Bought new Snake plants, but you cannot wait to see the plant grow faster so that it will look beautiful in your room? I can totally understand. The same thing happened to me when I brought my first Snake plant home. It was small, and I tried every remedy to make it grow tall faster.
If you are interested in gardening or you love houseplants and cannot resist growing them faster, then you should know about taking care of the plants.
So, let me describe all the essential factors in detail to make your Snake plants grow faster.
Table of Contents Show
Talking about how to grow the Snake plants faster, there are several ways for this-
1. Propagation
Propagation is one of the essential steps you should know about the Snake plant. Snake plant is very easy to propagate.
There are different propagation methods for Snake plants, like Rooting in water, Cuttings, and Division.
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Rooting in water
Overwatering can kill your Snake plant, but rooting a Snake plant in water is a foolproof propagation method.
Find a container tall enough to hold your Snake plant leaf and pour the water there. Now, choose a healthy, not-too-old leaf and cut it with clean and sharp shears.
Put the cut end of the leaf in water which is enough to cover the bottom quarter of the tissue. Then keep the container in a place where there is indirect light.
You should change the water every two days. Soon you will observe tiny roots. Plant the rooted leaf in the soil and follow the usual Snake plant care.
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Cuttings
It is no different from the rooting process, except there’s no water involved. Cut the leaf with the same procedure above.
Then leave it for a day to form Callus. Plant the leaf the next day in the soil. You will soon observe the growth.
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Division
This step, however, seems a little tricky but is not that difficult. Snake plant rises from the Rhizomes.
Rhizomes store the energy required for the growth of the leaf and the stem.
So, pull the plant from the pot and use sharp and clean shears to cut the base part into sections.
Cut it into just half unless the plant is old and has masses of Rhizomes. Now plant each new section in a fresh potting medium or soil.
Note: Before planting the cut leaves, after every propagation method, you can use the nutrient medium on the cut part.
Nutrient medium enhances the plant’s growth and will provide nutrients until it establishes itself in the soil. You can find plant nutrients in the market easily.
2. Type of soil
Good soil will keep your Snake plant healthy. And healthy plant grows faster. In addition, good soil may help it recover from accidental overwatering or damage.
As a succulent plant, the Snake plant is vulnerable to rotting roots, which means having well-draining soil mixing is essential.
A succulent soil mix works great. Of course, you can use pre-made potting soils.
But if you want to make your own soil recipes, note that you do not have to buy a special mix to create the perfect medium for your Snake plant.
Way of making soil mix:
- Two parts of coarse sand or Perlite
- One part Peat Moss or Coconut Coir
- 1 part garden soil or potting mix
Things to remember:
- The soil must be well-draining.
- The soil must be loose enough so that repotting requires less effort.
Note: Do not use garden soil for growing indoor plants.
3. Finding the Right-Sized Pot
You should plant the Snake plant in the right-sized pot. Any pot of size 8-12 inches will be more than sufficient for common varieties.
So, small pots work best for this plant.
The roots of the Snake plants have shallow structures, and they do not need deeper roots.
If you use a large pot, it will take a very long time to establish itself in the soil and will take a long time to see the new growth.
Nevertheless, if you want your Snake plant to be very tall and flourish, it always needs good space. In that case, you will need larger pots.
Terra Cotta pots always work best for Snake plants as they help the soil dry more quickly than in plastic pots.
To sum up, you can grow Snake plants in small pots easily as indoor plants, which seems attractive, but if you want it to become huge, you need larger pots.
4. Planting the Right Way
After choosing the right-sized pot, make a drainage hole in the pot. Now, use a well-draining potting mix.
A potting mix designed for Cacti and Succulents will be ideal as it will be more over-saturated with water.
During potting of Snake plants, do not bury them too deep. It would be best to plant Snake plants as deep as they had been in their prior container.
If you want your Snake plants to grow faster, then you should note every small detail it needs.
5. Keep it Slightly Root-Bound!
Root-bound means densely populated roots. The plant will bloom faster and best when you keep the plant slightly root-bound.
This will also help the young offshoot come faster. However, if there are more offshoots, transfer them to the other pots.
If you want to know if your Snake plant is excessively root-bounded, some clues are needed to find out.
Dry plants, droopy leaves, soil drying too fast, water draining too quick, no new growth, yellowing of the leaves, and roots spiraling all around the pots are some of the vital signs that your plant is excessively root-bound.
After finding out that your plant is severely root-bounded, either you re-pot or divide your Snake plant quickly.
6. Fertilizer Management
Snake plants may not require fertilizer regularly. However, fertilizing can be especially helpful and even necessary if your Snake plant needs a bit of boost from a period of high stress.
The best fertilizer would be the fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 10-10-10, although other ratios can be beneficial. NPK stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium ratio in the fertilizer.
The bad environmental condition triggers the Snake plant to be in an unhealthy state. During this unhealthy state, fertilizer is needed to supply the nutrients to make the plant survive.
In addition, signs like curling leaves or random spotting require further investigation. Some of the names of best fertilizers are listed below:
- Perfect plants liquid Snake plant fertilizer
- Indoor plant food Slow-release Pellets by aquatic arts
- Lilly miller10-10-10 plant food
- The Andersons PGF Fertilizer
- Lebanon seaboard fertilizer
- Jobe’s houseplant food spikes
- Southern Ag fertilizer
- Botanicare fertilizer pure blend
- Joyful dirt plant food
- Bonide plant food
- Kindred plant food
- Aquatic arts all-purpose plant food
- Espoma organic-indoor
- Botanicare CNS17
Snake plants should be fertilized around two to three times a month. Usually, Snake plants do not require fertilizers to grow or thrive.
However, if your Snake plant becomes sick due to different reasons like overwatering, lack of sunlight, and fungal infection, fertilizer can restore your plant’s health.
Therefore, applying fertilizer sparingly will be best for your Snake plant to grow faster.
7. Location
Photosynthesis is a must for plants. Snake plants prefer bright indirect light. So, placing the plant in a bright or well-lit place can enhance its growth. A well-lit area means the area which neither gets direct sunlight nor needs tube light in the daytime. This will be best for the Snake plant.
But you can try keeping the plant in direct sunlight in the morning for speedy growth.
The next thing you need to know is that if you see only a few Snake plant leaves dropping, it is normally due to a lack of light. That means it is time for you to shift the plant to a well-lit area.
A well-lit area helps plant gain immunity against any problems it faces, like fungal disease and other diseases.
8. Optimum temperature
The plant should be kept in a warm spot with temperatures above 10°C. During winter, be sure to protect the plant from drafty windows. And water less in winter.
9. Watering
Snake plant does not require more water. They are succulent plants, which means they store the water in their leaves. So, unlike other plants, you should not keep on watering the Snake plant daily.
Watering every 3-4 days is also too much for the plant. This leads the plant to become soggy. This can cause the roots to rot and stunted growth.
Instead, carefully stick the finger or a chopstick a couple of inches into the soil. If any moisture is felt, then hold off on watering.
Never overwater. Also, avoid watering the leaves. They should be kept dry. The next important thing is not watering at all.
This will cause leaves to become droopy, soft, and brown. And if this continues, your plant will die. So the best time to water is in every 14-15 days.
During the winter season, while the plant is not actively growing, water less often than you do in spring and summer.
Not watering and overwatering both will harm the plant. This should be kept in mind.
10. Extra Treatments
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Hydrogen peroxide (H202) Treatment
A plant should remain healthy to flourish. So, to make the Snake plant disease-free, H2O2 treatment can be done.
For this, you need 1 litre of water and two tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide. Mix the hydrogen peroxide in the water properly.
Then spray this solution once in 15 days to avoid fungal, bacterial disease in the Snake plant. Also, H2O2 can be sprayed in the already diseased plant. This will help cure the plant.
It is important to spray the solution in the morning and the evening because sunlight speeds up the process. And spraying the solution for three consecutive days, 24 hrs apart, should kill the fungus.
The working mechanism of hydrogen peroxide is that it has extra oxygen molecules which naturally decompose and acts as antimicrobial. It also helps plants to take more nutrients from the surrounding soil.
It helps roots to become more efficient in absorbing nutrition. And this process helps plants grow faster and more vigorously and make them healthy as they can fight fungus and bacteria.
But always make sure that you keep your hydrogen peroxide in a cool and dark place. And please note that it can bleach and burn skin. So, you should use it very carefully.
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Aspirin Solution
You may be wondering what aspirin solution is for. It is time that you should know that aspirin cures your headache and also helps plants in different ways.
And if you want to cut the Snake plant but do not have time to plant it in the pot, put it in an aspirin solution to keep it fresher until you are ready to plant it. Finally, it treats fungus and is effective, according to the report by Daily Mail.
So, for the use, you will need one aspirin tablet and 100ml of water. Mix the aspirin in the water properly. And pour this mixture into the soil where you have planted the Snake plant. You can spray the solution as well if you see fungus in the leaves.
11. Proper Care of the plant
Those large, fleshy, and flat leaves of Snake plants tend to collect dust, so they often need to be wiped with a damp cloth. If there is rapid growth, then they need to be divided.
Division should be done annually. Dividing and repotting should be done in the spring season by cutting sections containing both leaves and roots. Fragrant, greenish-white flower clusters indicate that your plant is pot-bound.
