P:I have two dracaena - fragrant and dragon. They both grew up to the ceiling, but their leaves fell and no suckers came out. What to do to save them?
O:Yellowing and falling of the lower leaves of dracaena is a symptom of plant aging, often accelerated by a lack of nutrients in the substrate or moisture. Dracaena grows well in humus and light soil with a pH of 5-6, e.g. in peat, leaf soil and sand mixed in equal proportions. We replant young specimens every year, and replant the older ones every few years - preferably in spring.From March to September, they should be fertilized every 3-4 weeks with liquid fertilizers.
In winter, we do not feed dracaena at all. Dracaena should not have "legs in the water", so that their roots do not rot, so drainage is placed at the bottom of the pot.Water the plants moderately even in summer so that the soil is only slightly moist.
In winter, it is safest to water plants only when the substrate in the pot starts to dry out (but it should not dry out completely).Dracaena likes humid air, so in summer it should be sprinkled with water every day. In winter, we sprinkle the dracaena only once a week. The height of the dracaena can be adjusted by trimming the tops of the shoots at any height.
Dracaena reproduction
The cut off tips of the shoots 8-10 cm long, which have a growth cone and at least two pairs of leaves, can be used as cuttings.Remove the lower leaves and tie the remaining leaves loosely if they are too long. After placing the seedling in the ground, cover it with a foil bag with a few holes - after 3 weeks at approx. 24 ° C, aired every day, the seedlings should be ready.
Seedlings can also be made from not too lignified, leafless pieces of shoots. We cut such a shoot into pieces 10-15 cm long. We cover the wounds in the upper part of the seedlings with garden ointment. Dip the lower ends of the cuttings in the rooting agent and place them in a pot with moist sand or perlite.Put a plastic bag on the pot and make a few holes in it.At a temperature of approx. 22-25 ° C and high air humidity, they should take root after approx. 3-4 weeks.
If the trunk is bare at the bottom, we can shorten it by making an air dump.In the selected place, on both sides of the shoot, slightly cut the bark, and then put a moist substrate there, which we fasten with foil.When the roots grow, divide the plant into two parts: cut the upper part with the roots and place it in pot, and transplant the bottom one into fresh soil, where it will soon sprout new shoots.
