Tetrastigma Vuagnier - home care, photo

Tetrastigma voigner (Tetrastigma voinerianum) is a rapidly growing indoor vine.

Tetrastigma Vuagnier in the genus Tetrastigma of the Grape family, room grapes - A popular liana for spacious rooms. A climbing plant with an openwork emerald crown always comes in handy if you need to plant a dull corner of the interior in a short time. In a small apartment, you will have to cut it off often enough to restrain growth.

The genus consists of 90 species, living mainly in the south and southeast of Asia, only one is found in northern Australia. However, no more than 2-3 species are used as decorative domestic plants. The most common in the collections of domestic florists is the Woignier tetrastigm, named after the French veterinarian M. Voinier, who first discovered a winding perennial in Laos or North Vietnam.

Appearance of creepers

In nature, the plant is a fast-growing vine with a branched rhizome and dark green or bluish pagons, the length of which sometimes reaches 50 m, but at home it grows stems only up to 3-4 m.

Finger leaves, with 3, 5 or 7 lobes, are arranged alternately along the pagons on long stalks. Each lobe with serrated edges and a pointed apex, its saturated emerald surface is covered with expressive veins. The lower side of the leaf blades is pubescent with short reddish-brown villi and dotted with bright dots of miniature juice secreting glands, which are often mistaken for pests. Along the pagons are the antennae, with the help of which the stems look for support for growth.

Flowers at tetrastigma Woigner form in the axils of the leaves, forming umbrella inflorescences. The tubular nimbuses are either yellow or light green, and a 4-blade stigma peeks out from their center, giving the name to all plants of the genus: in Latin, tetra means “four,” and stygma means “stigma”. At room conditions, the liana blooms very rarely, but it adds 60 to 100 cm in growth in one season.

Caring for tetrastigm Wuanye at home (briefly)

Indoor grapes are very easy to maintain. It will not require special conditions and time-consuming maintenance, consisting in timely watering, top dressing and pruning.

Flowering tetrastigma

Home tetrastigma Woigner practically does not form buds. It is extremely difficult to achieve flowering in an ordinary apartment. Only under ideally created conditions that are suitable for the liana, umbrella inflorescences of small tubular flowers of a yellowish or light green color appear in the axils of the leaves.

They are little decorative and almost invisible, even the fruits of the plant in the form of small roundish or oblong berries of orange or coral color look much more attractive.

Temperature mode

Indoor grape is a thermophilic plant and grows best with fairly high thermometer in the room where it is contained - from 23 to 28 degrees above zero throughout the entire growing season.

In winter, it is allowed to lower the temperature to 15 degrees, but not less than 10, otherwise the tetrastigm flower at home will begin to lose foliage.

Spraying

For creepers, environmental humidity does not play a special role, it is not considered particularly moisture-loving. It grows well with an indicator of 45%, but in the heat, if the temperature in the room is high, the plant is sprayed in the morning. It favorably perceives this procedure, otherwise the leaflets look wilted all day.

Lighting

Perennial loves bright diffused light, so it is advisable to place it near windows oriented to the west or east. In the hot midday hours, the plant should be protected from direct sunlight emitting on leaf blades, leaving brown burn spots on their delicate surface.

Watering tetrastigma

Liana does not tolerate drying of the soil, therefore during the growing season it is watered often, up to 2 times a week, and try to constantly maintain the soil in the pot in a slightly wet state.

In winter, humidification is less plentiful and not so frequent - once every 2 weeks, but you should focus on the operation of the heating system. In intensely heated rooms, a smaller break in irrigation is also possible.

Tetrastigma pot

The choice of utensils for planting curly tetrastigma Woigner is always made with a margin of pot diameter compared to the circumference of the root coma. The plant develops very quickly, and the new pot soon becomes cramped. That is why young specimens are transplanted much more often than mature vines.

Soil for tetrastigma

Any universal soil in the assortment offered by flower shops is suitable for planting, if only it turns out to be quite loose and nutritious.

Tetrastigma at home is planted in a self-prepared soil mixture, consisting of equal volumes of garden and turf land, rotted leaf humus and ½ volume of river sand or perlite.

Fertilizer and fertilizer

The plant is fed every 15 days from spring to autumn, during active vegetation, with complex mineral fertilizer for decorative and deciduous indoor flowers, organics are also used whenever possible. In spring, the proportion of nitrogen used in the complexes may be slightly larger than in the further period of the growing season. In winter, feeding is stopped.

Tetrastigma transplant

At a young age, the liana grows rapidly, so it will have to be transplanted every six months. For biennial plants, one transplant is enough annually. A new flower capacity is each transplant taken larger in diameter in two sizes.
Large adult specimens growing in pots with a circumference of 30 cm can only change the top layer of the soil mixture with a thickness of 3 cm without replanting.

Pruning

Growth-inhibiting crown formation is a must when growing the Woanye tetrastigma flower. Care at home for the liana involves regular pruning of overgrown pagons at the very beginning of the growing season and throughout the season until the fall.

If the plant develops especially aggressively, filling with curly stems a large space of the room, during transplanting it is planted in a cramped pot, after pruning the roots.

Propagation of tetrastigma

At home, indoor grapes reproduce only vegetatively - cuttings using planting material remaining in abundance after spring pruning. Cuttings with 2-3 leaves are buried in a peat-sand mixture and moderately watered.

Usually rooting occurs without problems, however, some growers use the treatment of the lower part of the cuttings with root or other root formation stimulant and claim that in a mini-greenhouse under a plastic film, roots form faster.

Diseases and Pests

• Brown spots on tetrastigma leaves arise as a result of exposure to scorching sunlight, causing burns to the delicate tissues of leaf blades.
• Liana shoots are stretched, and the leaves of the tetrastigma are smaller from insufficient lighting. The plant must be rearranged closer to the light source or organize additional illumination with phytolamps.
• Tetrastigma leaves turn yellow from poor moisture or lack of nutrients in the soil. Correct the situation by adjusting the irrigation and feeding conditions.

Aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, mealybugs, and nematodes are seen among the pests of the Woignier tetrastigma.

Indoor grapes are a fast-growing vine popular in landscaping. It is used precisely in those cases when short periods are important for creating a green corner in the interior of an office, lobby or ordinary living room.