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In addition to street evergreen trees of the cypress family, there is an indoor juniper, which outwardly resembles them. At home, this beautiful low tree serves as an interior decoration and cleans the air from bacteria.
Is it possible to grow juniper at home in a pot
Junipers have a spectacular appearance, a plastic shape, and a variety of colors. The plant is planted in dachas, in yards, in gardens. If you wish, you can grow a juniper in your apartment. When planting a plant at home, this culture forms a low tree. In order for the plant to feel good in the home interior, it is necessary to select the appropriate varieties. Low-growing, slow-growing options are ideal. Reproduction methods include:
- seeds;
- cuttings.
The first method is more laborious and does not guarantee success, since seed germination is usually poor, and several months pass from sowing to planting.
The second way is easier. In the spring, you need to cut a 10 cm long stalk from a tree that is at least 8 years old, place it in a mixture of peat and sand, cover and put in the shade. After 2 months, roots will appear, and then the plant should be transplanted.
Types of indoor juniper
Among conifers, few species can grow at home. Juniper in an apartment room or in a winter garden feels good. Among the species that can be grown as indoor plants, the following junipers are used:
- solid;
- Chinese;
- ordinary;
- horizontal.
Dwarf forms feel at home best of all, for example:
- Horizontal Wiltoni. It has blue needles, grows slowly, in adulthood it reaches 10 cm in height and 1 m in diameter. This species is a great backdrop for other indoor plants;
- Compress - as you can see in the photo, this is a columnar-shaped indoor juniper, miniature in size. It grows slowly: at the age of 10 years, the plant height is 60 cm;
- Ordinary room Depressa Aurea - creeping view, height -30 cm, diameter 50 cm;
- Chinese Pyramidalis has a strict conical shape, blue-green needles, maximum height - 1.2 m;
- Medium - Old Gold, it has scaly foliage, acquiring a golden hue in autumn, suitable for the formation of bonsai.
Indoor juniper varieties are also represented by larger, weeping and rocky specimens.
Features of growing juniper at home
Growing indoor juniper, you need:
- choose a large pot for freedom of the root system;
- make drainage from broken brick, expanded clay, gravel, sand;
- prevent the soil from drying out;
- regularly drain excess water from the pan;
- humidify the air in the room where the indoor juniper grows.
- choose a sunny, cool place for the plant.
How to plant a juniper at home
There are several ways to plant junipers at home. If there is a forest nearby, then in the fall you can find a young plant, carefully dig it up and, planting it in an appropriate-sized pot, bring it into the house. However, the disadvantage of this method will be the difficulty of adapting the plant to new conditions, and the real problem in this case is to keep the juniper in a pot until spring.
There is a planting option using cuttings. This method is more reliable and promising.
Planting material for the home can be obtained by layering if you root a juniper branch right on the street. After the roots appear, the branch is transplanted into a pots.
The easiest and most reliable way is to purchase the appropriate type of indoor juniper in a specialized store. In this case, it remains only to transplant the plant and take care of it according to all the rules.
How to root a juniper at home
For propagation of indoor juniper by cuttings, it is necessary to prepare planting material:
- In mid-spring, cut semi-lignified shoots with a "heel", 10 cm long, from the middle or upper part of the crown.
- Prepare a mixture of sand and peat.
- Moisten the substrate.
- Treat the planting material with a root formation stimulator.
- Place the cuttings in a container with the mixture.
- Pour the mixture with Kornevin's solution.
- Cover the container with a film, take it to a shaded place.
- Conduct constant spraying of crowns.
- Two months later, after rooting the cuttings, transplant them into separate pots of the appropriate size.
What should be the soil for juniper in a pot
Despite the widespread opinion about the unpretentiousness of conifers, for growing juniper in an apartment, soil is needed that has the properties:
- lightness and looseness of the soil substrate;
- the impossibility of further compaction of the soil mixture;
- breathability;
- moisture capacity;
- ability to retain moisture;
The composition of the soil includes:
- sod land - 1 part;
- leaf humus - 2 parts;
- peat - 1 part;
- sand - 1 part;
- coniferous litter - 1 part.
You can buy ready-made soil for indoor juniper in a specialized store.
Preparation of the planting container and material
A large pot is suitable as a container for planting indoor juniper. The root system feels comfortable in it. The soil in such a container remains porous, easily permeable to air and water. Moisture is evenly distributed throughout the volume, which makes it easier to care for the ephedra.
The most suitable material for containers for planting indoor juniper is ceramics, clay and porcelain. Natural materials exclude harmful substances from entering the soil. Having picked up the shape, design, drawing of the pots, you can emphasize the beauty of the plant. The advantage of clay pots is the ability to evaporate moisture through their surface. Due to the porosity of the material, the root system can be saturated with oxygen. The roots of indoor juniper are warm in the pot in winter, and cool in the heat.
The disadvantages of ceramics include:
- fragility with careless care;
- plant roots can stick to the surface and be injured during further transplantation.
To prepare new clay pots for planting, they must be immersed in water for 2 hours. During this time, gases and harmful substances formed during firing are removed from the pores. A previously used container should be washed with soap and a brush, boiled with soda, and rinsed with running water.
How to plant a juniper in a pot
To plant a purchased seedling or a rooted cutting of an indoor decorative juniper, you must:
- Choose a pot, the volume of which should significantly exceed the size of the earthen coma or container in which it was purchased.
- Provide drain holes in the bottom of the container.
- Place drainage (pebbles, small stones) on the bottom.
- Soak the plant together with the container in a large container with Kornevin dissolved in it.
- Wait until the container stops floating and sinks to the bottom.
- Pour the soil mixture prepared in advance on top of the drainage 4 - 5 cm.
- Gently remove the juniper from the container, shaking it and squeezing the sides.
- Place the plant vertically in a pot 3 cm below the edge.
- Fill the voids with soil substrate.
- Tamp the soil a little.
- Drizzle.
- Place in a cool, bright place without direct sunlight and drafts.
- Shade if necessary.
Juniper transplant
Unlike many indoor flowers, indoor junipers should be transplanted annually. The optimal time is mid-March. At the same time, the height of the plant should not exceed 1 m.To carry out a transplant, you must:
- Prepare a pot, 1.5 - 2 times larger than the previous one, soil and material for drainage.
- Gently separate the soil from the walls with a spatula, trying not to damage either the roots or the pot.
- Remove, holding it at the base with a large lump of earth and place in a new container, in a previously prepared depression in the ground.
- Fill up the resulting voids, tamp a little, mulch the soil surface with peat or bark.
The level of finding the juniper above the ground should remain the same. It is not necessary to deepen or plant a transplanted houseplant above.
It is necessary to water the plant abundantly, with warm, settled water. After transplantation, more comfortable conditions should be created so that the engraftment process is painless. You can bring the juniper to the balcony by shading it, if direct sunlight falls on it, the optimum air temperature is +18 ⁰С. It is a good idea to spray the juniper crown with water every day. When the indoor coniferous plant reaches its maximum growth and becomes an adult, transplants can be stopped, but periodically it will be necessary to add fertile soil to the pots.
How to care for a juniper in a pot
The conditions for keeping conifers are almost the same for all species. They should be located on the north or north-east side of the house and at the same time shaded from sunlight. The plant reacts negatively to "moving", it is worth refraining from changing the place of residence of the indoor juniper. Otherwise, the ephedra must adapt to new conditions, its normal development is inhibited. In the summer, it is useful to bring the decorative juniper in a pot outside, in partial shade.
In the winter - to ensure the conditions under which the houseplant will be farther from the heating system. The best place for wintering is a warm loggia or a windowsill where it is cool. The optimum temperature will be in the range from 6 to 12 С. If there is no suitable place, then the ephedra can be protected from hot air and drying out with plastic wrap. At the same time, maintain access to air, but remember that winter is a real test for a houseplant, so you should help him in overcoming this period.
Optimal temperature, humidity and lighting
If you decide to plant a juniper in a pot at home, caring for it requires the creation of certain climatic conditions. In summer, ambient temperatures above 25⁰C and cooling below 12⁰C should not be allowed. The plant loves fresh air, but does not tolerate drafts. In the heat, it is worth taking it outside and carrying out daily spraying to maintain humidity and clean the foliage or needles from dust.
The plant needs bright light, but the lighting should be diffused. Direct sunlight can cause burns. Pots with indoor plants taken outside in summer should not be constantly in the shade.
How to water a juniper at home
In summer, in hot weather, plants require abundant watering.The condition of the earthen coma should be monitored. Both waterlogging and drying out of the soil are harmful. For watering indoor juniper, clean, warm, settled water is used. The frequency of the procedure is once every two days.
By autumn, watering is gradually reduced. If the air temperature has already dropped, and the room is not yet heated, humidification should be very careful, especially in inclement rainy weather, when the air humidity rises and the soil dries out slowly.
In winter, the air in the apartment is dry, humidity is low, evaporation is rapid. Watering should be carried out 2 times a month, but at the same time, monitor the drying of the topsoil.
In the spring, the dose of hydration must be increased again.
The crown must be sprayed with warm, settled water regularly, throughout the year - twice a day in summer and every other day in winter.
How to feed homemade juniper
For a juniper growing in a pot, home care also consists in its periodic feeding. An ephedra, which is in the phase of active growth (from April to September), once every two weeks, should receive mineral fertilizer when watering. It is used according to the instructions. Indoor juniper really needs feeding, since it does not receive nutrients from the outside. With the onset of autumn, feeding is reduced and brought up to once a month. From December fertilization is stopped until spring.
As a fertilizer, you can use humus added to the plant pot. The interval between organic and mineral fertilizing should be at least two weeks.
Trimming and shaping
To give the indoor juniper an elegant shape, it is pruned once a year for sanitary purposes. The optimal time for this is February. Coniferous growth is slow, but it accelerates at the end of winter. At this time, dried or deformed branches should be removed. It is recommended to cut off young growth a little and a little more on the top of the plant. This pruning technique allows you to achieve the splendor and attractiveness of indoor juniper, as well as improve its health.
Coniferous species, decorated according to the canons of the Japanese art of bonsai, look quite original. The process is long, complex, requires patience and knowledge of how to properly shape and cut a tree from which a small masterpiece is obtained.
Diseases of indoor juniper
The indoor plant is susceptible to fungal diseases and pests.
- Brown mold most often affects young branches of indoor juniper in hot and rainy summer weather. For the purpose of prevention, it is necessary to thin out diseased damaged branches more often.
- Rust infects needles, shoots die off. For treatment, diseased parts are cut out, treated with immunostimulants, fungicides, Bordeaux liquid. The cut off parts of the affected plant should be destroyed.
Indoor juniper pests include:
- scabbard - affects the needles, the branches of the plant dry out;
- sawfly - eats away tissue from the inside;
- shoot moth caterpillars - eat young branches.
You can fight pests by spraying with insecticidal agents.
What to do if a juniper dries up at home
There are several reasons for yellowing and drying out of indoor juniper branches:
- lack of nutrients;
- excessive dryness or moisture in the soil;
- lack of full drainage;
- the introduction of fungi or pests.
After determining the reason why the home juniper is drying, it is necessary to take the necessary measures - to treat with drugs against pests, reduce or increase watering, change the soil substrate, drain and transplant the plant or carry out its full dressing.
Conclusion
Unlike street species, indoor juniper is constantly in the house next to people.Its presence creates coziness, and the coniferous aroma contributes to healing, purifying the air, and strengthening sleep. Dwarf views in the home interior give an aesthetic pleasure. It is necessary to know and remember about all the nuances of growing and caring for an indoor juniper so that it develops correctly and quickly.
