Indoor ferns are highly decorative, as are home-grown palm trees. Their crown is lush, dense and high, and variegated leaf plates can have various bizarre shapes, depending on their belonging to a particular variety. Indoor fern is a compact plant that can be grown as an ampelous flower in hanging flower pots.
Indoor fern - what kind of plant is it, can it be planted at home
Home fern is a gymnospermous plant, which is one of the oldest on the planet. It grows in the form of a bush. Its stems are collected in a basal rosette. The fern has a length of 50-70 centimeters. Cirrus small leaf plates on the back form soruses, where spores form, with which the plant can subsequently multiply.
Indoor fern gets along well at home
The main types for growing a house, a brief description
The fern-shaped class includes more than 11 thousand species, but only about 20 of them are popular in indoor cultivation.
Nephrolepis (Nephrolepis)
Nefrolepis fern is the most famous and popular in home floriculture; it is called the “king of all ferns”. Because of its openwork foliage, this plant became popular in the Victorian era. In addition to high decorativeness, the plant is in demand due to its simple and unpretentious care. However, they began to rank it as separate varieties of ferns relatively recently, since earlier it belonged to the species davallium.
Nephrolepis is characterized by simple and easy reproduction and quick adaptability to any external conditions. It is grown as an ampoule indoor plant, since spreading leaf plates tend to hang down. A long but narrow leaf of fern has a jagged and slightly curly shape, as well as a rich light green color.
Additional Information! The plant is recommended to be grown in children's rooms and bedrooms, as it purifies the air, thereby relieving headaches and feeling unwell.
Asplenium (Asplenium)
The decorative fern Asplenium is popularly known under another name - the bones. There are two varieties of this species, grown indoors, and they are very different from each other. Nesting asplenium has long xiphoid leaves, while in another variety the cirrus plates are strongly dissected.
One of the most characteristic features of asplenium is its unusual rhizomes, which are intertwined and look like a nest at the base of the bush.
Platycerium, or Antlers (Platycerium)
Houseplant fern Deer horns or Platicerium is also called Piedfoot. It's all about the leaves, which in their shape are very similar to deer horns. They are solid at the base, but divided at the ends.
Platicerium has two varieties of leaves - sterile and spore-bearing, their difference lies both in appearance and in morphological structure. Sterile plates have a round and wide shape, and the free upper edge has the ability to accumulate humus. Spore-bearing leaves are erect and grow on short petioles, they are in the form of deer horns. These plates are responsible for the formation of spores, their top is painted in a reddish-brown shade.
The bush has a very powerful and branched root system, and there are air rhizomes, which are located at the level of the lower leaf plates.
Curly fern has twice cirrus leaves.
Adiantum, or curly fern (Adiantum)
If you grow ferns at home, then it is better to acquire an adiantum. This beautiful plant has the ability to isolate liquid from its leaves, which roll in the form of drops, while not wetting their surface.
The plant itself has a fairly compact size, its branches bend down, which is why it is better to grow shrubs in hanging planters. The double-pinnate leaf plates of the adiantum form soruses at their ends, which are covered with small feathers on top.
Note! This species is propagated both by spore and vegetative method.
Pteris
The appearance of this fern in the natural environment grows in areas with a subtropical climate. The shape and color of the leaves of the shrub slightly changes when growing it in conditions with different climates, so the plant adapts to a new place of detention.
Fern has an average length of about 1 meter, and their entire length consists of 6 main segments. Those that are closest to the root system have a more dissected structure. There are a lot of stems in the root outlet, so the bush looks very dense and thick at the base. Pteris has a different color and shape of its foliage, they can be variegated, two-tone, serrated or wavy.
Pellaea (Pellaea)
The birthplace of the pellet is Latin America, New Zealand and Africa. The presence of unusual leaves is characterized: oval plates separated from each other have a waxy tint on their surface. The color of the foliage is also different from the rest of the ferns, it has a rich dark green hue and glistens due to smoothness.
On a note! The bush is small in size, but because of its density and splendor, it compensates for this drawback. Due to its small stature, it is also called a dwarf fern.
Davallia is a fairly diverse variety of fern
Davallia
Hare legs or davallia is famous for its slightly curly thin leaves, similar to feathers. But its most characteristic feature is considered air rhizomes that hang down from the pot down, forming a bizarre shape in the form of rabbit paws, in honor of which it was nicknamed in a similar way among the people.
Blechnum
Blehnum has a high crown resembling a palm; it can reach a length of up to 1.2 meters. The plant grows slowly, therefore, for its normal development, annual transplants are not needed. Long leaf plates are collected in a thick basal rosette. But the foliage is not as dense as that of a pellet or davalia. Petioles on which the plates grow are almost invisible, since they have a very small length. The leaf plates are tight to the touch, when pressed quickly break.
Fern is not capricious in leaving and adapts well to negative conditions.
What conditions are needed for growing indoor ferns
The care of indoor fern at home primarily consists of creating a comfortable living environment. First of all, a comfortable place to grow is chosen. Ferns are unpretentious in leaving, but do not tolerate stuffy and dirty air. This criterion should be especially taken into account for those who want to buy a plant similar to a fern. The room for its maintenance should be fresh, which can be easily ventilated regularly. It is better to choose a room whose windows do not look outside, otherwise the exhaust fumes and smoke that enters it can cause negative reactions in the flower: they will begin to dry and fall off.
Worth to know! Fern is not so demanding on temperature conditions, it tolerates high and low temperatures quite normally. The optimal temperature conditions for the contents are indicators from +17 to +25 ℃.
Avoid windows on the south side of the house, as the plant does not respond well to prolonged exposure to direct sunlight. Ideal for ferns will be diffused light on eastern or western windows. But the fact that the bush loves shade is not true, with such lighting a houseplant loses the beauty of the leaves and stops growing.
Fern care involves creating optimal moisture. It should not be allowed to increase by more than 60-70%, otherwise the risk of fungus or mold will increase, but dry air is also harmful to the health of fern. The optimal performance for growing is 40-60%.
Soil and fertilizing
Another important condition for growing ferns at home is the quality of the soil. It requires a special composition of the soil mixture, so it is better for beginners to choose ready-made nutrient substrates in stores designed specifically for fern plants.
At home, you can prepare the substrate yourself, it should consist of:
- compost or humus (the mixture should be almost half composed of rotted foliage);
- loose turfy earth;
- peat;
- river sand or perlite;
- drainage, which is poured in a separate layer on the bottom of the pot, may be: expanded clay or brick chips, crushed pebbles, coarse sand.
Important! The soil for planting should in no case contain clay, which tends to retain moisture and become covered with fungus or mold.
You can feed the shrub with both mineral and organic fertilizers. This procedure should be performed twice a month, preferably in liquid form, dissolving the drug in water. Organics can also be applied in liquid form by dissolving bird droppings or mullein with water. The first and last feeding should be carried out with the help of organics and mineral preparations. Do not violate the dosage indicated on the package.
Plant care consists in the correct and regular implementation of certain procedures
How to care for a fern at home
Fern home care consists in regularly carrying out the following procedures:
- Watering. Should not be plentiful and frequent. The moderate frequency of this procedure is the key to the healthy development of the bush, without a disease with fungus or mold. During the growing season, the fern needs to be watered when the upper soil dries to a depth of 2-3 centimeters, in winter during dormancy they are gradually reduced to once a month.
- Transfer. The procedure is carried out annually in the spring in the first 4-6 years of life. After this time, one transplant every 4 years is enough. For planting, you can use plastic containers, for example transparent, they will look beautiful with a plant with a high crown.
- Fight against diseases and pests. At the first sign of a flower problem, treatment should be taken immediately. Launching a problem means exposing the plant to serious danger, because some diseases or insect parasites can completely destroy the bush.
- Pruning. The procedure is carried out both for sanitary and bush forming purposes. In the first case, dead leaves and shoots are removed every spring or autumn. The second method of pruning is carried out at will in order to give the shrub a certain shape or to thin out the crown in dense varieties.
- Spraying. This measure is of great benefit to the leaf blades of the bush, as it freshens the fern and cleans its leaf blades from dirt and dust.
Important! During the planned transplant, it is possible to propagate the shrub by dividing the bush, thereby updating it.
To grow a flower at home, create favorable conditions
There is a diverse array of ferns grown indoors. All of them differ in shape, size and color. Their care is equally easy to perform, the shrub perfectly survives even in the harshest environments. There are many convenient and simple ways of propagating it. Once you buy fern in the house, you can save it for a long period of time, constantly updating and propagating yourself.
