Pteris is the most unpretentious of the ferns

Pteris managed to win the title of both the largest and the easiest to grow of all types of ferns popular in room culture. He really is one of the most unpretentious varieties, but he also has its own requirements for humidity. Because of them, the main advantage of the majestic pteris is the decorativeness of the greenery. Leaf fronds with unusual lobes and impressive sizes are a sight to behold among indoor fossils. Juicy green or variegated color, expressiveness of details, original character and atmospheric influence on the interior turns pteris into a star among decorative deciduous crops. And the ability to adapt to different lighting conditions allows you to actively introduce it into the room setting.

Pteris cretica (Pteris cretica). Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com floradania
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Pteris – a roomy giant with a peaceful character

At first glance, indoor pteris do not seem to be ferns at all. But despite the not quite usual greens, atypical for other fellows, they belong to the most ancient plants on our planet. Pteris (Pteris) – plants surprisingly friendly not only to flower growers, but also to other crops. It is believed that this fern will blend in with absolutely any other indoor plant, decor and furnishings. In our country, this indoor fern is most often called bracken.

In nature, pteris are represented by two and a half hundred species, each of which can stand out for its merits. But in room culture, they cannot boast of the same enviable diversity. Only a few species of pteris are grown as a houseplant, while only one species is widespread – the pteris of Crete.

Cretan Pteris (Pteris cretica) produces frond up to half a meter long. The striking leaves of the pinnately dissected type flaunt with only six pairs of segments. In this case, the lower segments of the leaves are also dissected into lanceolate lobes, and the upper, as a rule, are whole. The peculiarity of the vayam is given by the winging of the leaf shaft between the two upper pairs of lobes and a beautiful serrated edge. Thin, oblong lobes in varietal specimens flaunt a feathery structure.

Despite the fact that the fronds of this fern are amazingly dense and powerful, they tolerate even extreme conditions well, they surprise with their fragility and break very easily.

Usually, this plant grows several shoots in parallel, which provides the Cretan pteris with constant renewal and a very attractive appearance. This fern can also boast of an unusual, rather compact, short creeping type rhizome, while both scales and hairs are clearly visible on the roots. The leaves of the Cretan pteris are pterygoid in shape, which gave the name to the whole genus.

One of the advantages of Cretan pteris is rightfully considered a rich varietal palette, offering to choose, as an alternative to classical greenery, varieties with patterned, variegated, yellow-green or white-green color, unusually branching leaves or twisted tops. At the same time, variegated plants are a little more capricious than “ordinary” ones. The best forms are variegated albolineata with a white stripe along the central vein and crispate with additional leaf segments on irregular fronds.

Pteris creticaPteris cretica

Other popular types of pteris include:

  1. Long-leaved pteris (Pteris longifolia) is a terrestrial rhizome fern that produces frond up to half a meter long and up to 25 cm wide, once pinnate, with 30 pairs of segments and a rich herbaceous green color. The petiole of this fern is always shorter than the leaf blade, the segments are elongated-lanceolate, up to 12 cm in length.
  2. Quivering pteris (Pteris tremula) – the largest representative of pteris and similar to other ferns. It can reach a height of 1 m, produces spectacular fronds with strongly dissected lobes. The stems are very fragile and break off easily, but the plant grows so quickly that it can double its size in a year.
  3. Pteris tape (Pteris vittata) is distinguished by a beautiful bend of arched leaves, reaching a length of 1 m, and long feather-lobes, located not in pairs, but alternately.
  4. Pteris multi-cut (Pteris multifida) belongs to showy ferns with an unusual division of wai. Its double-pinnate leaves grow up to 40 cm long and 20 cm wide and flaunt with linear-shaped segments, more like thin blades of grass. With the large size of the leaves themselves, the leaf segments are limited to a width of only 2-3 mm, and the serrated edge makes them even more unusual.
  5. Птерис мечевидный (Pteris ensiformis) is rightfully considered the most beautiful plant of the genus, even if it is less common than the Cretan Pteris. Reaching a height of only 30 cm, it flaunts double-pinnate leaves up to 25 cm long with oval segments. This fern has varieties with silvery or white stripes and patterns, such as the magnificent variegated Victoria.

Pteris are very easy to grow and are considered to be the most unpretentious of indoor ferns. It is this plant that should be chosen by novice growers and those who do not want to burden themselves with meticulous care for a large collection of indoor plants. Pteris perfectly adapts to normal room conditions and, in fact, imposes strict requirements only on the parameter of air humidity. But growing pteris only in flower display cases would be a big mistake. These ferns easily tolerate light fluctuations and even sudden temperature changes.

Pteris longifolia (Pteris longifolia)Pteris longifolia (Pteris longifolia). Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Casey B.
Pteris tape (Pteris vittata)Pteris tape (Pteris vittata). Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com P Ballings
Multi-cut pteris (Pteris multifida)Multi-cut pteris (Pteris multifida). Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com cypressnaturepark

Caring for pteris at home

Lighting for pteris

Pteris does not respond very well to direct sun and strong shading, but it adapts perfectly to various conditions with diffused lighting and partial shade. In this case, shading, as a rule, does not affect the attractiveness of this fern. Thanks to such good adaptability, pteris can be used in the interior, exposing it not only to window sills. In the shade, the pteris will not die, but it will become looser and lose the characteristic features of the wai structure.

Northern window sills are considered optimal for this plant, as well as places similar to them in lighting. Although pteris will feel good in eastern or western locations.

Comfortable temperature regime for pteris

Pteris is considered to be one of the most cool-loving indoor ferns. This plant looks best if the indoor temperature does not rise above 21-22 degrees. Pteris tolerates short-term heat very well, as well as sharp fluctuations in temperature.

The minimum allowable temperature for this fern is considered to be 10-13 degrees in winter, but at any time of the year it will not suffer, even if the temperature fluctuates sharply. But as averages for pteris, a temperature of about 18 degrees is most suitable (especially for variegated forms that cannot tolerate a greater drop in temperature). At the same time, the fern prefers at least a small change in temperature between daytime and nighttime.

Pteris does not tolerate drafts very well, especially cold ones. The plant should not be taken out into the fresh air, with the exception of balconies during the summer, but it is better to provide the pteris with a stable indoor environment.

Pteris xiphoid (Pteris ensiformis)Pteris ensiformis. Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Fran Manos

Watering and air humidity for pteris

Like all ferns, pteris is a very moisture-loving plant. He does not like waterlogging, but he prefers that the substrate in the pot is always wet. In summer, plants need daily watering. The procedures are carried out, focusing on the degree of soil moisture and immediately draining the water from the pallet.

Starting from mid-autumn, the pteris must be gradually transferred to drier conditions, reducing watering so that the plant is watered about 2-3 times a week by winter.

Another strategy is suitable for this fern – saturating the substrate by immersing the pot in warm water. The pot is kept in water until air bubbles stop appearing, and then the excess moisture is allowed to drain freely.

High humidity is not a vital indicator, but the higher the humidity, the more beautiful the fern looks and the more intensively it develops. Contrary to myths, he does not need florariums and flower showcases at all, even if the pteris can be the star of the collections in them. Any strategy for increasing the standard room humidity will work for pteris:

  • the fern can be placed in an outer container filled with wet peat or pebbles;
  • pots can be installed on pallets with wet moss or expanded clay;
  • spray greens daily with a fine spray.

However, humidifiers and indoor fountains are perfect.

When watering and spraying, you should carefully select soft water several degrees warmer than room temperature. Watering pteris with warm water is especially important in winter and when kept cool. For pteris, ordinary water must be additionally filtered, making sure that it does not contain excess calcium, chlorine and fluoride salts. Periodically for the plant, you can acidify the water with lemon juice or citric acid.

Pteris tremulaPteris tremula. Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com pepiniereezavin

Top dressing for pteris

The feeding schedule for pteris is no different from the fertilization strategy for other ferns. It needs a not very nutritious substrate and usually half as much fertilizer for pteris is applied as for other plants.

The optimal frequency of procedures is 1 feeding every 2 weeks. The fertilizer doses recommended by the manufacturer are halved. Pteris is fed exclusively during the warm period from May to September. For this plant, you can use either special fertilizers for ferns, or mixtures for decorative deciduous crops.

Pruning pteris

Pteris tolerates pruning well. Damaged fronds can be cut as low as possible during transplanting or even during active growth. Even if the whole plant has dried up, you can drastically cut the fern by cutting off all the shoots. Watering abundantly or immersing the pot in water all day will result in young sprouts and full fern recovery.

Pteris transplant and substrate

For pteris, you need to choose a soil that is simple in composition, well suited for all garden ferns. The optimum is considered to be a soil mixture of equal parts of sand, leaf, sod, humus and peat soil, but any nutritious loose soil mixture with a pH of 5,5-6,0 is also suitable. This plant can be grown in a simplified substrate – in a simple peat compost or in a soil mixture consisting of equal parts of fertile clay soil, peat and sand.

Since this fern develops very actively and releases several shoots at the same time, it usually needs an annual transplant, even at a considerable age. For pteris, transplanting in early spring is ideal. In this procedure, the main thing is to lay drainage and not to compact the soil too much: due to the composition of the soil and the irrigation regime, compaction during planting can lead to a violation of air permeability. For pteris, the capacity is increased by one size compared to the previous one.

The greatest difficulty in the procedure is the handling of the shoots and leaves of the plant, which break very easily. It is advisable to transplant pteris with an assistant. When transplanting, it is better to immediately clean the bushes, removing broken, dried or damaged shoots, cutting them down to the level of the soil.

Pteris loves additional light loosening of the topsoil, which will help maintain the air permeability of the substrate. It is held regularly during the spring and summer.

Diseases and pests of pteris

Pteris is resistant to pests and diseases. Very rarely, scale insects, mealybugs or aphids appear on the plant, and even then in the vicinity of infected crops. It is better to fight pests with insecticides.

Common growing problems:

  • breaking off leaves with careless handling;
  • stretching the plant in dense shade;
  • decay of shoots when the soil is acidified;
  • the appearance of brown spots, drying of leaves in the cold or in direct sunlight.

Pteris cretica "Cristata" (Pteris cretica 'Cristata')Pteris cretica “Cristata” (Pteris cretica ‘Cristata’). Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Caitlin W.

Reproduction of pteris

The unconditional positive characteristics of the pteris include the ease of reproduction. This plant easily makes it possible to obtain new specimens both from spores and by a vegetative method. Pteris actively reproduce by self-seeding. When grown in large pots and containers, they spore out spores, from which small shoots appear regularly in high humidity. But if you collect the spores yourself or purchase them, you can sow seeds in March and wait for the shoots to appear, maintaining a low air temperature of about 13-15 degrees and high humidity.

The easiest way to propagate this indoor fern is to divide the rhizome. This fern is not afraid of injuries, tolerates transplantation and easily recovers after separation. In adult plants, during transplantation, you can divide the rhizome into 2-3 large parts with a powerful bunch of roots and plant each as an independent plant. When maintaining at least an average humidity of the air and a stable humidity of the substrate, the delenks quickly adapt and actively start growing.

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Anna Evans

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