Apply one drop of liquid plant food each month during the growing season. Discontinue during the dormant winter months.
A soilless plant may be transferred to a container of potting mix to prolong its life.
Soil-Based Cultivation
To cultivate in potting mix:
A soil-grown plant needs to be kept moist. Be sure to thoroughly rewet the potting mix before it completely dries out.
Mist as needed to increase ambient humidity and avoid oversaturation of the soil as it can lead to rotting.
Give it a drop of diluted liquid plant food monthly during all seasons except winter, the dormant period.
Where to Buy
In addition to green leaves, there are two varieties available with variegated foliage. They may be a bit more difficult to find than the species plant.
‘White Stripe Victory’ has green leaves with white striping.
And ‘White Stripe Gold’ boasts green foliage with yellow margins.
In addition to foliar variations, you’ll find specimens for sale with interesting stem formations.
Imaginative growers “train” or manipulate stems into decorative designs like braids, curls, hearts, layers, and pyramids.
If you’re clever and patient, you might try your hand at this ancient art!
Creatively arranged stalks make beautiful, meaningful gifts both to oneself and to others.
For those who believe, the shapes and directional attributes align with feng shui principles and bring peace and positive energy to a living space.
There are about 120 tropical, tree-like Dracaena species. As you shop, you may come across lotus bamboo, D. deremensis or D. compacta which may also be described as lucky bamboo.
Lotus bamboo has a long leafless stalk and a tuft of lotus-like leaves, and is not luck-bearing per traditional lore.
You can find lucky bamboo from NW Wholesaler via Amazon.
Maintenance
To keep your bamboo in top form, you may want to prune it from time to time.
Take care to use sanitary pruning shears, so that the cuts are less susceptible to pests and disease.
Pruning is done for several reasons, including:
- Remove damaged, diseased, or pest-infested stems to promote good health.
- To “top,” as with trees, cut the top half of each stem straight across with sanitary shears to promote bushier growth.
- Remove leggy, old stems to encourage basal growth.
When large main stalks (not small side shoots) are pruned, they may be coated with paraffin to seal them against pests and disease.
Red wax is a desirable choice as it symbolizes fire.
By dripping liquid wax from a lit candle onto the stalk tops, or dipping them into the liquid wax in the top of a recently extinguished candle, you can achieve a good seal.
Propagation
It is possible to start a plant from seed, but you may not find them easily.
As a houseplant, D. sanderiana seldom flowers, and the focus of commercial producers is on the sale of cuttings, not seeds.
In sterile laboratory settings, scientists culture vast quantities of plant tissue in vitro, a process called “micropropagation.”
Not only does this translate to a greater quantity of plants brought to market, it means improved quality as a result of minimal disease transmission.
As seed germination and micropropagation are not likely ways for the home gardener to begin, we turn our attention to stem cuttings and transplants.
From Stem Cuttings
Take stem cuttings during the growing season, rather than during winter dormancy.
They should be a minimum of two inches tall with at least one “node.”
A node is a growing point from which a branch, leaf, or root sprouts. In this case, the node consists of the entire brown line that divides stem segments, which are also known as “internodes,” because they are found between the nodes.
As long as you cut about an eighth to a quarter of an inch below a brown line, roots should sprout within the next two months.
Prepare a container by sanitizing it with a 10 percent bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water), soak for 10 minutes, then rinse and dry.
