From the Grower

• Overwatering and old compacted soil may be the biggest problems to deal with on Sansevierias
• No insect pests attack these plants in the nursery
• Disease can be a problem in the nursery, but should not be a problem when plants are out of the nursery environment

    The Sansevierias are very tough plants that should last a long time in an indoor environment.  They need very little water, so only water when it is obvious the plants need water.  The time-frame between waterings could easily be months.   Since these plants survive for a long time and since soil will breakdown and become more compacted over time the plants will benefit from a re-pot once per year.  Portions of a full plant can be removed to make room for new soil, or a plant can be separated into halves or quarters and each one given a new pot.  Add an appropriate dose of a 6 month slow release fertilizer and some dolomite (garden lime) and your plants should be happy for another year.  Dolomite supplies calcium and magnesium and will also stabilize the pH of the soil allowing for optimal use of fertilizer.

    Do not discard any part of a Sansevieria in a place that it can grow.  These plants will sucker underground and spread as unwanted invasive plants if the conditions are right.    

    One unique problem that we see with Sansevieria, especially the Sayuri, is a rapid softening and browning of random leaf sections when the plants are moved from one micro environment to another.  This problem seems to be related to Spring conditions in South Florida.  When the weather is hot and dry, moving the plants from the shadehouse (47% shade) to our packing house induces this change.  Less often we have witnessed this problem during other weather conditions which keeps our understanding of exactly what is happening low.  Pictures can be seen here.  One solution is to move the plants into a lower light area, of the nursery, once they are ready to be shipped.  Pulling plants from this area minimizes the environmental change and avoids the problem.  If the plants are successfully transferred into our packing house then they seem to survive the trip to our customers without a problem.

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Temperature Change Damage on Sansevieria