To your the money tree, also known as cholstyanka or crassula, developed well even when grown from a single leaf, you need to take into account its main features.
First of all, the fatty meat is succulent, that is, the inhabitant of arid areas, in this case African, Madagascar and Arabian, specialized in the accumulation of water in their tissues.
Consequently, intensive watering such a plant is not only unnecessary, but extremely harmful.
In those desert lands where succulents grow in the wild, a lot of sun - and at home content it must be considered.
There is and optimum temperatureassociated with weather conditions typical for native places.
In general, the plant belongs to unpretentious pets.
Growing at home
Lighting
In order for the money tree in your apartment to feel at home, it should provide brightbut not too intense natural light.
On the southern windows, especially in summer, the plant will have to shade or set aside somewhat deeper into the room; it is even better to put a jerk on a balcony - however, here we must take care that the plant is not located in the sun.
The cultivation of Krassula on the southeast windows is considered optimal: both the light in the required quantity and quality and the Feng Shui commandment are fulfilled, because the southeast is considered a sector of wealth.
Temperature
The best spring and summer crassula temperature range - 20-25 degrees.
In the autumn the temperature decreases, and in winter period well place the plant where enough light but temperature does not rise above 15 degrees and does not drop to plus four.
Sharp temperature jumps, like drafts, harm crassule.
Priming
The main requirements for the composition of the soil for the successful cultivation of money trees: good water and air permeability, weakly acid reaction, sufficient nutrition. You can use several variants of such soil mixtures.
Ready "cactus" soil.
Universal soil with a generous dose - up to a third of the volume - washed river sand.
A mixture of turf and leaf land, as well as peat and sand (all components are equally) with brick chips and pieces of charcoal. For old plants, the content of turf land is doubled.
Peat mixed with sand in a 1: 1 ratio is used for rooting in vegetative propagation.
At the bottom of a shallow, but wide enough container, before filling it with soil mixture, be sure to place a significant drainage layer (minimum thickness - 2 cm).
Watering
An inhabitant of semi-deserts who store water in fleshy stems and well-fed leaves will not benefit from an abundance of moisture.
When caring for fatty need moderate wateringwhose frequency varies seasonally.
In spring and summerIn the period of active growth, this succulent is watered. once or twice a weekPaying attention to the state of the soil substrate: after the ground has dried from above, it is not watered immediately, but after 2-3 days.
AT autumn and winterWhen kept in a cool place, the bastard is watered even less often, two to once a month, while avoiding wrinkling leaves.
If wintering is warm, water will be needed more often.
In all cases, watering is good. distilled water at room temperature.
Periodically foliar leaves should be free from dust; at the same time they can be sprayed and then wiped or rinsed under a shower, protecting the soil in the container from ingress of excess moisture.
Top dressing
The fat woman needs feeding only in the period of active development of the stems and foliage - from April to August inclusive.
In these spring and summer months twice a week The plant should be fed with a complex mixture for succulents and cacti.
You can apply and complex fertilizer for home floriculture, but be sure with reduced nitrogen content. An excess of nitrogenous compounds, first, causes an intensive growth of green mass and overdeveloped side shoots can break off from their own weight. Secondly, nitrogen compounds in combination with moisture reduce the resistance of succulents to rot.
Fertilizer is better after watering, on wet ground.
In the autumn-winter period, succulent, especially at low temperatures, is practically not fed.
Bloom
Crassula blooming at home is an infrequent phenomenon.
Usually mature plants flourish, starting from seven to ten years.
There is also an observation that there is a relationship between flowering and the time of planting the cutting from which succulent is grown: early-spring cuttings of the money tree produce flowering specimens, while summer ones do not.
To stimulate budding, some growers apply stress effects on crassula: contain it in the winter with the minimum permissible humidity and extremely low temperatures (about plus six degrees)
Diseases and pests
In itself, the money tree is resistant to diseases, like any lasting succulent. The main danger is excess moisture especially when watering with cold water.
Then the leaves turn pale and hang, fungal infections join and the stems rot at the base. Especially dangerous rotting in the root area.
If such a process has started, in order to save a copy, you need to cut off a healthy tip and root it in a separate container with fresh soil, get rid of everything else and then strictly follow the irrigation regime.
Excess sun leaves burns on the leaves - brown drying spots appear on them. Succulents should be pritenit or rearranged, remove affected leaves.
Of the pests on the money tree settle mainly mealybugs.
If there are not many of them, you can remove the cheeks one by one, using a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. A radical means of destroying these insects - systemic insecticides. Very rarely there are repeated massive lesions of the bruises, for which the last remedy remains: to keep a healthy rooting for rooting, to destroy everything else, to sanitize the pot and to wash the window sill well.
Breeding
Hardy, viable succulent breeds in almost all possible ways: seeds, individual leaves, cuttings and processes.
Seeds
Bullocks are sown in early spring into shallow clay plates with drainage holes filled with a wetted mixture of leafy earth and sand in a 2: 1 ratio.
Sown plates are covered with glass or plastic film, kept at a temperature of 15-18 degrees, aired daily, ajar for 15-20 minutes, and maintain soil moisture by spraying.
Shoots appear usually in two weeks.
After the formation of the first pair of leaves, the seedlings are seated at a distance of at least a centimeter from each other, and when they reach a height of 5-7 cm, they are settled in separate "apartments".
This method of reproduction of fatty girls at home is quite laborious and is mainly used by breeders interested in obtaining the hybrid forms of these succulents.
Leaves
Still, how to grow a money tree? A money tree can grow from a single leaf. This is especially convenient for those who believe in miracles and sneak a thick, developed piece of money from the money tree in the house of a rich person.
Separated from the plant leaf need hang in the shade during the day, and then rooted.
there is rooting in several ways Crassula leaf.
The first, simplest: put on the moistened surface of the soil and wait until thin white hairs of the roots appear on the lower side of the leaf facing the ground, and grains of future buds appear on the outer side of the leaf. The soil should not dry out; To do this, you can arrange a greenhouse made of plastic film, which should be aired daily.
You can put the lower end of the sheet in root solution, and after the appearance of the roots, plant it in a shallow dish with a lightweight substrate and cover with plastic wrap. "Greenhouse" regularly air. Then, as it grows, place it in a shallow pot with a standard soil mix for Crassula.
In addition, the leaf takes root and just in the waterTo which carbon powder is added to prevent rotting. The next steps — sequential planting into the soil — are described above.
Cuttings
Money tree easily and willingly propagated by cuttings.
Part of a developed stem is optimal for such breeding. 10-12 cm long. Cuttings can be the tip of the succulent, which must be saved from rotting roots or pest invasions, and parts cut off during crown formation.
After separation from the parent stem, the stalks with the lower leaves removed dry for a day or two, depending on its thickness.
The main danger that a prepared stalk can trap is excessive moisture and rotting.
Therefore, if carried out rooting in water crushed coal and / or a root formation stimulator must be added to it.
Roots are formed in two weeks, after which the stalk is planted, about half deep, in a shallow pot 5–7 cm in diameter with a drainage layer and the corresponding soil. Cover with a plastic cup. This greenhouse is ventilated, the soil is moistened, and after the formation of new shoots the glass is removed.
To avoid problems with excess water, many growers Immediately put the cutting in the soil mixture, bypassing the water stage of rooting - and, as a rule, this method is also successful.
Spikes
A fat woman, focused on survival in harsh conditions, semi-deserts by all means available to her, she prepares herself for “landing” on the ground processes with aerial roots.
So all the same, how to plant a scion of a money tree? These roots, originally white, dry out after a while, but the processes still do not lose their vitality and can be, after separation from the mother plant, planted into the soil with fresh roots - then the process of the money tree will take root faster and with dried in this case, the same methods are used as in reproduction by cuttings and leaves.
The money tree (Crassula, Crassoule) demonstrates an amazing willingness to produce new and new viable specimens, which, under suitable conditions, develop into magnificent plants.
It remains to hope that the feng shui masters know what they say when they draw a parallel between the fatty leaflet abundantly dotted with brilliant green leaves and the inexhaustible cash flow in the household of its owner.
A photo
Next you can see a photo of the Money Tree:
