We grow and care for nolina at home

Are you going to give nolin to a loved one or purchase in your own collection? A great idea, because caring for nolina at home will not be a hassle. This plant with a bright exotic appearance is able to decorate any interior without requiring excessive attention in response. However, as with any living creature, there are certain maintenance rules for nolin. If you observe them, the plant will delight the owner with a healthy look: the trunk of the original bottle-shaped and lush greens on the top.

Mexican guest or who is nolina?

When buying a new exotic plant, you need to know where it came from and how it grows in the homeland. Most ornamental flowers and palm trees have "wild" counterparts growing in nature. To ensure optimal conditions for the "domesticated" pet, you should recreate the semblance of its habitat. Then he will feel great!

In nature, nolin grows in a mountain desert. Based on this, the conditions to which she was accustomed developed. It:

• lack of moisture;
• spontaneous temperature changes;
• thin layer of soil.

Features of growth directly determine the appearance of the plant. Nolina has a trunk, expanding downward, in shape resembling a bottle. It is in the lower wide part that moisture is scarce in the desert. Because of this peculiar shape of the trunk, nolin is often called a bottle tree.

Its other names are also explained by appearance. The trunk of an unusual shape, covered with wrinkled bark, is compared with the foot of an elephant and is called a tree - an elephant's leg. And because of the lush green crown, the plant bears the name - horse tail. And the most beautiful and mysterious name of the Mexican beauty is Bokarneya. It is due to systematics: the merger of two genera of the same family.

Thus, knowing how and where the scorpion grows, one can draw a conclusion about the principles in accordance with which care for this plant should be organized:

• sparse watering;
• dry air
• a lot of light;
• intolerance to drafts;
• lack of spraying;
• wide pot of medium depth;
• breathable and water permeable soil;
• Good drainage.

We’ll talk more about the listed principles of how care should be organized, in which the scary will feel comfortable at home.

Tip: The fundamental conditions that provide for the care of a scorpion are good lighting and watering as the soil dries.

Where and how to place the “elephant foot”

It is believed that bokarneya - a tree for the lazy. You need to take care of it at a minimum. Indeed, when organizing home care, you can forget about watering and feeding, humidification and spraying. But first, you should correctly place the nolin, choose a convenient pot and the right soil.

Due to the demanding for abundant lighting, the scary will feel good on the windowsill of a window facing south or southwest. However, during the ventilation of the room, when a draft is formed, it is better to cover the plant or temporarily rearrange it. Many house flowers do not tolerate dry air, which is formed in winter when the heating is turned on. However, nolin is not so demanding on this and may well be on the windowsill with a radiator located below. Due to the fact that the tree easily tolerates temperature changes, you can take it to the balcony or to the garden (if we are talking about a country house) "for a walk".It is only necessary and there to protect it from drafts and rain.

To grow nolina at home, the pot for it should be about the same size in height and width. Due to the thin layer of soil in nature, nolin is accustomed to staying on it with the help of roots braiding an earthen lump in breadth, rather than inland. And in a deep pot it will be difficult to do this and the roots may turn sour. A flat pot won't work either. When growing at home to maintain a powerful trunk and lush crown, the tree has to be fixed with roots not only in breadth, but also penetrate a little deeper.

Speaking of soil, you can use purchased, assembled taking into account all the features of the tree, or cook it yourself at home. In the second option, the following should be considered.

The soil in which nolin will grow should:

• let water through;
• Let air through;
• To be fertile;
• To be heavy;
• contain sand (about a third of the total soil volume).

Soil prepared in this way will help ensure proper care of the plant at home, will not allow moisture to linger at the roots and protect them from overmoistening, which can cause rot. A signal that the roots are waterlogged and begin to die will be yellowing of the leaves and their fall. Also, to maintain a comfortable root condition, a high layer of drainage should be put on the bottom of the pot. You can buy it at a specialty store or use expanded clay.

Water, but do not overfill

Nolina calmly refers to poor watering. You can forget about this procedure. On the contrary, if you take too much care around the bottle tree and water it along with other indoor plants, you can destroy it. In other words, nursing care should be based on its needs.

Nolina requires the following watering scheme:

1. The plant is watered when the soil is dry, not only its surface, but the inside too;
2. In winter, the “elephant leg” is watered once a month;
3. In the summer they are guided by the rule of “two phalanges”. To do this, the finger is immersed in the ground to a depth of two phalanges. If it is dry, then the scorna needs watering.

The leaves do not need to be sprayed, but the trunk cannot. You can only gently wipe the leaves with a damp cloth to remove a layer of dust from them, which can interfere with photosynthesis. For this, the scary will be grateful.

As such, nolin does not require top dressing. But if you really want to, you can feed it in spring and summer, at a time when the plant is in the growing season. In this case, half the dose of fertilizer is taken and it is applied once every 3-4 weeks. Knowledgeable plant growers say that by feeding nolin can be encouraged to bloom. Although in most cases for domestic plants this is not possible. But in nature, during flowering, the “elephant leg” is covered with tassels of small white flowers, like a magnificent hat, and is an amazing sight.

Home care for nolin is not a tricky business. The main thing immediately after the purchase is to provide it with a convenient pot with correctly selected soil and not to forget the basic rules, in accordance with which you should take care of it. Then nolina will have a beautiful trunk shape and lush greenery of the crown.

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