Hi guys, today we are going to chat a little bit about houseplants, and particularly about this one – Tradescantia zebrina. I want to share with you a few care tips on how to grow beautiful and lush Tradescantias.
The plant is a one year growth! So by the end of last fall, I made a complete stupidity. I wanted to repot my plant, but first of all, I was in a rush. Then the potting mix was wet, and as I was removing the plant from its previous container, I accidentally broke the root ball in half. The plant did not like it at all; within a couple of weeks, it pretty much defoliated, and there was really nothing left in the pot. There were maybe like two or three sad-looking stems hanging from the pot, but that was it! Now the plant bounced back and regrew since last year. I think that’s pretty amazing, and that just goes to show you that this plant is quite forgiving and it’s definitely beginner-friendly.
But that being said, there are a few care tips, few care tasks that are really important to remember and really important to do if you want to grow beautiful and lush Tradescantias. So let’s take this plant with us and let’s chat a little bit about it!
Okay, so here she is! A few basic informations about Tradescantia – they originate from Mexico and Central America, so in their natural habitat, they grow in open woodlands, in subtropical climates. That means that you can grow it outside in zones 9 through 11, but even in those colder climates, you can totally bring it on your balcony or on your patio during summer months; this plant really enjoys it.
Okay, so let’s start with tip number one – potting mix. Potting mix is really important because that’s where your plant draws water from, nutrients from, what provides anchorage to the roots. Tradescantia, unlike other house plants, doesn’t have any specific, any particular potting mix requirements, but it needs a well-draining potting mix. The potting mix should hold on to some moisture at the same time without waterlogging the plant. Last time I repotted my Tradescantia, I used a multi-purpose potting mix with added perlite and worm castings. That being said, you can totally use the traditional house plant potting mix that you can find at most garden centers, but I definitely recommend adding some components to it because the traditional house plant potting mix usually is poor quality and it only contains peat moss; sometimes it may contain just a bit of fertilizer. So I definitely recommend adding some components to it – if it doesn’t already contain perlite, I recommend that you add between 20 to 25% perlite, and also add a few handfuls of organic matter – can be worm castings, can be even compost or humus.
Tip number two is light levels. Tradescantia will tolerate all kinds of light levels. For example, in my apartment, I have windows only on one side, and they are all facing north. So I have really low light levels in my apartment, and I don’t even have window sills to place my plants on so that they can be directly in front of the windows, I place my Tradescantia on top of my kitchen cabinets in the winter, and then during spring/summer/fall, I bring it on my balcony because my balcony receives a few hours of direct sunlight in the morning, and this Tradescantia seems to really enjoy it. So if you have the possibility, place your Tradescantia in front of an east or west-facing window. You can place it in full sun, but keep in mind that if you garden, if you live in a very warm climate, that full sun, that direct sun can be perhaps too intense and can be too scorching. What will happen is the color of the leaves will wash out if the plant receives too much sunlight or if the sun is too intense. But in most case scenarios when Tradescantias are grown in sunny areas, you will notice they turn more purple, and when they are grown in more shady areas, they will turn more green on my Tradescantia; it’s more on the green side because of the low light levels. One sign that your plant is not receiving enough sunlight is that it starts to lose that characteristic stripe in the center of the leaf. Another sign that your plant is not receiving enough sunlight is the elongation of the internodes. So the internode is the section on the plant, the section on the stem in between two leaves. So that’s an internode, and what is funny is that one of the common names of this plant is inch plant, and it comes from the fact that the internodes, so the section in between two leaves is supposed to be 1 inch long. So if the internodes on your plant are longer than 1 inch, it means they are stretching in search of light, so that’s a sign that your plant is not receiving enough sunlight.
Care tip number three is watering. Tradescantias love moisture; they hate being dry. If you want to grow lush and healthy Tradescantias, you have to water them regularly. How often that really depends on the size of your plant, size of the container, type of the container, type of the potting mix, temperature at your place, so there’s a lot of factors to take into consideration, but you want to water it well, you want to see the water coming out of the drainage hole, you want to pour the excess water out of the saucer, and then you wait until the first layer of soil, the top layer of soil starts to dry out. You stick your finger inside the pot, and if the first few centimeters of the soil feel dry to touch, you want to water your Tradescantia again. One of the signs that your plant is not receiving enough water, when you are underwatering your plant is the drying out of the internodes. Yet again, we are talking about those internodes. The internodes are really healthy-looking, they are very thick and very succulent, but there were times when I underwatered my Tradescantia, so if I can find one internode like that, I will show you, but when you underwater your Tradescantia, the internodes start to dry out. They start to shrivel, and they become very, very thin. So those internodes are very fragile, and they can easily break off, and then you are losing big chunks of your plant. So if you notice those really dry and very thin internodes, that’s a sign that you are underwatering your plant. So you should give it more water or more frequently.
Tip number four is fertilizing. I fertilize most of my houseplants probably twice a month in summer and about once a month in winter with an organic fertilizer. I prefer organic fertilizers because they support the soil life, they are a more slow-release form of nutrients, so they are not immediately absorbed by the plant, so there’s less risk of over-fertilizing your plant or burning your plant roots with too high a dose of a fertilizer. I use Alga Grow by Plagron, which is an NPK fertilizer suitable for the growth phase, and because Tradescantia is mostly putting vegetative growth, this NPK fertilizer rich in nitrogen supports healthy leafy growth. Sometimes I also use an additive called Power Roots, also by Plagron. This is an additive, a booster that helps to boost plant resistance, it promotes healthy root growth and branching out of the root system. So these are the same things I use for my outdoor plants; they worked really well for me for many years, so that’s something that I also use for my Tradescantia. I fertilize my Tradescantia year-round because it is always actively growing. Right now we are in winter, and there are some new leaves forming, so as long as your plant is actively growing, you should be fertilizing it. You may cut down a little bit on the fertilizer in winter, as I said I fertilize about once a month in winter, twice a month in summer, but as I mentioned as long as your Tradescantia is actively growing, you should be fertilizing it.
And the final tip, tip number five, on how to grow bushy and lush Tradescantias. Your Tradescantia will naturally grow really long stems, so if you want a bushy look, what you need to do is, you need to keep cutting it and keep propagating it. So how to do it? It’s a good idea to cut from the bottom of the plant those bit more leggy stems, so when you take a cutting, avoid cutting here in the center of the internode because this section will not produce any roots. You need to cut either just above the leaf node or just below the leaf node because this section is the one that will produce some roots. So when you take a cutting, take a quite long cutting; you want to have at least one, two, three leaf nodes, and you want to place it in a glass of water. Because if you try to propagate it directly in the soil, that may work, but in most cases, the cutting will either rot out or dry out. Water propagation is definitely more successful. I’m going to have 1, 2, 3, 4 sections that are going to produce roots, and that’s a really great idea because the more roots, obviously, the faster this cutting will grow once you plant it in the soil. So here are some cuttings that I took a couple of weeks ago, they started to already grow some nice roots, so these cuttings are ready to be planted; let’s plant them together! So just find a place, an empty spot in your pot, take a pen, make a hole; this is also a good indication of whether your potting mix is good quality. If you have a hard time pushing the pen or the pencil down the soil, that means that either your potting mix is too compacted or perhaps your plant is pot-bound and it’s the time to repot it. I’m going to just make a hole and place my cutting inside of it. Backfill with soil, gently press around the roots. Okay, I’m going to plant another one, and then I’m going to water it. One last thing is when I look behind this mass of leaves, behind those leaves that do not receive any sunlight, they dry out and die. So it’s a truly significant support undertaking to eliminate those dead and dry leaves so your plant can send energy to creating new leaves.
Ok, so as a summarize, plant your Tradescantia in a well-depleting preparing blend, water it consistently, don’t allow it to dry out, place it in a brilliant area, treat no less than two times per month with a natural manure, and continue engendering it and continue to establish those proliferations in a similar pot. Trust you found this guide accommodating.
