Grow Oxalis triangularis at your home in containers. In order to keep it fresh and healthy give it the best growing conditions. Maintain the room temperature between 60 to 78 Degrees F, fertilize it twice a month, keep the moderate humid level, grow in nutrient-rich potting mix, etc. You will see healthy bright color foliage with heavy long-lasting bloom.
Below are the Best Oxalis Triangularis care tips and techniques by using which you can grow healthy Purple shamrock plant healthy.
Oxalis triangularis care tips
The plant got its name triangularis due to its tringle shaped purple leaves. It looks awesome on window shelves. Purple shamrock also produces little beautiful flowers in the spring season. These white and pink color trumpet-shaped flowers bloom for many weeks.
There is one interesting feature of the plant that surprises every grower.
That is,
Shamrock folds its leaves in dark and opens them again in the morning time. Many house plants fold their leaves at night and open them in the morning
A good example is the Prayer plant.
Learn how to grow and care for prayer plants.
If your area of living has mild climate than you can grow it year-round. The problem comes in the winter season when the temperature drops below 10 degrees. You cannot grow it outside in winter because it can’t tolerate the extremely cold winds.
On the other hand, it becomes a perfectly beautiful ground cover plant. Because it can’t grow more than 12 inches long. It is bushy type plants as you can see in the picture.
For those living in colder parts of the country can save the shamrock bulbs and wait for the next spring. Plant it again and you will have a beautiful purple Shamrock plant in your garden.
Purple shamrock attracts everybody because it looks so beautiful if grown with other plants. Grow it with plants that produce white or silver foliage (dusty miller, silver plant). Purple shamrock surrounded by a sliver and white color foliage plants looks extremely beautiful.
In fact, the Royal Horticultural Society awarded it with the Garden merit award. If you follow the oxalis triangularis care tips properly, shamrock will grace your home and interiors.
Why do people call it False Shamrock?
Actually, there is one more shamrock (Clover) which is native to Ireland and called a True shamrock plant. Many times, people sell Purple Shamrock to new growers as the True shamrock. Because it looks similar to the Ireland native clover.
But in reality, this purple shamrock is a Brazilian native plant.
The major difference between these two is where purple shamrock is perfect for indoor gardening. True shamrock is hard to grow indoors. Light and humidity inside your home are enough for purple shamrock to carry out the photosynthesis process. On the other side, true shamrock needs more light than the false shamrock plant.
Purple plants have good rooting systems that are adaptive to the indoor environment. True shamrock is good for outdoor gardening.
Soil for Oxalis Triangularis care
Oxalis triangularis care tip no1. is to use well-drained potting soil to grow it. No need to buy fancy stuff regular standard potting soil is good for growing oxalis triangularis plant. But for plant safety make sure the soil you are using does not retain a high amount of water content (moisture) in it.
This can damage the root bulb and develop root rot like conditions.
So, don’t use heavy soil instead of it use a lightweight potting mix. As the purple shamrock doesn’t require a high dose of fertilizers. You should mix the slow-releasing fertilizer into the potting mix before planting it.
This way you don’t need to worry about feeding your plant.
If you only have heavy or tightly packed soil at home, you can make it useable for shamrock with some basic methods.
- Use one part of potting soil and one part of potting mix together and your soil is ready for planting
- If you have peat moss, mix one part of it in the potting soil and you will have well-draining soil ready for use.
There are so many methods that you can try to make well-draining soil for your purple shamrock. The main point that you need to keep in mind while preparing the soil is growing medium should have proper draining abilities. Otherwise, your hard work goes waste, choosing the right soil is most important.
Light requirements of Purple shamrock plants
Now you have to take care of oxalis triangularis light needs. Put it in a place where it can receive plenty of indirect bright light. If the light arrangement is not proper your plants became leggy.
If you observe that your plant is becoming leggy, relocate it to a brighter place. It will become healthy in a few days.
You can also put it outside in sunlight, make sure it does not get direct sun rays, especially between 10 am to 4 pm. This time sun rays are extremely powerful and hot this can damage the plant (result burned leaves.)
If you have a grow light you can use it to full fill the light demand of your purple shamrock plants.
What is the Correct temperature range for Purple Shamrock plants?
It is not possible to keep the exact temperature range indoors. The temperature fluctuates many times in a day. Try to keep the indoor temperature between 60 to 80 degrees F. Higher temperature causes wilting, therefore, installing the ventilation in your grow room is a good idea.
In winter, when artificial heating systems get activated and keep our homes warm. Make sure your plant is away from heating vents. Direct contact with hot air is deadly for your indoor growing purple shamrock plants.
When to give water to your oxalis triangularis plants?
Watering is another important oxalis triangularis care step. Oxalis drink very little water as compared to other house plants. Excess and frequent watering can kill your plants. So, it is highly important to learn how to water oxalis triangularis.
In summers give it more water or when you see the upper inch of potting soil is dry.
In spring and winter just water it once every 2 weeks.
Check the condition of the soil before watering it, touch it with your finger if it feels dryness water it immediately.
Be careful in cold weathers, don’t give cold water to your plants always use water that is set at room temperature.
Moisture requirements
As I have already mentioned conditions inside your house are perfect for growing purple shamrock plants. A normal humidity level of your rooms is perfect for the plant. Don’t worry about the humidity. If it is good for you it is good for your plants.
Feeding your oxalis triangularis
Every plant needs more nutrients in the growing stage and oxalis triangularis growing season is the spring season. Do not feed your purple shamrocks in fall and winter.
If you are going to use slow-releasing fertilizer with the potting soil. Then you don’t need to worry about feeding your plants. Because the added slow-releasing fertilizer can feed your plants for several months (5 to 7 months).
But if you just use the potting soil without adding nutrients in it. Then you need to give it nutrient boost once in a month. This ensures the proper growth with beautiful foliage and bloom.
Regular feeding results in another common problem and that is a build-up of Salts. This is totally normal in container plants. When you see the white salt is appearing on the top layer of the soil. Take your container to the sink and turn on the water tap for 5 minutes. So that the water runs slowly through the soil.
This procedure will remove all the salt build-up from the container. Once the container drains effectively put it back on its place. Do this only when you see slat build-ups. It will take 6 to 7 months for unwanted salts to build-up on the top layer of the soil.
How to grow oxalis triangularis from triangularis bulbs?
The following are the steps you need to keep in mind while planting triangularis bulbs.
Use any container with a draining hole, use a lightweight well-drained potting mix.
1. Fill the container with the potting soil, mist some water on it to keep the soil well moist.
2. Place the Purple Shamrock bulbs one inch apart in the container, not more than 4 in a single normal size container.
3. Now cover them with the potting mix, 1 to 1.5 inches layer of potting mix and mist water on the top layer of the soil.
4. If your bulbs are already sprouting you will the growth within 7 to 9 days. Otherwise, you need to wait for 14 to 23 days.
5. Place the container in a good location so that it can get bright light.
6. Keep the soil moist by giving it water regularly and once you see the sprouts reduce the frequency of watering.
Repotting Purple Shamrock Plants
Repot is once every 2 to 3 years. Because it is a small plant and only goes 12 inches in height and absorb nutrient from the soil at a very slow rate. Repotting is required to only refresh the soil. Pull it out of the container, wash the container with clean fresh water, and sanitize it.
Remove the old soil from the plant, check the roots if you find any fungus or dead part remove it.
Now put the plant in the new container and fill it with the fresh soil.
Winter is the best time for repotting it.
Propagating new plants
Separate the offsets and grow new plants from it identical to the mother plant. All you need to do is, in winters, when the plant foliage dies naturally. Take out the plant from the container, remove the bulbs. Take the new container filled with fresh soil and plant these bulbs in it.
This way you will have a continuous supply of Purple Shamrock plants.
Do not cut or trim the foliage before the time. This results in weak bulbs because they get the energy from weak foliage. Once the foliage dies naturally then you can take out the plant and separate bulbs.
Problem with growing Purple Shamrock plants
Pest Problems
Mealybugs and spider mites are the biggest threat to your purple shamrock plants. Both these can kill your plants if left untreated. Both pests will spread all over the place also on other plants. So, it is important to identify them and use insecticidal soap or neem spray for the treatment.
Treat both sides of the leaf with insecticidal spray.
Why does Shamrock leave turn yellow?
Three reasons are responsible for turning yellow leaves of Shamrock plants. Giving it too much water, using tightly packed soil, using plant containers without draining hole.
If your container has a draining hole and you use well-draining soil than reduce the frequency of water. In summer give it water when required in short when the soil gets dry. The problem comes in winters and fall cut back watering once every 15 days and your problem will be solved.
White spots on my Purple Shamrock plant leaves
This is a kind of fungal infection; the reason is powdery mildew or rust. If it is rust you will see tiny yellow spots on leaves, they look like rust.
In this condition move your Purple Shamrock plants to a brighter and warm location. Because too cold and high humid places trigger this infection in Purple Shamrock plants. Also, use fungicide spray to treat it fast and effectively.
I hope you find this article helpful If anything is missing and you want me to add it in this article. Please feel free to contact us.
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