance; as long as the soil has good permeability and water and nutrients keep up, it will often maintain vigorous growth. That is how star jasmine performs in soil culture, so can star jasmine be grown in water or hydroponically?

  Practice has proven that star jasmine can indeed be grown in water or hydroponically. This is mainly because the stem nodes of star jasmine all have aerial roots, so even hydroponic culture is very easy to establish. Usually you can select and cut from a mature star jasmine a stem section with rootlets, then insert it into a container filled with clean water. But we can also use another, simpler method for hydroponic culture, namely the potted root-washing method.

  Using the potted root-washing method for hydroponic culture means digging out a soil-grown star jasmine, washing the roots clean, and placing it in a container filled with water for hydroponic or water culture. Because star jasmine has a strong ability to adapt to its growing environment, after the plant is transferred from soil culture, if all goes well, it can quickly be successfully grown in water.

  But during water culture of star jasmine, note that if it is kept indoors for a long time with insufficient light, its color will easily remain evergreen, and the uniform green greatly reduces its ornamental value. To change this, in addition to regular water changes, we also need to provide it with appropriate light. If the light is sufficient, even a hydroponically grown star jasmine will gradually develop richer colors and return to its brilliantly multicolored state.