Houseplants

How to care for a croton at home

Among decorative-deciduous houseplants, croton can be safely called one of the most striking. But the trouble is that even with very careful care, this flower at home very quickly loses its attractiveness, and eventually dies. Learn how to properly care for a moody plant and what its owner needs to know in this review.

Botanical description of the plant

Croton (Latin name Codiaeum) is a perennial evergreen plant of the family Euphorbiaceae. It is found in nature in the tropical and subtropical forests of Australia, Oceania (Polynesia), India, and also some islands of Southeast Asia (Malaysia, the Philippines, etc.). Due to the amazing coloring of the leaves, the flower is sometimes popularly called the "Cloak of Joseph."

Did you know? Kodiyeum is the original name of the plant, probably coined by its discoverer, the Dutchman Georg Rumfius, who studied orchids on Ambon Island in Indonesia in 1654 and saw an original shrub there. Locals called the perennial the beautiful word "kodibo", although today "kodiyeum" is rather associated with the Greek "codeia", which means "head". Despite the fact that the plant came to Europe in the second half of the seventeenth century, the real fashion for it began only three hundred years later. Together with Dieffenbachia and Drazen, croton was initially grown by florists from the Netherlands, and from there it began to conquer the world.

Describing the botanical features of codium, it is necessary to highlight the following basic characteristics of the plant:

Maximum sizes	50-150 cm (in the wild - up to 300 cm)
Root system	Powerful, fast growing
The stalks	Dense, erect, with a large number of lateral processes
Leaves	Petioles. The structure is dense and leathery, with a beautiful gloss. The sizes are large (up to 30 cm in length). The shape can be different (lanceolate, three-fingered, oval, lobed, carved, spiral, often flat, but sometimes with wavy edges). A distinctive feature is a bright and bizarre color: against the main background of any shades of green, stains, streaks, stripes, splashes and other fragments of yellow, white, purple, pink and other contrasting or nuanced colors can be found
Inflorescence	Pistiform (panicle)
Flowers	Small, devoid of decorativeness, white, yellow or beige with long anthers protruding forward
Fruit	Large seed box

Important! Like other Euphorbiaceae, codium is poisonous. Such a flower is not advisable to keep people with pets (especially cats). Also, croton juice can cause serious irritation on the skin, so pruning and transplanting the plant must be carried out with protective gloves. An interesting botanical feature of codium is the ability to change the color and shape of leaves depending on environmental conditions. It is on this amazing property that active breeding work aimed at breeding new varieties of decorative flower is based.

Kinds

The genus Sodiaeum includes more than a thousand different plants, and it includes not only shrubs, but also trees. However, only one variety of croton is used as a room flower - Codiaeum variegatum, or variegated codium. In turn, inside this species there are a huge number of different varieties and hybrids, including those bred by breeding. From each other, they differ in the shape, size and color of the leaves.

What conditions do you need to create at home

There is a version that it is the non-standard coloring of the codium leaves that determines its capriciousness. The lack of green in the terrestrial organs of the flower complicates the process of photosynthesis, which, as you know, allows you to provide the plant with the energy it needs. Therefore, in order for the croton to feel comfortable, it is so important to create the most favorable conditions for him, otherwise the flower may not endure the struggle for survival.

Did you know? In 1950, in the US state of Florida, a special croton nursery was opened, in which you can see more than five hundred different varieties of this plant.

Seat selection

Wrong choice of place - the first mistake of an inexperienced grower, which can cost the code of life. The needs of croton in this regard are very contradictory, so it can be quite difficult to satisfy them. In particular, the owner needs to consider that this flower:

He loves heat, but does not tolerate dry air, so it can not be placed near heating appliances;
photophilous, but in direct sunlight receives burns and often discards foliage;
absolutely not adapted to sudden changes in temperature, and from the slightest draft can die.

Important! The brightness and variegation of the colors of the codium directly depends on the lighting, and not only its intensity, but also the duration plays a role here. Any sort of croton, being in the shade, has plain green leaves. The best place for a codium is east or west windows. Far from the light, you can place those varieties of plants that have a green color of leaves without rainbow splashes.

Temperature and humidity

Croton loves heat, but the problem is that in city apartments, both in the summer and during the heating season, the hot air is too dry, so the optimum temperature conditions for the plant are considered to be between +20 and +22 ºC, and the permissible maximum is at +28 ° C. In winter, these indicators are best maintained at the level of + 18 ... + 19 ° С. It is also important that the fluctuations between daytime and nighttime temperatures do not exceed two to three degrees.

Humidity is one of the most difficult conditions for codium care. The flower suffers so much from dry air that regular spraying cannot solve the problem. Experts recommend the use of additional moisturizers, for example, to place containers around the pot with moss, sand or expanded clay, and constantly add water to them. You can place the plant in a special glass container for growing - a florarium, where it is much easier to create a suitable microclimate for it.

In addition to moisturizing the air, an integral part of codium care is the regular removal of dust from the leaf plates, otherwise the already complicated photosynthesis process may slow down even more. Periodically, the plant can be bathed in the shower, protecting the surface of the earth from the ingress of excess water.

How to care at home

It is noticed that the biggest problems with codium arise immediately after its acquisition, and even in the case when all the conditions seem to be created for the plant. You should not worry about this: if the care is organized correctly, after a while the flower will adapt to a new place and come to life.

Important! To facilitate the adaptation process, the plant brought from the store should be immediately watered and left for a week with a transparent film in which the flower was packaged. The microclimate and humidity inside it minimize the stress experienced by the croton as a result of the move. In the future, the state of the plant will directly depend on competent care, including, first of all, watering, top dressing, pruning and transplanting.

Watering

Like any indoor flower, codium does not tolerate stagnation of water in the pot, but, unlike most other plants, even a slight and short-term drying of the substrate can be fatal for it, so sufficient, but not excessive watering is an essential component of caring for croton. The frequency of the procedure depends on the temperature in the room and the season: in summer, watering should be more plentiful, in the off-season and in winter - moderate.

An excellent indicator of the correct irrigation is the degree of hardness of the plant's leaf plates, compared with the state of the soil: leaves falling down indicate a lack or excess of moisture in the pot (depending on whether the soil is dry or wet in the pot, the irrigation regime needs to be adjusted).

Important! Given the increased requirements for soil moisture and the simultaneous rejection of water stagnation during transplantation, you need to lay a reliable drainage layer in the pot. Water for irrigation should be used soft and slightly warmed up. Along with moistening the substrate, it is also worth spraying the plant itself.

Top dressing

So that the soil in the pot always remains nutritious and fertile, periodically, fertilizers must be applied to it - both organic and mineral. But too often this should not be done, since an excess of active substances can harm the plant. In the period from February to October, it is enough to feed once or twice a month, for the winter this process can be stopped.

You can use any complex fertilizers for decorative and deciduous indoor plants, for example:

“Blank sheet” (NPK Stimulus);
"Master Agro";
"Planton Z";
Royal mix crystal spray
“Quitofor Stimulus”;
"Proventus";
"Rost Master";
"Rost Smaragd";
"Agrecol" and others.

Important! From an excess of nitrogen in the soil, the croton leaves lose their brightness and become plain green.

Pruning

Another common mistake in caring for a croton is to ignore events such as pruning. With proper crown formation, the codium gets more space, suffers less from soil depletion and lack of energy, and also looks more attractive.

Pruning, in addition, can stimulate plant awakening after a winter dormant period, increase the number of side shoots, give the bush the desired shape and even treat a diseased flower by removing damaged stems and leaves.

The step-by-step cropping procedure looks like this:

A sharp knife, secateurs or scissors are thoroughly wiped with alcohol and dried.
Shoots selected for removal (diseased, broken, too long or old), as well as, if desired, flower buds are cut in one motion, so as not to cause unnecessary suffering to the plant.
The place of cut is treated with chopped charcoal or fungicide for disinfection.

The trimmed plant is not sprayed for seven days. The codium is cut off from a year and a half. At this age, pinching of the tops is done to ensure the formation of lateral shoots. At the age of two, the plant is pruned again, and at the age of five, radical pruning is carried out along the entire length by at least 15–20 cm. Cut shoots (young and healthy) can be used for rooting.

Transfer

The capricious croton painfully transfers the transplant, so even young plants are moved to a new pot no more than once every 2-3 years, as for adults, this period can be easily doubled. It is best to use the transshipment method for this purpose, transferring the flower to a larger flowerpot with an earthen lump, without exposing the roots. Partial renewal of the soil replaces the annual transplant: the topsoil is removed from the pot and replaced with a fresh substrate.

The best time for transplanting is the end of winter or the beginning of spring when the plant wakes up. The pot for croton must be taken deep, with such a calculation that drainage occupies at least a third of its volume. To make it easier for the plant to transfer the transplant, the diameter of the new flowerpot should not differ from the previous one by more than 10–20 mm.

Important! Choosing the size of the pot, you need to consider that the growth rate of different types of codeium is not the same: the larger the leaf plate, the faster it grows. When transplanting codium, you can use a ready-made substrate for ornamental-deciduous plants, remembering that croton needs a light and nutritious, slightly acidic (pH 5.5 level) soil rich in humus. For self-preparation of the soil mixture, leaf and turf soil, sand, peat, humus or compost, as well as sphagnum and a small amount of charcoal are used. Small-sized varieties of croton grow well in a mixture of peat, compost and sand, without adding land as such.

How to propagate

For all its capriciousness, croton is very easily propagated by rooting of cuttings. A little less commonly used is the seed method of producing new plants.

Cuttings

For rooting, it is best to use not young shoots, but older branches, partially (but not completely) stiffened, since they are less prone to decay.

The process looks like this:

You need to cut the stalk at a right angle at a height of 10-15 cm from the top. One to three buds must be present on the shoot.
The lower leaves from the shoot should be cut off, the milky juice that stands out from the wounds should be thoroughly washed off. The remaining leaves, if they are large, can be carefully folded with a tube and bandaged to better preserve moisture.
Then, it is desirable to incubate the cuttings for 24 hours in a solution with activated charcoal or a growth stimulant (preparations such as Kornevin, Heteroauxin, Radifarma, Charkor).
After this, the shoot is placed in a mixture of sand and peat and put in an impromptu greenhouse for rooting. The rooting place should not be very light, but warm enough (+ 23 ... + 25 ºC), while it is desirable that the heat source is not from above, but from below, so it’s easiest to install a container with cuttings on the window sill of the battery.

Further care of the cuttings, lasting from one to one and a half months, consists in their regular ventilation and spraying, and it is recommended to add aloe juice to the water as a stimulant. When young plants start new shoots, they are immediately transplanted into separate pots with the usual soil mixture for croton.

Seeds

Before planting, the seeds of codium should be placed in hot water for 30 minutes, and then soaked for 24 hours in water with the addition of growth stimulants.

Then proceed as follows:

Seeds are laid on the surface of a previously prepared substrate (sand and peat) and sprinkled on top with a thin layer of the same mixture up to 10 mm. The container is tightened with a film and placed in conditions similar to those described above for rooting cuttings. Shoots should appear in about two weeks.
After this, the film must be started to shoot, first for a short time, then this period gradually increases so that the growing shoots gradually get used to the open air.
After removing the film, the sprouts are watered and sprayed, and when they form three real leaves, they are transplanted into separate pots.

Important! The seed method of propagation of codium, unlike the vegetative one, does not guarantee the preservation of the signs of the mother in the new plant. Эта проблема актуальна для всех гибридных форм. Отсутствие яркой раскраски листов на молодых растениях не свидетельствует о потере декоративных качеств кротона: такова особенность этого цветка, необычные оттенки его листвы появляются с возрастом, причём позже всего это происходит с розовыми и красными цветами.

Growing difficulties

Все трудности, возникающие при содержании кротона, так или иначе связаны с ошибками цветовода. В чём именно состоит проблема, можно понять по реакции растения. For example:

опадающие листья свидетельствуют о нарушении температурного режима (переохлаждение, сквозняк, перепад температур). Нужно, однако, иметь в виду, что сезонное сбрасывание листвы, особенно нижней и более старой её части, для кодиеума является нормой;
отсутствие или исчезновение яркой раскраски — следствие недостатка освещения либо избытка азотных удобрений;
мелкие и деформированные листья, напротив, говорят о том, что растение нужно подкормить;
коричневые пятна на листовой пластине возникают, если цветок находится под воздействием прямых солнечных лучей, но если потемнение располагается по краям листа, это может свидетельствовать о переохлаждении;
подсыхающие кончики листьев — верный признак недостаточной влажности воздуха. Если проблему не решить, листва начнёт опадать;
чёрный налёт на тканях является симптомом грибковой болезни, именуемой чернью или сажистым грибом. Развитию инфекции способствует застой воды в почве. Лечится удалением поражённых участков и использованием фунгицидов, содержащих медь («Строби», «Скор», «Флинт», «Хорус», «Дитан М-45» и других).

Ядовитый сок кротона обычно отпугивает вредителей, но ослабленное растение всё же может подвергнуться атаке щитовок, трипсов, нематод, мучнистого червеца или красного паутинного клеща. Узнайте, что делать, если кротон сбрасывает листья. Лучшей профилактикой поражения паразитами является регулярная обработка листьев увлажнённой губкой, а также опрыскивание: при высокой влажности здоровый иммунитет кодиеума способен самостоятельно справиться с проблемой.

Home value

Эзотерики приписывают кротону очень сильную энергетику, которая способна даже изменить атмосферу в доме.

Did you know? Кодиеум считают растением-вампиром, которое с удовольствием питается жизненными силами домочадцев, поэтому слабым, пожилым и нездоровым людям, особенно страдающим бессонницей, такой цветок лучше не заводить. В то же время сильных и уверенных в себе людей кротон сделает ещё более успешными. Этот цветок отлично помогает собраться с мыслями, поверить в свои возможности, повысить самооценку, поставить перед собой цель и следовать ей, не отступая. Также кодиеум отлично гармонирует с натурами творческими и независимыми, а унылым пессимистам помогает посмотреть на мир более позитивно.

Растению приписывают странное свойство развивать ораторские способности, способность к убеждению в споре — главным образом, за счёт упорядочения мыслей и приобретения спокойной уверенности в себе.

Принимая во внимание все описанные свойства кодиеума, можно составить список тех, кому это растение подходит, а кому, напротив, заводить его нежелательно:

Образ жизни и свойства характера, с которыми кротон гармонирует	Образ жизни и свойства характера, с которыми кротон конфликтует
любовь к порядку	недисциплинированность, хаос в мыслях и делах
флегматичность, уверенность в себе	склонность к истерикам
проблемы с коммуникацией и подбором аргументов в споре	повышенная разговорчивость (усилится ещё больше)
неумение заставить себя выполнить намеченные планы	трудоголизм (требуется другое растение, способствующее расслаблению)
креативность, творческая профессия	спонтанность в принятии решений

Did you know? Цветение кротона считается плохой приметой. Именно поэтому при появлении бутонов их рекомендуют сразу же удалять, но даже после этого проявлять повышенную осторожность в делах и поступках, пытаясь понять, о чём именно цветок пытался предупредить. В целом можно сказать, что кодиеум подходит тем людям, которые хотят меняться и преодолевать трудности, а не покорно плыть по течению. По этой причине его очень полезно устанавливать в офисах.

Кротон — очень красивое декоративно-лиственное растение, нуждающееся в создании условий, обеспечить которые в обычной городской квартире довольно сложно. Однако, найдя правильный баланс в освещении и обеспечив цветку регулярный полив, а также максимальную влажность воздуха, при помощи этого удивительного представителя семейства Молочайные можно превратить своё жилище в настоящий тропический сад.