The prayer plant, which is also known as Maranta, is a beautiful tropical plant. It is famous for its folding leaves; therefore, It’s important to do proper prayer plant care.
For prayer plant care, you can focus on lightning, high humidity, good airflow, consistent moisturizing, etc. These things will play an important role in keeping your plant healthy, happy, and thriving, plus they’ll increase the Plant’s longevity.
On the other hand, if you don’t care for your plant properly as it needs it, your plant can face some issues such as dropping leaves, yellow leaves, brown and crispy edges, and even leaf loss.
But don’t worry; you can follow these prayer plant-caring tips and create a perfect environment for your plant to flourish.
Prayer plant care tips
Here are ten tips that you can focus on when growing a prayer plant so that it can thrive properly:
Tip 1: Provide the Right Lighting
Prayer Plants don’t need direct sunlight as they can thrive perfectly in indirect bright light. Even if you mistakenly leave your plant in direct sunlight, the sun’s rays will scorch your plant’s leaves.
Therefore, consider placing your plants in places where they get bright light, such as windows, and don’t keep them in the dark spots, too. Otherwise, the plant will lose its color.
Moreover, if you’re providing too much direct sunlight, the leaves will turn yellow or brown, and in some cases, they’ll curl inward.
Tip 2: Water Thoughtfully
Prayer plants need water, but you shouldn’t provide too much or do less. You still need to continuously moist them.
Generally, providing at least once a week is a good choice, but you can also touch the soil and try to feel it, and if it’s dry, then you can provide it with water.
In the winter season, prayer plants won’t need too much water compared to summer. During summer or growing seasons like spring, once weak is okay, and in winter, once in two weeks is good.
Tip 3: Maintain Proper Humidity Levels
Being tropical plants, prayer plants need a humid environment as it’s their natural habitat. That’s why it is important to provide or place them in humid conditions in your home.
So, humidity is needed for them. If you’re not giving it a humid environment, they’ll develop crispy brown leaves. Moreover, they can drop leaves, too.
But don’t worry. I have a simple tip for you to increase the humidity of your prayer plant: You can use a pebble tray and water. It will help increase the environment around the plant.
You can also try misting the plant’s leaves a couple of times during the week, and you can use a spray bottle for this.
You can also keep your plant with other plants to provide more humidity, such as Chinese money plants and various other indoor plants.
Tip 4: Use the Right Potting Soil
The most important thing for prayer plant growth is the right potting soil. You need to provide well-draining, nutrition-rich putting so that it can hold moisturize.
You can generally use houseplant mix potting because this type of soil is lightweight and full of various ingredients such as perlite, peat moss, etc.
However, soil pH is also important. You can use slightly acidic soil, around 6.0 to 6.5 on the pH scale, as it’ll help your plant absorb nutrition. You can do this, especially during the growing season.
As your Prayer Plant grows, you’ll have to report it periodically so that it can expand its roots. So, while repotting, choose a pot that is a little wider than the previous one.
Tip 5: Prune and Trim Regularly
Pruning is really important for Prayer plant care. You can regularly prune to maintain your plant’s shape and prevent unattractive growth. And the best time to do that is in the growing season which is the early summer or spring.
For pruning, take a knife or scissors; you can also use your hand to cut all dead, damaged, or discolored leaves and stems. However, you shouldn’t remove more than 1/3 of your plant at the same time because it can be stressful for your plant as it uses its leaves to make food.
When pruning, watch out for the areas where the leaves connect to the stems. This joint is delicate, so avoid cutting too close to it.
However, don’t cut leaves too closely where they connect to the stems; you should cut about an inch above the node. By doing so, your plant will redirect energy into new growth.
Tip 6: Feed with the Right Nutrients
Just like humans need nutrition, plants also need fertilization for their growth. For this, you can use a water-soluble fertilizer, which is specifically made for houseplants.
You can look for something with an NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) ratio, which is around 20-20-20. You can mix it in water and provide it to your plants. You can do this process every 2-3 weeks during the growing season.
And on the other hand, you can take a break from feeding especially during fall and winter season.
Whenever you buy a fertilizer, you can read on the packaging the directions for your prayer plant nutrition.
Tip 7: Monitor and Treat Pests
Prayer plants can become victims of pests like spider mites and mealybugs; therefore, it’s important to take proper care. To monitor these pests, you can look for some simple signs such as webbing (spider mites) or white, cottony deposits (mealybugs).
If you find any of these things, you have to take some quick action. For example, you can try wiping down the affected leaves with a cloth or remove any bug if you can see it.
However, prevention is always better than cure, so you can mist your prayer plant leaves; it will increase humidity, which is good for prayer plants and bad for pests. If you want to use any supplement, then you can use soap or Neem Oil Spray.
Tip 8: Manage Temperature Fluctuations
Prayer plants need stable and moderate temperatures, not too cold and not too hot, which is good for their health and steady growth. The ideal temperature for prying indoor plants is 65-85°F (18-29°C).
If you’re changing your plant’s location, such as sometimes placing it in cold and suddenly too hot, it can cause a lot of distress. Your plant’s leaves will start to curl and brown, and they’ll even drop if you don’t notice it and cure at the right time.
That’s why you need to keep your plant near a window, where the temperature is not too hot or cold.
Tip 9: Encourage Leaf Movement
Prayer plants are famous because of their leaf movement, in which they actually fold up leaves at night as if they are “praying.
However, there is a science behind it. These prayer plants have special pulvini, which are like motor organs at the base of leaves. So, when the sun is getting down, and natural light isn’t available anymore, the pulvini lose water pressure.
The next time they notice natural sunlight, they open to soak the sunlight; it’s a really simple process but unique.
However, to change their signature moment, make sure you’re providing them with the right environment. Because sometimes, if the light is not available, they might open their leaf.
Tip 10: Propagate for More Plants
It is one of the best and most unique houseplants you can give to your family members or friends. It’s really easy to propagate prayer plants through the division or stem-cutting process.
However, you just need to provide proper care for your new plant if you’re propagating them to give to someone else.
Conclusion
Overall, it is very easy to grow and do proper prayer plant care; they just want you to provide everything in moderation, such as indirect sunlight, water, fertilization, etc.
Don’t provide too much water, direct sunlight light, etc. On the other hand, you can focus on pruning, in which you’ll remove dead, yellow, brown leaves.
Everything should be in moderation. That’s it; by doing so, your prayer plant can live happily and thrive as it’s not a low-maintenance plant.