Growing indoor milkweed

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Spurge, numbering several thousand species, is today a widespread decorative culture that adorns the landscapes of gardens. But no less popular is indoor spurge, which growers start at home and thereby decorate the apartment interior.

Indoor spurge

About indoor milkweed

An unpretentious flowering houseplant, euphorbia is often landscaped at home, as it is grown in a variety of conditions. The largest types of indoor milkweed do not require a lot of sunlight and are ready to live under various temperature conditions.

Indoor spurge came to the home windowsill from subtropical regions. Under natural conditions, this succulent is most often found among African and South American vegetation, in the Canary Islands and Madagascar.

The succulent got its name "euphorbia" in its homeland by the name of a connoisseur of medicinal herbs from the Mauritanian island of Euphorba. He used the juice secreted by milkweed plants as a poison.

Among the Euphorbiaceae there are both one- and perennial plants in the form of herbaceous species, shrubs and even low trees.

Due to their toxicity, indoor milkweed species are dangerous and it is often recommended to keep them at home in those rooms where there are no children and no animals. The poisonous juice of the milkweed family that gets on the skin can cause allergic reactions, and if it enters the human or animal body, it harms the body, leading to severe poisoning. Even experienced flower growers transplant an indoor milkweed flower with extreme caution.

All types of milkweed, both home and garden, in their description of the composition contain a rubber component, essential oil, resin and the same milky juice that glorified the plant. In addition to these components, scientists have discovered the presence of nitrogen-containing and polyphenolic compounds in various types of milkweed, some have amorphous gum and coumarins.

The poisonous properties of the plant, with due care, are used today for their benefit as medicinal agents. The root system, foliage and sap of room euphorbia often serve as home pharmaceuticals with beneficial properties against various inflammations, to accelerate wound healing, in order to increase immunity in the treatment of gastric disease.

Varieties of indoor succulents

Not all milkweed hybrids available are suitable for indoor growing. There are the most common euphorbiases that take root well at home, their diversity can be seen in the photo.

White-veined

The white-flowered blooming species is the most popular in the list of indoor milkweed for the home and, by sign, brings prosperity to the house. Outwardly, it looks like a stem with ribs up to 0.4-0.6 meters high, covered with yellow scales. Oval foliage with yellow veins grows at the crown of this plant. This indoor succulent is famous for its frequent flowering.

Mile

This is a type of thorny milkweed, some have nicknamed the crown of thorns for its appearance, which can be seen in the photo. The plant has small in size, up to 3 centimeters in length, oblong leaves, it blooms with small bright flowers, often red. Milkweed bloom lasts from spring to autumn, he loves sunlight very much.

Ribbed

A ribbed succulent plant grows like a green palm stem with oval-shaped foliage at the top. As the plant grows, the leaves fall off, making room for new ones. This is the kind that can only be propagated at home by seeds.

Smolonos

The resinous euphorbia looks like a branched shrub that grows up to a meter in height, with stems of green with a blue tint that have edges. On the edges it has spikes up to 5 millimeters in size in pairs. It blooms at the top of the stems with yellow inflorescences.

Tirucalli

This type of homemade milkweed is a bush of cylindrical green branches growing up to 0.7 centimeters thick. Small leaves, up to 6-12 millimeters, fall off, leaving point marks on straight branches.

Triangular

A triangular succulent grows like a tree up to two to three meters in height in the form of trunks with three sides, which is why it got this name. Its stems are painted with white stripes, the rib is equipped with red thorns with a brown tint, half a centimeter long.

Hare ears

This indoor spurge with an interesting name is correctly called volus-leaved. A rare species is a set of stems up to 0.2 meters long and up to 4-7 centimeters in diameter, covered with tubercles. Milkweed foliage grows on top of the head.

Basic principles of growing indoor succulents

Although homemade euphorbia is not at all picky about growing conditions, some rules must be followed when caring for it:

milkweed do not resist sunlight, therefore they can be left for a long time on the windowsill in the southern, southeastern and southwestern sides, without worrying that the plant will dry out under the sun's rays,
the humidity of the ambient air does not significantly affect the comfortable state of the plant, therefore additional moisture and spraying is not required only to wipe the foliage from dust with a special brush,
a succulent can grow in almost any temperature regime, however, the most comfortable limit for it will be from 22 to 30 degrees, you should also not lower the indicator below 10 degrees,
when children or animals live in an apartment, the spurge is located in a place inaccessible to them.

Even non-professional growers can master these simple rules for growing and caring for indoor milkweed, because a succulent is often considered as an ornamental culture in the house, and inexperienced growers can also take care of them.

Principles of propagation of succulents by cuttings

Different varieties of homemade milkweed reproduce in different ways. For some species it will be preferable to propagate through cuttings.

Seedling through cuttings

Reproduction of homemade milkweed by cuttings is done at the onset of the spring period. This method of reproduction is pruning cuttings-shoots on a stem up to 12 centimeters long and placing them in water at room temperature or warmer, after which they are dried for several days. In this case, the cut is covered with a film, which means that the cutting is ready for planting in the soil. The best for such a cutting will be a peat-sand mixture.After abundant watering, a succulent stalk planted in the soil is covered with a film to create a thermal effect and left so that the root system of the plant is fixed at a temperature of at least 20 degrees. The rooting process of homemade milkweed takes approximately 2 weeks.

Seedling through foliage

Reproduction of room milkweed through leafy cuttings involves plucking the leaf from which the milky juice should drain. The leaf is kept in the root, then moves into mineral wool or sand with large grains of sand. The planted leaf is also abundantly spilled with water and covered with a film. The rooting process of leafy seedlings lasts at least a month. At the same time, one should not forget about regular airing of the growing cutting.

The principles of reproduction of a succulent by seeds and division

Reproduction of indoor milkweed by cuttings is not suitable for all types of succulents. So, spherical euphorbia grows better if propagated and grown from seeds. There are also those species that reproduce by dividing the bush.

Planting seedlings with seeds

For the reproduction of milkweed at home by planting seeds, you will need to prepare the ground mixed with sand, for which this mixture is calcined in the oven and poured into a container for planting seeds. Milkweed seeds are sown into a well-spilled sand-earth mixture, which are subsequently left in a lighted and warm room for at least 2-4 months for seedlings to appear. As in the case of the reproduction of homemade milkweed with the help of foliage, the film periodically rises to give the emerging seeds air and water. The succulent is transplanted into permanent soil when it gave the first leaves.

Seedlings by division

It is more expedient to plant home spurge by dividing the bush in early spring or at the very beginning of autumn. With this method of reproduction, the bush, together with the root, is completely removed from the pot, its root system is cleaned of dried and dead areas, the stem and roots are divided, preferably by hand, without using a knife or scissors. If it is not possible to separate the spurge without the help of tools, then the places of the cuts are subsequently burned with finely crushed coal.

The parts obtained from dividing the bush are placed in different flower pots with a pre-laid drainage layer. As a rule, for a plant to adapt with this method of reproduction, a longer period is required, sometimes amounting to a year or two.

Growing and grooming approaches

Planting and caring for homemade milkweed has a number of easy-to-follow features.

Place for a plant

The place where you can put the flower pot with milkweed depends on the weather outside the window. When the sun is scorching outside the window, euphorbia is usually hidden in the shade. Although succulent can easily tolerate hot climates, as it comes from warm countries, excess heat entering through the window glass can cause unwanted burns on the leaves and drying out of the soil in the flower pot.

Often, flower growers who have a summer cottage plot for the summer period their indoor euphorbia are planted in open ground or simply taken out in a pot to fresh air.

In winter, try to avoid flowerpot locations where there is a central heating battery nearby.

Watering quantity

Succulents, which include home euphorbia, can do without watering for a long time, because the scheme for saturating the plant with water suggests that:

in the summer, the plant is watered once in a weekly interval, a succulent in the spring and autumn seasons requires water no more than once in the past two weeks,
spurge in winter does not require watering more often, weeks, once a month.

You can determine whether watering is required for room milkweed by the dryness of the upper soil layer. In case of exceeding the frequency and moderation of watering, putrefactive processes often occur that affect the root system of the plant.At the same time, indoor spurge does not belong to those home decorative flowers that require spraying.

Planting a succulent

Indoor euphorbia is planted and transplanted at the onset of spring, before the beginning of the growing season, while transplanting it is allowed no more than once every two years, for which a loose soil mixture filled with nutrient minerals is used. Usually the reason for transplanting a plant is the overgrowth of its root system.

A mixture of different amounts of peat and land components is made as a soil, with the addition of sand and turf. Some people prefer to purchase ready-made soil mixtures for planting homemade milkweed. Before planting a succulent in a flower pot, a drainage layer is laid on the bottom of it.

Cutting and feeding a flower

For a comfortable well-being of homemade milkweed when caring for it, it is necessary to periodically prune the plant and feed it with the help of mineral flower complexes.

Pruning

They try to cut the succulent flower in spring and summer. Spring flower pruning is related to the appearance of the plant and allows you to form the desired shape of the flower and give it further growth.

When carrying out the pruning procedure, it is necessary to remember about the toxicity of the milky juice of room milkweed, therefore, after the end of the work, do not forget to wash your hands with soap and water.

Summer pruning is done in order to get rid of dried-up flower shoots and give strength to the young and strong, which should bloom for the next season.

Top dressing

Feeding the succulent with the help of mineral complexes in the process of caring for a flower is carried out in the spring and autumn. Usually, flower growers use special fortified mixtures intended for feeding cacti.

The need for feeding can be judged when the leaves of the milkweed family turn yellow or they have fallen off.

The plant is fed once in a two-week interval, which is quite enough to give home milkweed strength for growth and development.