How to care for a Syngonium
Syngonium is a family of plants that has amazing tropical plants for beginning plant owners. Syngoniums come in all shapes and sizes and have beautiful patterns on their leaves and stems. They're great plants for those of you who like to spend a little bit more time on your plants.
There are many different plants in the Syngonium family, but they all have similar plant care requirements. In this plant care guide, we're going to look at how you can take care of your Syngonium, keep it happy, and help it thrive.
These are all topics we're going to look at:
- Watering your Syngonium
- Sunlight for your Syngonium
- The perfect soil
- Fertilizing your Syngonium
- Toxicity
- Propagation
Let's discover how you can help your tropical plant thrive!
Watering your Syngonium
Syngoniums are tropical plants, which means they need humidity and moist soil. Plants in the Syngonium family generally don't store a lot of moisture in their stems, so they rely on the soil to keep them hydrated.
Because these plants rely on the soil to give them plenty of moisture, you'll need to water it regularly. You shouldn't let the soil dry out completely, but you also don't want the soil to be wet. It's time to water your plant, when the top inch (2.5 cm) feels dry to the touch. On average, you should water this plant around once per week in the spring and summer. During the fall and winter, you should water them less: around every 10 days to 2 weeks.
When you're watering your plant, make sure to let any excess water drain from the pot. If the excess water stay behind in the bottom of the pot, this could cause root rot. Root rot is very harmful to your plant and could kill it. A simple solution is to use a pot with drainage holes to let the excess water escape.
Sunlight exposure for your Syngonium
Syngoniums are tropical plants, as we've discovered. This means they're used to quite a bit of sunlight exposure in their natural environment. However, these plants are also quite small and tend to stay near the ground. It's natural living environment gives us a great clue about the kind of sunlight exposure it needs.
The perfect sunlight exposure for this wonderful type of plant is bright, but indirect, sunlight. It's important to avoid exposing this plant to direct sunlight, because that will cause sunburns on its leaves. Your Syngonium will love the bright and warm spot, as it's very much like its natural environment.
Syngoniums grow towards the light. If you don't want these plants to grow to one side too much, you should rotate it regularly. It's best to rotate this plant 90 degrees once per week. Each side will get the same amount of sunlight exposure and you'll help the plant to grow straight up.
The perfect soil for your Syngonium
Earlier, in the section about watering your Syngonium, we found out that this plant thrives when it's in moist soil. When a plant loves to be in moist soil, we need to think about the type of soil to use for your plant.
Soil that's moist most of the time should retain moisture for a longer period of time and not compact over time. The soil should retain moisture for at least 6 days without drying out. It's also important that the soil doesn't compact over time. When the soil compacts over time, it's difficult for oxygen to reach your Syngonium's roots. When oxygen can't reach the roots, it's easy for root rot to happen.
If you want to find out more about making your soil retain more moisture, have a look at How to make your soil retain more water?.
Fertilizing your Syngonium
Your Syngonium relies on the soil to provide it with moisture and nutrients to grow. A Syngonium is also a fast-growing houseplant, which means it absorbs nutrients in the soil quite quickly. It uses these nutrients to maintain it's fast growth and stay healthy.
You can help your Syngonium stay healthy during the growing period (spring and summer) by fertilizing it occasionally. During the growing period, you should fertilize the Syngonium every two weeks.
You shouldn't fertilize it during the fall and winter because it will be in its dormancy period. When your Syngonium is in its dormancy period, it uses a lot less energy to grow, so the fertilizer will stay behind in the pot and won't be absorbed. Over time, this will make the soil acidic and this is harmful to your plant.
The best fertilizer for these types of plants is a liquid fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer is great for plants that use a lot of nutrients to grow and need to absorb it quickly.
Toxicity for pets
Like many other tropical plants, plants in the Syngonium family are toxic for your pets. If you have pets or small children, it's best to keep these plants out of reach. If you have pets that like to chew on your plants, make sure to keep an eye out. The sap in the stems and leaves could cause indigestion and irritation when consumed. Make sure to contact your veterinarian if you notice your pet has chewed on your Syngonium.
Propagating your Syngonium
When you've taken great care of your Syngonium and it has grown quite a bit, you might start to notice nodes on your plant. You can see one of these nodes in the photo above: a thicker part in the stem that starts to grow roots.
You can propagate these stems with nodes by cutting off the stem about an inch (2.5 cm) under the node and putting the cutting in a jar with clean water. The cutting will now slowly start to grow roots. When the roots are about 2 inches (5 cm), you can plant it in soil and you'll have successfully propagated your Syngonium.
Conclusion
If you love tropical houseplants that are easy to take care of, a plant in the Syngonium family is perfect for you. It's quite an easy plant to take care of and it doesn't need a lot of special care. You can help this plant be happy by keeping it in a bright spot and keeping its soil moist. Every two weeks, during the spring and summer, you should fertilize it to help it grow big and strong. It's a great plant for beginning plant owners that want to learn how to take care of tropical houseplants, as Syngoniums are quite forgiving and recover quickly.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope it helps you to keep your plants healthy and beautiful! If you're looking for more guides on specific plants, you can always request a plant guide to get a guide for the plant you have trouble with.
Tags: beginner-friendly, tropical
Posted on: May 29, 2021
