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Prayer Plant

Each night, Maranta leuconeura’s leaves fold up to resemble hands in prayer, hence its common name. The leaves grow at the ends of bent stems that drape over the edge of the pot, which is why prayer plants are often sold as hanging baskets. Some people tie the vines to vertically positioned stakes, but I find this looks awkward. Younger vines will occasionally send out small flowers from a spike—the flowers are less interesting than the leaves!

Survival strategy

Prayer plants can live in low light, but that doesn’t mean they can survive in a dark corner. It means they can tolerate down to 50 foot-candles as the daytime high. If you’re just barely keeping the soil evenly moist, as you would in a low-light situation, then there will come a point when the entire plant goes limp because a significant portion of its root system is damaged from dry pockets. When this happens, be sure to give the soil a gentle aeration and a thorough soaking.

Growth strategy

New leaves will steadily emerge when the daily light levels reach 200 foot-candles. Above 300 up to about 800 foot-candles, variegation will be more pronounced. An hour or two of direct sun is tolerable, but the plant should not be in direct sun for an entire day.

Soil management

Given adequate light, keep the soil evenly moist for strong growth. If the soil becomes mostly dry, the entire plant will go limp. This should be immediately remedied by some soil aeration to loosen up the dry pockets, followed by bringing the soil to saturation. Leaves should become perky again in a day or two. You can use a liquid fertilizer as directed when you notice new leaves.

Subjective life span

If the prayer plant has one weakness, it’s pests. Perhaps it is a combination of the stem and leaf structures having nooks and crannies where pests can hide and the plant sap being particularly attractive. All of my prayer plants have had to be discarded within a year or so because of an unmanageable infestation.

2.

Ensure that the cut ends are submerged in the water. Roots will emerge from the nodes—the bumps at the bent part of the stems.

3. 2 months later

Cuttings can be transplanted as soon as the roots are half an inch long, but because they are submerged in water, you can leave them until you have time to transplant them. Note that some cuttings might die along the way—that’s life!

4.

As the older leaves yellow, the inner parts of the vine look bare, and the once-bushy maranta now looks quite sad. I’d suggest taking cuttings while the plant is bushy, so when it eventually gets to looking bare, you’ll have some rooted cuttings ready to fill in the pot. Here, I’m transplanting a rooted stem cutting into soil. This will fill in the pot.

It’s All About the Leaves

Observations from Prayer Plant Parenthood

8 months

The plant doesn’t live here; it’s just waiting for its turn in the shower where I can water it thoroughly without worrying about getting water all over my floors.

10 months

Yellowing leaves popping up here and there will be removed once they are fully turned.

 

1 year, 3 months

A thrips infestation! Lucky for me that I propagated cuttings and started some new plants. Thrips will strip away the protective coating on stems and leaves.