Growing Snake Plants – How To Make Snake Plant Grow Faster?
Keep all things optimum, note that too little or too much light can be disastrous for the snake plant
The snake plant known botanically as Sansevieria trifasciata (now as Dracaena trifasciata) is a wonderful evergreen plant to grow in small areas. Snake plant is native to tropical western Africa. It is highly admired by many homeowners for its beauty and resilience.
While it’s easy to maintain and care for a snake plant, it takes great effort to make your snake plant flourish & grow quickly. That is what we will discuss today – some effective ways how to make snake plants grow faster.
You can only try boosting their growth rate by placing them in low to brightly-lit areas from time to time because they can survive in both. But remember that the absence of sunlight or too much direct sunlight, are not good for plants’ long-term growth. Just enhancing the care conditions like soil, water, and pot size and limiting any source of stress can make your plant thrive faster.
Let us get to the bottom of this and understand every factor responsible for snake plants’ growth rate in detail.
How To Boost Growth Of Snake Plant?
Apart from the many benefits of snake plants, the most popular reason why people love to keep snake plants in their homes is their easy-growing nature. Being a hardy green plant, sansevieria has basic survival requirements like it can sustain itself even in dry and low-light areas.
However, the plant can grow quickly in a few hours of indirect sunlight in contrast to no light. Sansevieria can flourish quickly if you keep them under suitable growing conditions.
So, here we have described all the important factors regarding how to make my snake plant grow faster.
A. Use suitable soil
The best way to grow your snake plant quickly is to plant it in nutrient-rich soil. Make sure to prepare a suitable soil-mix that is well-drained, loamy, and organically rich. Using quality soil will help you to prevent your snake plants from getting overwatering, underwatering, or damaged.
Snake plants like to flourish happily in moist soil with perfect sunlight. It is also essential to prevent the roots of your snake plant from rotting. This is another vital factor that is useful to know how to make sansevieria grow faster.
Additionally, you can use the succulent soil mixture for healthy plant growth. The ready-to-use potting soils also work best to boost the growth of snake plants. Of course, you can prepare your own perfect soil mix of snake plants.
Remember to use any of the following mixtures: One part garden soil or potting mix, 2 parts of perlite or coarse sand, or 1 part coconut coir or peat moss. These combinations work perfectly when you keep the soil well-drained. Use loose soil so that you can easily repot the snake plant whenever required.
B. Correct pot size
When planting your snake plant, make sure to give a thought to the type of pot you choose. In their initial stages of growth, these plants can easily develop in small pots. It is because they have shallow roots that don’t take much time to establish in moist soil. So, for most of the common types of snake plants, the right pot size is 8 to 12 inches.
However, if you want to grow a huge and thick snake plant, it can only happen in larger pots. In that case, your plant will need enough space to spread its roots deeper.
Avoid using plastic pots. Instead of this, choose terracotta pots. It works best for snake plants because it has a porous structure. It is helpful in preventing the soil from rotting by absorbing any excessive moisture.
C. Get rid of rotten roots
Of course, you can’t cure the rotting roots of a plant, but you can discard them immediately. As soon as you notice any rotten or damaged roots in your plant, replant them into a freshly prepared soil mixture. Choose a new right-sized pot, and trim any soggy and brown leaves or roots. You can use save green leaves for propagating new snake plants.
These are simply some of the easiest ways how to boost growth of snake plants. Now you are ready to plant healthy rhizomes and add new soil. However, if your plant’s root system is not in a healthy state, simply get rid of it.
D. Adhere to the watering needs of the plant
Being succulent plants, Sansevieria is able to store water in its leaves. So, it doesn’t require regular watering to grow healthy like other plants. In fact, if you water it too much, its leaves and roots might get mushy. This will ultimately lead to rotten roots and hamper your plant growth.
The best time to water your snake plant is after every 2 weeks. You should only water snake plants when you feel their surface soil is dry. You can check it by sticking a few inches of your finger into the soil.
E. Meet its sun requirements
No matter where you place snake plants in your house, make sure to meet their sunlight requirements. These plants prefer to thrive in areas receiving a lot of indirect bright sunlight. The perfect place to keep your snake plant is near a window.
In winter you can create an indoor space with adequate grow light to help these plants flourish throughout the season. Otherwise, it’s common for snake plants to enter a state of dormancy in the winter period.
F. Maintain the temperature where it thrives well
Temperatures of 60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit are important for the healthy growth of snake plants indoors. Also, take care to keep your plants away from drafty windows. In winter months, these plants require less water as they enter into a dormancy period.
G. Feed it right with fertilizers
Adding quality fertilizers to your snake plant can be helpful in boosting its growth. It can even protect your plant against any signs of stress like the curling of leaves and more. By regularly supplying ample amounts of fertilizers to your plant you can give it healthy growth.
However, you should be aware of the right NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium) ratio that can benefit your plant, which is 10-10-10. Ideally, you should fertilize a snake plant every 4 to 6 weeks.
H. Check out for pests
If you are still wondering, how can I make my snake plant grow faster, look out for any signs of harm or damage. You should check out for pests that can eventually impede its growth. So, make sure to look out for any sign of pest attacks like small bits of cotton on the leaves or thin webs produced by spider mites. Just take care to use effective pesticides and get rid of any infestation that you spot.
Ideally Are Snake Plants Slow Growers?
We know how to make snake plant grow faster. It depends on several important factors like soil mixture, sunlight exposure, and proper watering. With proper care of your plant, you can certainly improve its health and boost its growth. However, don’t forget that sansevieria are pretty slow-growing plants in contrast to other green succulents.
If you have a healthy snake plant placed in your house, you can expect it to reach about 8 ft high. While snake plants that are planted outside can reach up to 12 ft high.
Related: How long do snake plants live? | Why is my snake plant not growing?| Disadvantages of A Snake Plant
Common Queries – Let’s Answer Them!
Q. How often do snake plants grow new leaves?
Ans. As we mentioned above, sansevieria are fairly slow-growing plants when compared to other succulents. As their growing season commences, these plants grow about 2 to 4 fresh leaves at a time. While it can easily produce 6 to 8 fresh leaves per year. If you have kept your snake plant under favorable growing conditions, its leaves can grow about 1 to 3 inches every year.
Q. Is coffee good for snake plants?
Ans. Just like many succulent houseplants, coffee grounds work great for promoting the growth of snake plants. The coffee content is rich in nitrogen, which makes the soil highly acidic. That’s why most houseplants prefer to thrive even when coffee content in the soil mixture is high.
Snake plants often respond positively when planted in coffee grounds. There are a number of advantages of using coffee grounds along with quality fertilizers rich in potassium, nitrogen and other important nutrients.
Q. How do I know if my snake plant is healthy?
Ans. When it comes to finding out whether or not your snake plant is thriving healthy, there are many signs you can look out for. The most common way is to watch out if your plant has green and upright leaves. Even the appearance of your plant might look full with an upright structure.
Most healthy snake plants have smooth and flawless leaves. If you notice any odd bumps on your plant’s leaves, then it might have some problems. A healthy snake plant is always a striking collaboration of dark and light green colors.
Summing up…
To be honest every plant grows at its natural rate and there isn’t much you can do to speed it up. But to ensure that the plant grows at its best, you can always provide it with optimum growing conditions. That is what we have tried to sum up today. These are the best ways how to make your snake plant grow faster.
