The Aroid family, or Aronnikov family, includes more than 3,000 plants. These include Anthurium, Monstera, Dieffenbachia, Zamioculcas, Spathiphyllum. All of them are grown indoors. Spathiphyllum is popularly called "female happiness" for the tenderness of leaves and petals. To make this exotic plant comfortable on the windowsill and actively blooming, it needs a properly selected soil.
Ground requirements for spathiphyllum
To understand what kind of soil is needed for spathiphyllum, you should get more information about its natural habitat. In the wild, the flower is found in the tropical forests of South America. The soil here is saturated with nutrients due to the constant renewal of the organic layer, which consists of decaying fallen parts of plants and peat. The quality of soil for spathiphyllum should differ:
- friability;
- humidity
- breathability;
- environmental friendliness.
Thick spathiphyllum bushes can decorate any interior
The soil familiar to the plant has a neutral or slightly acidic pH, in the range of 5-5.5.
Note! The addition of coarse fractions to the soil for spathiphyllum will improve air circulation in the basal zone.
What soil composition is needed for the flower "female happiness"
Often they get ready-made substrates for Aroid. Experienced flower growers know that any universal soil may not be suitable and require refinement. The optimal earth for spathiphyllum should have the following composition:
- sheet or turf soil;
- peat;
- expanded clay or brick chips;
- charcoal;
- moss sphagnum;
- coarse river sand;
- mineral baking powder (vermiculite, perlite).
Not finding on sale special land for spathiphyllum, they resort to its independent compilation.
Should the land for planting and transplanting be different?
Growing an exotic flower from seeds is a labor-intensive affair and does not always bring the desired results. When such a planting material is in the hands of a florist, the question may arise: what kind of land is needed for germinating spathiphyllum?
To renew the soil, sometimes replace its top layer in the pot
To obtain seedlings, a sand-peat mixture is most suitable, in which it is easier to maintain the required level of humidity and air permeability. After the appearance of real leaves at the seedlings, they are dived into the substrate with the addition of other components necessary for the spathiphyllum.
What land do adult spathiphyllum plant in? A mature specimen of a flower is transplanted into the ground with a recommended composition that is close to natural.
How to provide suitable soil when planting in open ground?
Sometimes gardeners use lush bushes of spathiphyllum for landscaping a personal plot in the summer. Transferring the flower to the open ground for the summer, they dig a planting hole, drain it well and fill it with a suitable substrate.
Pros and cons of finished soil and self-made
Knowing which land is suitable for spathiphyllum, you can grow a lush and abundantly flowering bush on your windowsill. Ready soil mix is convenient because it eliminates the need to spend extra time and effort. But, when it comes to universal soil, such important points as:
- ratio of constituent components;
- disinfecting treatment;
- acidity level.
Far from always on sale is the soil for the Aroids. To create optimal conditions, they often mix the earth with their own hands.
How to cook land at home
Preparing the soil mixture is not as difficult as it might seem. Especially on sale you can find even such specific components as moss sphagnum or coconut.
To obtain the soil that spathiphyllum loves, they mix:
- 2 parts of peat;
- 2 parts of nutritious leaf or sod land;
- 1 part coarse sand;
- 1 part sphagnum.
The soil should be light and loose.
To the resulting composition, a little compost mixture, chips of charcoal, pine bark and needles are added. It is permissible to mix perlite and vermiculite in order to add looseness to the soil and enrich it with minerals.
Note! Complex fertilizers with nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are introduced into the prepared soil mixture before planting spathiphyllum.
How to choose a finished substrate
Having found out what the soil for spathiphyllum should be, it is much easier to choose universal soil that is similar in composition. Among the manufacturers that produce soil for the Androids, there are:
- Vermion;
- Seliger-agro;
- Bio-Master;
- Eco Garden.
Each of these mixtures has a number of advantages and high quality. They are distinguished by a suitable level of acidity and an optimal content of organic components. In such a substrate, “female happiness” will feel comfortable, getting everything you need for nutrition and full growth.
Having planted a plant in a new soil, purchased or compiled independently, it requires careful observation. The slightest changes for the worse can signal errors made when choosing a soil mixture or replanting.
What can be added to purchased soil to improve it
When finalizing the finished substrate, take into account which components are included in it initially. If the description shows that the composition does not contain a number of necessary elements (for example, peat or sand), then it is recommended to add them.
If it is decided to add a mineral complex preparation or organic fertilizer to the purchased land, it is important to carefully follow the instructions on the package. Violation of the dosage can greatly harm the delicate root system of the flower and lead to its death.
In purchased soil with high acidity to reduce pH add slaked lime, dolomite flour or ash. If the soil is alkaline, then peat, humus or nitrogenous fertilizers are added to it.
Additional Information! You can find out the acidity of the soil using a set of litmus strips, dropping one of them into a mixture of earth and water.
It is important not to burn the delicate roots with excessive fertilizing
Disinfection of the land before planting or replanting spathiphyllum
When preparing the soil mixture independently, gardeners often resort to using garden or forest land, which contains a huge number of pathogenic microorganisms, bacteria and pests. And sometimes you can open the package with the finished soil and find that he also needs disinfection.
In the fight against the destruction of harmful bacteria and fungal diseases, the preparations Fitosporin, Gamair and Alarin have proven themselves well. Their use will make the composition comfortable for "female happiness".
Thermal treatment of the soil is also carried out. There are two main ways - calcination in the oven and freezing.
In the first case, the soil is poured onto a baking sheet, the layer is leveled and placed in the oven, where it is kept for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 120 degrees. For freezing, the substrate is left on the balcony in the winter for several days. The latter method is considered less effective, as some insects and spores of fungi can winter in the soil.
Drainage
No matter how loose and drained the substrate is, when planting a houseplant in a pot, a drainage layer is necessarily laid to the bottom. Tender spathiphyllum is no exception - stagnation of moisture in the soil is detrimental to it. You can create drainage from the components:
- broken brick;
- expanded clay or river pebbles;
- gravel.
Some flower growers use polystyrene for this purpose or broken into pieces plastic product substrates. This method will provide air permeability of the root zone. It is environmentally friendly and does not harm plants at all.
Drainage will remove excess moisture from the pot
Problems with growing spathiphyllum due to improper soil
Violations in the planting and the wrong choice of soil for spathiphyllum can lead to the fact that the flower will constantly undergo various diseases, its leaves will begin to dry. It can also affect the ability to bloom: instead of a lush plant, constantly releasing new arrows with buds, it will turn into a plain bush.
No measures to care for the flower, even with full compliance with agricultural technology, are not able to correct errors in the choice of soil. Due to heavy dense soil, moisture will linger at the roots longer than necessary, which will lead to their decay. Ultimately, the plant may die.
Additional Information! If the “female happiness” planted in suitable soil refuses to bloom, it is stimulated by transplanting into a smaller pot.
If the flower was planted in the soil, which is not able to retain moisture for a sufficient amount of time and constantly dries, then brown spots on the leaves will begin to form. The same is observed in violation of the acid balance in the soil composition. In this case, the plant looks weakened, lethargic. In the absence of appropriate measures, the stupefaction of spathiphyllum sooner or later provokes the appearance of an infection or an attack of pests.
Beginning flower growers, using a soil mixture of dubious quality, sometimes neglect insect treatment. In this regard, they are faced with various parasites, among which they are most often found:
- scale insects;
- root aphid;
- spider mite;
- mealybug.
Having discovered signs of the presence of pests, immediately take measures to destroy them. In this case, the flower is transplanted into carefully cultivated, fresh soil. For preventive purposes, the soil eliminates the spores of various fungal diseases.
A flower planted in suitable land requires minimal care.
Spathiphyllum, despite its exotic origin, is considered the least demanding houseplant. Provided with sufficient nutrition, the bush will delight the grower with succulent leaves and plentiful flowering.
