How to take care of the peperomia plant

Peperomia plant is the ideal houseplant. If you like to have a good collection of houseplants than Peperomia is the plant you must have in your home. Peperomia plants are suitable for almost every type of weather condition. It is one of the best plants to grow at home in the early days of learning Gardening. Moreover, Peperomia plant care list is easy and simple.

Peperomia Plant Care Tips

You do not need any particular plant skills for the peperomia plant care. Follow the below steps.

1. Give them bright light but not direct sunlight

2. Maintain the temperature between60 to 80 F.

3. Fertilize once in every 30 days

4. Use a lightweight growing medium.

5. Protect peperomia from diseases and insects

To know everything about the peperomia plant care steps read till the end

Size of plant

Normally all the species of peperomia grow not more than 2 feet height and spread only 8 to 12 inches (roughly). This makes them perfectly suitable plants for your home. They also do not require frequent water. Actually, many types of peperomia plants are available, choose which one you like. Later in this post, we will tell you about the best types of peperomia.

How to water Peperomia plants?

Once the soil of the pot gets dry, give them some water. Do not wait for the soil to dry completely. If you see the cracks in the soil this means the soil is extremely dry and your plant is in danger situation. Once you see the color of the soil turns into brown means your plant is thirsty. The best way is to insert your finger into the soil 2 inches deep and feel the moisture.

Most of the time the plant dies due to the overwatering. When we grow plants at home, we feel they need water every day like we need to eat food every day. But their case is different from ours. They take time to digest the nutrients from the water.

NOTE: Yellow leaves, rotting stalks are the first sign of overwatering.
Experts recommend water peperomia after every 8 to 10 days. But you should keep eye on soil conditions. If you do not have enough time for watering them, your perfect solution is SELF WATERING PLANTER

Light Requirements of Peperomia Plants

Peperomia plants are easy to grow they do not need much sunlight to grow but they do need bright light. Place your plant in the area where it gets enough bright light and it will thrive. You need to prevent the excessive direct sunlight on it in the summer season. When we grow plants at home, they absorb light waves emitted by our normal home lights. This also helps them in photosynthesis

NOTE: Excessive sunlight results in leaf scorching. Plants always grow to the source of light if you place the plant somewhere it is getting insufficient light. You will observe the plant change the direction of its leaves towards the light source.

Humidity for Peperomia Plant Care

The level of humidity is depending upon the Variety of the plant. Some varieties need more humid soil than others. Choose those varieties which can tolerate any level of heat and humidity.

Before buying the plant ask the sales representative that you want to know the water intake and tolerance power of the plant.
Which type of soil is best for your peperomia plant.

Any growing medium which is lightweight and has good draining properties is best to grow them at home. Mostly peat moss and perlite are recommended or you can mix the perlite with soil and make a new strong grow medium.

Best Fertilizers For Peperomia Plant Care

This is the part which you need to better understand so pay full attention. Most of the people don’t know which type of fertilizers are best for Caring peperomia plants.
The good news is peperomia plant does not need any fertilizers. But for better care and health of your plant, you can use 10-10-10 water-soluble fertilizer only once in a month during the growing season. Do not over fertilizer your plant this will cause many problems at some time. Every small plant only requires fertilizers once in every 30 days.

Pruning Peperomia

Peperomia plants are small in size so they do not require frequent pruning. Whenever you see some dead or damaged leaves you cut them off. Also, you can cut them for cosmetic changes to keep the best shape of your plant. Removing unhealthy foliage is good for your plant health.

Propagating Peperomia Plants

It is a good idea to propagate peperomia when you want to expand your collection or want to share them with your other family members and friends.
There are two methods of propagation

Leaf-cutting

Stem cutting

LEAF CUTTING METHOD

First of all, clean the tray and all other equipment that you are going to use in the propagation process.

1. Look for the healthy leaf it is best to choose from the base stem. Do not pluck it, use scissors or knife to cut from the stem.

2. Clean the cutting leaf and further cut in into two parts across the width of the leaf

3. Now use the cloning gel or other propagation powder or liquid of your choice and dip the cut edges into it. We use rooting powder to grow roots faster.

4. Insert your leaf into the growing medium, before inserting it make some room for it by inserting a pen into the growing medium

5. Give some water

6. Cover the tray with the lid and place it under room light away from direct sunlight

7. To prevent fungal infection, lift half of the cover after every 2 days.

8. Keep the cutting in the tray until they develop the new roots and several new small leaves, now its time to potting them.

9. People make the mistake of potting their plants too quickly.
Stem propagation methods

This is the best method of propagation. Use it for propagating any type of plant in any season.

All steps are the same as we perform in the leaf-cutting propagation method.

1. Cut the healthy stem with the help of scissors

2. Remove the unwanted leaves

3. Now dip it into to the rooting powder

4. Insert the cutting into the growing medium

5. Follow the remaining steps as mentioned in the leaf propagation

How safe are they to grow at home

Peperomia plants are totally safe for humans and pets. Grow them happily at your home. They do not produce any fragrance they are a good piece of decoration. The best part is they help to purify the inside air.

Steps to buying perfect peperomia for your home garden

Choose the best nursery in your area to buy a peperomia plant. They are sensitive to very low temperatures so you should ask the workers about the health history of the plant.

Select a healthy-looking plant than closely checks the leaves for any yellow or dark spots. You should check the backside of leaves, stem, and roots for any fungal infection. If you find anything unusual in the plant leave it there and choose another one. Salespersons will make many excuses, even they can offer a discount on the plant but do not buy if you find it unhealthy.

Once you buy a plant take it to your home as soon as possible and report it in your favorite pot. To protect the roots of your plant cover them while coming back to your home.
Peperomia plant problems and solutions

Peperomia plant care and Wilting

Underwatering and overwatering both are responsible for the wilting. If you do not have enough time for your peperomia plant but want to have it in your garden. Use the self-watering planters for the peperomia plant care, they will take care of the water needs of your plant.

When the soil gets out of the moisture the plant roots get dry because they do not get moisture content from the soil. As a result, you get wrinkled, dry wilting leaves. Here you need to take quick action and give some water to the plant. This will solve your problem but you might have to remove some damaged and dry leaves. Do not worry the plant will recover from the dry state very soon.

On the other side over-watering causes, root rot means it can kill the roots. Once the roots died your plant will die in a few days. Plants get the water from the soil through their roots and when this transferring system became dead you will not revive the plant.

In such conditions, the only way to save the plant is cloning. Cut the leaf or stem and have the same plant after some time.

If you are using the best pot and giving controlled water and still, it shows the signs of wilting. Then the problem is in the soil and you need to remove the waterlogged soil from the pot. Check the plant if you observe root rot, cut that part with scissors, and pot it again in the same pot.

Here you can add some quantity of perlite into the soil to prevent a waterlogged situation in the future.

Leaf Dropping

When plants grow, they shed some old leaves this is completely normal. As we humans shed some of our hair daily and have new hair in their place. Plants also drop some leaves and have new leaves in their place. This happens often in the rainy season when plants shed older leaves and get new bright leaves.

If you just purchase the plant it started dropping leave within the first 10 days than this might be a problem for you. Two things are possible one is over watering which we already explained above. Other is the seller of the plant did not take care of your peperomia plant in their nursery or garden. In this case complaint to the seller and hope for the best.

Another possible reason for dropping multiple leaves at once is your plant is under the attack of a disease. Examine your plant carefully, check for the disease symptoms. You should act fast once you discover the root cause of leaf drop.

Yellow Leaves of Peperomia

The main reason for yellow leaves is excessive sunlight. Peperomia does not like to grow in direct sunlight. So, if your plant stays under the sunlight for the whole day then you have to change its place to protect it from dying.

Overwatering is another reason but the main reason is excessive exposure to the very bright light. All you can do is change the place of your plant put it somewhere so that it can get sunshine for a few hours only. By doing this you will see improvements in a few days.