How easy is the easy-to-care snake plant? In the past few years, I have become a little obsessed with plants. On shelves, atop planters on the floor and on my dresser, greenery adorns every corner of my apartment. I love living in an urban jungle. The snake plant, also known as sansevieria, has a reptilian leaf pattern and shape, making it best suited to our reptilian world.
While there are many plants with fickle personalities, my favorite has always been the snake plant. I mean that as the highest compliment. They are just as tough, even though they are much prettier than the bug to look at. No matter how long and dark the winter days have been, my little guy has never wavered. In fact, he thrives in any kind of weather, sprouting new leaves year after year.
Obviously, it’s a drought-tolerant succulent. This means you’ll be watering the snake plant more sparingly than other common houseplants, and it’ll still survive without supervision (or two). It also tolerates low light levels. They are tolerant of lower light levels than other popular houseplants, even though they prefer medium to bright light. So you can basically place it in any room of your house, as long as it receives natural light from a window, whether it’s bright, moderate, or low.
Snake Plant Care
The fact that snake plants are easily looked after makes them a great plant for beginners! When you bring one home, you’ll still need to remember some important care techniques.
1. Ensure That The Pot Is Well-drainage
Marino says snake plants shouldn’t be too fussy about their soil: general indoor potting mix should be fine. However, when it comes to the pot situation, a drainage hole is crucial. A soggy pot or an excessive amount of water pooling at the bottom could cause root rot. Choosing a container with drainage holes and a saucer is recommended if you frequently fill your watering can up. If you’d like a plant container without drainage holes, maybe you already have something at home that you can line with lava rocks to provide a place for excess water to pool, away from your plant’s roots.
2. Optimal Lighting Situation
It’s fine to grow snake plants in low light. However, do they enjoy it? Well, that’s a whole other story. The best way to make your snake plant grow like crazy is to give it more sunlight.
The plants are often regarded as requiring low light, but actually, snake plants can tolerate relatively low levels if they have to,” Marino says. You can find snake plants in a wide variety of places, from restaurants to doctors’ offices. It is possible to grow snake plants in a variety of light conditions. It would be great if you had a bright indirect light source. As long as the light source is low, you can use it. That would be fine too. Even though snake plants don’t thrive at these temperatures, they are most likely to survive, especially compared to other common houseplants.
3. Do Not Overwater!
Despite how easy it is to care for the easy-to-care snake plant, watering this plant will always be crucial. You don’t have to water snake plants as often as you would some of your other houseplants because they are succulents. It will depend on both how much light your snake plant receives and the time of year when you water it.
In general, more sunlight and spring/summer mean more frequent watering. Winter and fall mean fewer hours of sunlight, so it is necessary to water less frequently. In my snake plants, I need to water them about once every three to four weeks since they receive moderate to low indirect light. When I water snake plants I usually look for wrinkly or curled leaves as a sign of thirst.
4. Beware Of Pests
There is no faster way to ruin a plant mom’s day than finding your baby’s health has been compromised by a pest. Despite being very resistant to pests that make them the easy-to-care snake plant ever, these plants are susceptible to root rot and overwatering. However, if another plant in the home has them, they may get scale and mealybugs. Web-spinning spider mites that crawl along plant leaves and leaf joints. As soon as they get infected, the sap from their leaves will be sucked out, leaving your houseplant damaged or even dead. Regardless of the type of pest that affects your plant, make sure to treat it as quickly as possible.
