Table of Contents
What Is a Corn Plant?
Corn plants, also known as “Dracaena,” are tree-like crops with lengthy, broad sword-shaped leaflets that look like corn stalks. This is also a tropical African herbaceous perennial that’s great for household plants since it only develops to approximately 4-6 feet in height.
Corn Plant Care Instructions
Corn plants are one of the most ideal indoor plants as it also gives you a natural purifier that will remove indoor toxins like ammonia, formaldehyde, toluene and xylene. This is a low maintenance plant once you provide proper care and get their growing conditions right.
1. Suitable Environment Of Your Corn Plants
You have to consider that the Corn plants grow in tropical environments where there is no frost, plenty of sunlight and adequate water. Having this as a plant indoors, you have to mimic the environment. You will also have to consider which type of Corn Plants you will have that will have the best chance of growing to your region. If you are located with long warm days and nights all year, you have to get the lowland species. Highland species will be best for cooler nights and warm days.
2. Sunlight for your Corn Plant
Corn Plants thrive in full light shade and will be best to place it in light shade or indirect sunlight such as near a south-facing window. Too much sunlight will burn the leaves.
3. Soil for your Corn Plant
Corn plants are grown in nice quality houseplant garden soil. Ideally, you can use a peat-based potting soil that is formulated for tropical indoor plants as it retains moisture without drying out quickly.
4. Corn Plants Need Water
During the growth period (spring to fall), maintain the plant’s soil moist but not waterlogged, and less water in the winter. Use lukewarm water as cold water will shock the roots of the plant. Check the top soil if it’s dry at least an each, that’s the time you can water the plant.
5. Corn Plants Need Proper Temperature and Humidity
Just like any other tropical plants, keep it warm and humid! So ideally it needs to stay between 75°-80°F during daytime and 65°-70°F at night time. You must not expose the plant below 55°F as it will make the tip of the leaves start to brown.
6. Feeding Your Corn Plants
To give appropriate nourishment, you can treat your Corn Plants with a soluble fertilizer on a regular basis. Fertilizers should be applied from spring to fall and then stopped during the winter. You should also maintain a humidity level between 40-50% and to raise the plant’s humidity, you can put a wet gravel or pebbles tray or use a humidifier.
Common Problems
- Dry and Yellow Leaf: most likely the reason for this is the plants not getting enough water and moisture or even low humidity levels. Keeping the soil consistently moist will prevent this. You can mist or use a humidifier regularly to increase the level of the humidity. Yellow tips can cause over feeding or too much fluoride in your water. To prevent this, you can use distilled water in watering the plants
- Leaf fall / Root Rot: primary reason for this is a lack of container drainage and too much water. To avoid this, make sure that there is proper drainage at the bottom of the pot or use a container with several draining holes.
Conclusion
Corn plant care is simple if you offer the right circumstances for them to thrive for generations. By following these simple care tips, Corn Plants is a great addition to your indoor house plant.