Graceful dracaena is most often found in the interiors of apartments and offices due to its unpretentiousness and is widely used in floristry, adding bright elegant notes to floral compositions. One of the representatives of the species is the Lemon Lime variety, which has the most elegant and spectacular colors.
Plant description
This variety of an evergreen shrub plant grows slowly, not more than 30 cm per year, gradually growing a crown of 40-60 cm. Lanceolate leaves reach 60 cm in length. Assembled in a socket, they have a three-color color with green, white and yellow-lemon stripes.
Like other variegated and green-leaf varieties, Lemon Lime belongs to the species Dracaena Fragrant or Dracaena Fragrans (Latin Fragrans), which got its name due to the intense pleasant fragrance of small white flowers collected in a brush. But, despite the unpretentiousness of the species, it is very rare to get a flowering plant at home or in the office.Did you know? The name of the species Dracaena (lat. Dracaena) in translation means "female dragon."
Video: Dracaena varieties Lemon lime
Pros and cons of growing
- The lush and attractive plant has earned the love of flower growers due to its undeniable advantages:
- possesses high decorativeness;
- adapts well to indoor conditions;
- unpretentious in leaving;
- easy to breed.
- The disadvantages of dracaena are not significant and most of them are easy to fix:
- slow growth;
- loss of decorativeness due to exposure of the trunk;
- loss of brightness of leaf color with a lack of lighting.
Optimal conditions for growing dracaena
Since the plants are home to the tropics, Lemon Lyme feels best in conditions with high humidity - at least 60-70% with frequent watering and spraying. It is advisable to maintain the indoor temperature in the warm season within +23 ... + 25⁰С and not lower than + 16⁰С in winter. In the cold season, watering is reduced to 1 time per week.
The soil is needed loose, light and nutritious, neutral or slightly acidic. If necessary, you can use the purchased universal or substrate for palm trees. Lighting for variegated dracaena is required quite intense, but from direct sunlight it is necessary to shade, so as not to burn the leaves.
Important! The lack of light does not affect the health of the bushes, but their leaves will lose their main attractive feature - bright colored stripes will begin to decrease, turn green and disappear.
Features of growing and caring at home
When growing dracaena in enclosed spaces, it is necessary to promptly replenish the nutrients used by the plant in a limited volume of the pot. During the period of active growth of green mass from March to September, liquid complex fertilizers for variegated plants or palm trees are applied every 2 weeks.
It is allowed to use top dressing in the form of special sticks, which are buried in the soil in a pot and they gradually dissolve when watering. In winter, dracaena goes into a state of rest and does not require additional nutrition. If it continues to grow, fertilizers are applied no more than 1 time per month.
As the root system grows, dracaena bushes need a transplant, which is best done in the spring. Freshly purchased plants are transplanted immediately after purchase, young one- and two-year-old bushes are transplanted annually, and adults - when the roots sprout through the drainage holes. The container for transplant is selected 2-3 cm larger than the previous one with the mandatory use of a drainage layer.
Video: Dracaena Lemon Lime Transplant
Growing dracaena gradually lose their lower leaves, trunks are extended and exposed, becoming like palm trees. To maintain decorativeness, you can plant several plants in one pot.
Another way to make shrubs attractive is to use pruning to form a crown. To do this, the stem is evenly cut with a sharp knife at the desired height and the cut is treated with garden var or paraffin. After pruning from sleeping buds at the end of the trunk, 2-5 new branches sprout, and the cut leafy part can be used for reproduction. Sometimes new shoots are formed not only at the top near the cut, but also in the middle of the trunk, and a multi-tiered plant is obtained.Did you know? The resinous red juice of some types of dracaena - “dragon blood” has long been used for medicinal purposes, as a dye and in religious rites.
Video: Cropping Dracaena Lemon Lime
Plant propagation
Unlike varieties with green leaves that can be grown from seeds, Lemon Lyme is propagated only by vegetative means to preserve varietal characteristics, rooting apical and lateral shoots. Even a long bare stalk can be cut into cuttings with a length of about 15-20 cm, which will easily take root and give some more beautiful specimens. Rooting is carried out in different ways, and all of them give excellent results.
Important! Until the sprouts take root, they must be kept at a temperature of +22 ... + 25⁰С and no overcooling must be allowed, otherwise they will die.
In water
Only fully healthy branches without damage are suitable for propagation. The lower sections of all stems should be even, clean and not fragmented. The lowest leaves, if they fall into the ground when planting, must be removed. 1-2 drops of Zircon or a tablet of activated carbon are added to a glass with warm, settled or boiled water and prepared cuttings are placed in it.
If turbidity occurs, water is immediately replaced with fresh water. If signs of decay appear on the submerged part of the stem or the bark begins to peel off, the stalk needs to be cut to a healthy place and dried, then placed in a fresh solution again. Roots usually appear after 1-2 weeks, and after a month sprouts can be planted in permanent pots.
In the ground
Cuttings of dracaena can be rooted immediately in the ground. Tanks for landing should have drainage holes. At the bottom of the pots, a layer of expanded clay is poured, then the soil mixture for dracaena or palm trees. Rooting can also be carried out in sand or vermiculite, followed by transplantation into the soil mixture.
Extra leaves are removed from the apical stems, the lower sections are dusted with Kornevin, crushed charcoal or incubated for 2 hours in a heteroauxin solution. Prepared cuttings are buried in a moistened substrate by about 3-5 cm and covered with transparent dishes or a film on top to create greenhouse conditions. Pots are exposed in a warm, well-lit place, protected from direct sunlight. For 1-2 months, the sprouts are regularly watered, preventing the soil from drying out and draining excess water from the pallets, and aerated several times a day. After the appearance of green shoots, the greenhouse is removed.
Diseases and Pests
If you violate the minimum required care dracaena Lemon Lyme will quickly begin to lose decorativeness, the restoration of which can take a lot of time. If the bush is already an adult, it is better not to neglect the care tips so as not to lose the beauty and splendor that has formed over the years.
If the leaves suddenly begin to turn yellow and dry, you need to make sure that the soil is sufficiently moistened, that there is no direct sunlight and fertilize or, if necessary, transplant the plant. The opposite situation is also possible - at low temperatures and too flooded soil the leaves turn black and become stained.
Weakened plants can become easy prey for pests such as aphids, spider mites, thrips and others. If insects are found, it is necessary to isolate the plant immediately. Heavily infected leaves are removed, pests are washed off with the rest with soapy water and treated with insecticides according to the instructions.
Violations of the temperature and water conditions can cause fungal diseases - different types of spots, characterized by the appearance of yellow and brown spots on the leaves, which then turn black and become covered with a coating of fungal spores. For treatment using copper-containing drugs or systemic fungicides, such as Topaz, Fundazol and others.In case of defeat of dracaena bacteriosiscausing rotting of leaves and the appearance of ulcers on the stems, as well as with viral spotted wilting, which can be identified by longitudinal brown spots on the leaves, there is no chance to save the plant and diseased specimens will have to be destroyed.
To prevent the occurrence of critical situations, it is enough to take simple preventive measures:
- follow the recommendations for care;
- regularly inspect leaves for timely detection of pests and diseases;
- bathe in the shower to remove dust and insects;
- quarantine for new flowers;
- to disinfect tools, substrate and containers for transplantation;
- handle wounds after trimming.
In gratitude for the efforts made, Lemon Lime will become a spectacular and bright highlight of any collection.
