My favorite indoor plant is the snake plant.
Their upright leaves are dark and stiff, and they can be found in a wide range of varieties.
The only way to make sure your snake plant gets all the nutrients it needs is to fertilize it.
We’ll quickly go over some of the science behind fertilizing a snake plant so you understand how it works and I’ll explain it in a very simple manner so that anyone can understand it.
So you’ll be prepared to fertilize your snake plant and know why you’re doing it.
Fertilizing a Snake Plant Benefits
It’s like giving your snake plant a vitamin to fertilize it. Plants need vitamins to provide them with nutrients and to keep them healthy, but vitamins aren’t necessary for survival.
It can take years before your plant tells you it needs fertilizer. If you fertilize your snake plant properly, it will grow faster and have fewer problems.
Although snake plants don’t have well-known blooms, fertilizing them can increase their chances of blooming. Fertilizing a snake plant is the best way to make it grow at an optimal rate and have a greater chance of seeing it flower.
Choosing the Right Fertilizer
The most difficult part of starting a garden is choosing the right fertilizer. Out there, there are a number of fertilizer options, and some are more effective than others.
As for my specific recommendation, my personal opinion is to steer clear of most organic fertilizers, such as fish meal, blood meal, worm poop, etc. There are a lot of different types, but most of them have no nutritional value and are so expensive that they have little merit.
The one advantage of organic fertilizers is that they are eco-friendly, but I would argue that normal fertilizers are just as eco-friendly when used properly. As long as you are not dumping your fertilizer down the drain or into your local river, you won’t have a negative impact on the environment with your normal “unorganic” fertilizer.
There you have my two cents on buying organic fertilizers. I am happy to share my opinion, or you are welcome to ignore it.
Personally, I use Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer.
I have not been compensated for mentioning this, I just use it myself and am delighted with it.
It has given me and my plants no problems at all and I have used it often. Besides snake plants, you can use this product with a variety of other indoor plants because it is of high quality and nutritive value.
It also lasts a long time. Over a year has passed since I got mine, and I’m not halfway through it yet. It is definitely worth the investment for a healthy snake plant, or for the health of any indoor plant for that matter.
Understanding Fertilizers
To do this correctly, you must know how this fertilizer works with your snake plant’s soil and why it needs to be fertilized. A product’s label indicates the percentage of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium(K)) in that order. The NPK values are listed on every fertilizer you buy, so you can compare them easily.
In Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer, nitrogen makes up 10% of the active ingredients, phosphorus 15%, and potassium 10%. In the remaining percentage, you’ll find micronutrients or other ingredients to help your snake plant grow. Plants require N, P, and K as the three main macronutrients.
Nitrogen improves overall greenness, phosphorus promotes root and flower growth, and potassium improves cellular function.
Is it necessary to put all of these nutrients into the soil of your plants? Whenever you water your snake plant, it absorbs nutrients and water through its roots for use by the plant, which slowly depletes the soil of these nutrients. You would soon run out of nutrients on your plant if you didn’t fertilize it, resulting in yellowing leaves, off-color leaves, etc.
When you notice yellowing leaves, try to figure out what the cause is before assuming that the snake plant just requires fertilizer.
Occasionally, snake plant leaves will turn yellow when they’re old or if they’re overwatered (which is especially true of snake plants that are overwatered). Before assuming it needs fertilizer and more nutrients in its soil, check to make sure the yellow leaves aren’t caused by something else, as this type of thinking could lead to more problems.
When Should I Fertilize My Snake Plant
It’s not necessary to fertilize your snake plant at a specific time of year or on a specific schedule. How often you should fertilize your snake plant depends on how much sun it gets. You can refer to the following general guidelines:
Fertilize every three months if there is high light
Fertilize twice a year if there is medium light
Fertilize once a year if there is low light
By fertilizing a snake plant more often than the guidelines above, you risk overloading your snake plants with nutrients, which could result in nutrient toxicity or fertilizer burn. This is manifested in crisp leaf edges, or sudden yellowing of the leaves. Plants in high light gather lots of energy and take up nutrients rapidly to keep up with all the energy they can expend.
In low light, plants do not take up nutrients very fast and do not need to be fertilized as often. Because snake plants grow slowly and are often advertised as plants that thrive in low light, you shouldn’t need to fertilize them very often. In case you are still unsure and doubt your ability to determine how much light your snake plant is getting, you can be more conservative and only do it once a year. Snake plants are one of the indoor plants that do not require a lot of fertilizer.
Steps in Fertilization
With your understanding of how fertilizer works, its benefits, and the frequency at which it should be applied, you’re ready to fertilize. Make sure that your snake plant is actually ready to be fertilized by checking off the following two statements.
- My snake plant is in good health and has no underlying conditions
- The snake plant’s problems aren’t fixed by fertilizing
It’s because I’ve seen at times that people will use fertilizer as a sort of “Hail Mary” in order to fix the problems with their plants. That’s not how it works. Fertilizing a snake plant if it is already stressed and suffering from something else like unhealthy watering practices, pests, sun scorch, etc., is just going to add to that stress and may even cause it harm, sometimes even pushing it over the edge and killing it.
You can add fertilizer to your snake plant if it is in good health and not struggling with any outside factors.
Supply Gathering
You need only a few supplies for fertilizing a snake plant, so your shopping list isn’t very long. Besides fertilizer, you will need a clean watering can or bucket (I keep a bucket just for fertilizing), a liquid measuring cup, and your snake plant.
Mix the Water and Fertilizer
The step before this is probably the most important since damage can be done if it’s not done right! Too much fertilizer can cause fertilizer burn, which causes browned leaf tips and edges (see step 4 for more details). Check the label of your fertilizer to make sure that you’re adding the correct amount of fertilizer for the amount of water you have measured. In fact, you should add less fertilizer than what the fertilizer suggests so as not to harm your snake plant.
Put the drops of fertilizer into the cool water and mix it around with a stick or spoon so that it fully dissolves.
Drench Soil
Water the soil until it begins to leak from the bottom of the pot. The roots of your snake plant will be able to reach all the nutrients in the soil in the pot. Place your snake plant in the sink or somewhere where excess water won’t cause a problem.
This rule does not apply if the pot of your snake plant does not have drainage holes at the bottom!
Soil must be watered carefully, but in no case should you pour too much water onto it. You risk having it sit at the bottom of the pot for days and rotting the roots, and the snake plant is likely to die or lose a lot of leaves if you add too much.
Alternatively, you can carefully water/fertilize the plant once, and do not add too much fertilizer to the mixture, to avoid causing problems.
Be Aware of Signs of Overfertilization
If you notice any brown edges, browned tips, or entire yellow or browned leaves on your snake plant in the next few days, you used too much fertilizer. You need not worry, though! Leaching out the soil from your snake plant can be accomplished by placing it in the sink or shower. Place it under running water and let the water drain out of the bottom of the pot. This will help get rid of excess nutrients/fertilizer, and your snake plant will have a greater chance of recovering.
With this guide, I hope you will learn how to fertilize your snake plant properly without causing it any problems. By fertilizing a snake plant, you can replenish the soil’s nutrients and keep your snake plant vibrant and healthy. Maybe you’ll even see your snake plant flower if you’re lucky! After the amount of research you’ve put into this plant, you deserve it!