Gasteria

 

Xanthorrhoea family. Homeland South Africa. There are about 70 species in nature.

гастерия
  • Gasteria verrucisa is a herbaceous plant with a rosette of fleshy, tightly adjacent leaves, reaching 20 cm long. The leaves are grooved, narrowly triangular, pointed at the end, covered with small rough warts, located in the same plane. Racemose inflorescence on a long peduncle, with pink-red perianths.
  • Gasteria carinata is a herbaceous plant with a rosette of fleshy, tightly adjacent leaves, reaching 20 cm long. The leaves, like the previous species, are grooved, narrowly triangular, slightly beveled, pointed at the end, but arranged in a spiral, covered with small warts, almost invisible to the touch.
  • Gasteria spotted Gasteria maculata - differs from previous species in variegated leaves - they alternate between stripes of dark green, brown and silver colors. Gasteria marmorata has transverse stripes of dark green and silver.

Gasteria care

Temperature: moderate in summer, in winter it is desirable to cool about 10-12 ° C, with dry content (i.e. watering about once every 2-3 weeks). Winter minimum 8 ° С. In summer, it is better to keep it in the open air on the balcony or in the garden, protecting it from rain and wind. Gasteria can grow year-round in warm home conditions, but in this case you need good lighting in winter.

Lighting: Gasteria prefers a bright place, with some direct sunlight, on the south window, you will need shading at noon. In winter, the brightest place, full sunlight, without shading. On a sunny window in spring and summer, gasteria can sunbathe - the leaves turn red.

Watering: moderate in spring and summer - with good drying of the soil. From autumn it is reduced, in winter it is rare, if it is cool (below 18-20 ° C), if the heat is watered as usual.

Top dressing: from May to August with special fertilizer for cacti and succulents once a month. Do not overestimate dosages.

Air humidity: Like most members of the asphodel family, gasteria are resistant to dry air.

Transplant: Annually in the spring. Soil - the 1 part of the sod earth, the 1 part of the sheet, the 1 part of the sand and brick crumbs or small gravel, it is advisable to add to the soil mixture not fine sand, but pebbles measuring 3-4 mm. The container should be wide and not deep, the bottom of the pot is drained of shards. Gasteria does not like too spacious pots, even when the leaves stick out of the pot, it can continue to grow without transplantation for a couple of years. In nature, it often grows in cramped conditions, in crevices of rocks.

Reproduction: daughter rosettes that can be separated both with roots during transplantation and cut from the mother plant. You can multiply with a leaf, which, by cutting, can be powdered with root, then dried for 1-2 days in a shade. On the second - third day, plant on loose slightly moist soil (a mixture of universal soil and vermiculite in equal parts). Watered no earlier than in 1-1.5 weeks, when young roots are formed. If it's hot, you can spray before that.

Growing problems

  • The leaves are elongated, the rosette is loose and elongated - a lack of light, gasteria grow in a well-lit place .
  • The leaves are elongated, with curving edges, the warts are dull - if it is too warm and dry in winter - it is better to keep plants at a temperature of about 10-12 °
    • C.
  • The plant stretches, the leaves acquire a reddish tint, the ends dry - in the absence of transplantation, from a lack of nutrients. Do not forget to transplant gasteria annually and periodically separate the children.
  • Leaves turn red, brown spots appear or the ends dry - when kept in direct sun for a long time, for example, on a southern, not shaded window (in summer). In fact, gasteria grows better on eastern and western windowsills than on southern ones. In spring, they are accustomed to the sun gradually to avoid burns.
  • The leaves, especially the lower ones, become sluggish, easily come off - if the plant is flooded. In summer, gasteria is watered so that the soil has time to dry out, and water should not remain on the pallet. In winter, watering depends on the temperature - at 10-12 ° C about once every 1.5 months, if 13-15 ° C, then about once every 3-4 weeks, at a temperature of about 18-20 ° C once every 10-14 days.
  • Leaves pale, turn yellow or turn red - with an excess of fertilizers. Top dressing should be carried out no more than 1 times a month, do not use fertilizers with a high nitrogen content.
  • Leaves turn black and rot - if too cold, moist soil and/or air. This can happen if you leave the plant outside at night in late summer.