Prayer Plants Care Tips
Common Name: Prayer Plant, Ten Commandments
Scientific Name: Maranta leuconeura
Lighting: Moderate to Low
Watering: Moderate to Heavy
The Prayer plant is really a quite amazing plant. Its foliage is mainly a dark green with red variations of veins running through them. The amazing part of the Prayer plant is that at night, the leaves fold up. Just like it's praying! This plant is available in many varieties including Herringbone and Rabbits Tracks. The main foliage colors vary depending on the variety. This plant is a nice small, compact houseplant, perfect for windowsills! It adapts very well to indoor temperatures, making it a great addition to your room.
Prayer plants prefer moderate to low indirect light levels. If the leaves on your plant begin to curl and turn brown, your plant is receiving too much light. Providing this plant with too much direct sunlight can burn the foliage.
Prayer plants require moist but not soggy soil. This houseplant also is one of the few houseplants that does not like its soil to dry out between watering, so try to keep the soil consistently moist at all times.
The biggest need for this houseplant is humidity. It requires high humidity levels to flourish, so a daily misting will go far. If the tips of the foliage begin to brown your plant may not be getting the humidity it needs. By providing high humidity levels, you help in ensuring beautiful flowers bloom. This plant is also very temperamental when it comes to temperature changes. It prefers a range of 65 to 80 degrees, however it does not like fluctuations in temperature. Do keep it away from drafts.
Please share your care tips and questions!!
Labels: bathroom houseplants
posted by drayas @ 9:51 PM
12 Comments:
I have an amazing prayer plant, that has tripled in size over 3 months.Unlike the pictures of others, mine is growing in a splayed out position, almost like a vine. 'She' seems healthy and happy enough but is there anything I can do to centralize 'her' growth, as we are rapidly losing table space!!
Many Thanks
Cherie24
Cherie24,
How far is your plant from its light source? Usually when a plant that is typically compact begins to vine, it is reaching towards light. Could that be a reason?
Thanks,
drayas
hello at night when i just cant sleep my prayer plant twitch's almost as if its moving my grandma thinks it has little fairy's looking over us is this true or is his just a thing the prayer plant does please help im eager to know.thank you
Prayer Plants are active at night, so the twitching is just it's movement. However, I like your Grandmother's explanation much better.
Good luck sleeping!!
drayas
can you separat the plant at the root or cut a piece of vine to start another plant?
Thanks,
Adah
Ada,
I've read you can do it either way. Mostly I've read about splitting at the root. Try and give one good clean swipe in order to limit the amount of damage to the roots.
Thanks,
drayas
i just adopted a prayer plant, "she was on her last leaf" my friend at the store knew i would talk care of her and gave me a deal, i don't want to let her down, "she sounds alot like cherie24's plant, mine has blooms,pretty,but not always good,should i leave them or cut them off? az,mod light
Hello,
If the plant is spindly, it probably not getting enough light, just like cherie24. Move it closer to the light source.
Is the plant root bound? That may also cause weak new growth.
Move it closer to the light, give it some houseplant food and it should spring back up.
If the plant seems healthy otherwise, I would leave the blooms. If it seems struggling, you may want to cut them off, forcing the plant to give all of its resources to health instead of beauty.
Please let me know how things turn out.
Thanks,
drayas
I have a prayer plant that sounds lke cherie24's, but mine is in a planter and hasgrown to the floor and more.I don't cut the flowers until they are dead. I had my plant about 4 years before it grew at all. I don't know what happened, butit is beautiful.I don't know how to train them.I also learned that my prayer plant is the "ten commandments" type.
Hello,
You can simply trim the plant to whatever size you'd like. Just use a good pruner and cut back the vines to the size you prefer.
It's strange how a plant can seem to just stay the same for so long and all of a sudden grow like crazy.
Thanks,
drayas
My Prayer plant has been doing very well for about 2 years and lately has developed powdery white spots on the leaves. It also is splayed everywhere and doesn't seem to lift the leaves at nightfall as before. The white spots wipe off the leaves easily enough. Should I clean them? With what?
sxy
sxy,
It sounds like it may have some kind of pest. Spray the plant twice a day with a soapy dishwater mixture. See if within a week the spots begin to diminsh.
Are the white spots sticky? If so, wipe the spots off with rubbing alcohol.
Keep me posted.
Thanks,
drayas
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