Philodendron roseocataphyllum are the hottest indoor plants this season. These rare plants have the characteristic heart-shaped foliage typical of philodendrons.
These plants will make working at an office or home a very relaxing experience with their air-purifying properties.
In this guide, you discover all the different hacks we use to keep our roseocataphyllums happy and healthy.
Contents
What Is Philodendron Roseocataphyllum?
Philodendron roseocataphyllum Platinum is an evergreen plant from the warm rainforests of the tropics. It has large heart-shaped leaves that never fail to capture anyone’s attention. This eye-catching plant has basic care needs and is easy to look after.
Keep reading this article about this beautiful thriving plant, as we guide you through its care even some problems which may arise, don’t worry, we’ve covered the solutions as well!
Philodendron Roseocataphyllum Care
Let us discuss all these points separately in the section coming up ahead.
– Water Requirements
This is a Philodendron plant that does not like its soil to get dry. It also cannot tolerate the soil getting too wet and runny. You must maintain a delicate balance between underwatering and overwatering this sensitive plant.
One hack our experts have come up with is to let only the top one inch of the soil dry up. Quickly check the soil before watering each time to ensure it is safe to go.
We have got into a habit of just putting our fingers into the soil up to the knuckle. You can use a skewer or a pencil instead. When your plant’s soil is ready, take a moderate amount of lukewarm water. Using very cold or hot water might cause shock to the plant’s roots.
Direct the water towards the soil and take care that none of it splashes on the plant. Water splashing on the plant will cause diseases like powdery mildew to develop on the plant.
It is best to keep watering until it begins to drain from the pot. Give 10 to 13 minutes for the water to drain from the soil and collect into the saucer. Then drain this saucer out as well; otherwise, this water will reabsorb back into the soil.
– Light Requirements
Roseocataphyllum likes bright indirect light for most of the day to grow. Direct sunlight can cause its big heart-shaped leaves to become discolored, and sunburned. Naturally, light conditions are different inside and outside the house. You need to place this plant where it will receive the most optimum light.
Inside the house, this Philodendron wants a sunny room with proper windows. If the whole room is lit adequately for most of the day, you can put this plant anywhere inside it. Take care while keeping this plant near windows. Intense light from a southern-facing window will kill its leaves. Maintaining a safe distance of at least three feet from this window would be best.
If you want this plant near a window, go for an eastern or western facing one.
Outside light will be too intense for this plant from tropical forest beds. Some shade will inevitably be needed. Dappled shade from a tree or a larger plant will help them grow. Alternatively, align them along a northern-facing wall. In short, this is more of a shaded patio plant than a lawn plant.
Soil Requirements
The soil for roseocataphyllum needs to be between 5.5 to 7.5. Take care that it is highly well-draining and porous. Porous soil helps with the proper delivery of oxygen to the roots. It also helps drain away all the extra water and prevents overwatering.
Make sure your soil has the following useful ingredients within your soil. Buy any regular well-draining potting mixture from the store as the base material for the soil.
Add stuff like perlite, chunks of bark, and vermiculite to the soil to improve its porosity. Some organic ingredients like peat also help with maintaining the right water balance. The sponge in extra water from the soil and release it back when needed. Ofcourse, the roots also need nutrients from the soil. Besides peat, you can also add a handful of compost to the soil.
– Temperature Requirements
65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit will make this plant prosper. This is because it is native to the hot tropical forest beds where it stays warm all year round.
During summer, your plant will probably continue growing happily because the temperatures are so high.
If an air conditioner keeps your indoor living space chilled, then keep this plant away from direct cold blasts of air. Please keep it in the kitchen or the washroom, which are generally warmer.
Winter time can be a bit tricky for Philodendron lovers. Like Philodendron alatiundulatum, this one also suffers when the temperature falls below 50 percent. Moving the plant indoors where temperatures outside drop during winters is best. Still, it is not safe to keep it too near a radiator.
The poor plant drops almost all of its leaves to conserve its temperature. Its growth becomes severely retarded. Sometimes the plant goes into dormancy, making it nearly impossible to bring it out.
– Humidity Requirements
This plant needs moderately high humidity levels for its leaves to stay fresh and moist. Try to keep the humidity around 50 to 60 percent. Out in the garden, winds blowing throughout the day can drain moisture from the leaves. The air conditioner and the radiator inside the house can also dry the plant.
It would help if you kept an eye on the humidity using a hygrometer. For you to maintain high humidity levels around this Philodendron plant, you may start by keeping any water-filled tray under the pot, as this method helps. Put something in the tray so that the pots don’t come in direct contact with the water.
If you have a lot of humidity-loving plants, move them all close to each other. Without compromising on air circulation, this thing will help improve humidity around all of them.
Furthermore, you may also consider investing in a humidifier which will make being a plant parent so much easier. This device maintains the right levels of humidity all year long without any effort on your side.
Lastly, another option would be misting, which is our least favorite method of artificially improving humidity. If you mist your plant, do it early in the morning and with only a small amount of water.
– Fertilizing Requirements
Philodendron has varying fertilizing needs throughout the year. During spring and fall, you will need to feed it once each month. You may start fertilizing every week during summer when the plant’s growth is at its peak. For the entirety of the winter period, stop feeding altogether.
If you find regular fertilizing a cumbersome task, buy some powdered slow-release fertilizer. You may mix some of this powder with the soil at the start of spring. It should last you a good five to six months at least.
For roseocataphyllum, use a well-balanced liquid fertilizer. This one will have an NPK ratio of 20:20:20, meaning it will have an equal amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
It is very important that you keep in mind to always dilute your fertilizer, no matter what it says on the packaging. Use filtered water to dilute the fertilizer to half its actual strength. Before fertilizing, water the soil thoroughly to help the roots tolerate the feed better.
If signs of overfertilizing appear, such as yellowing leaves, stop fertilizing for some weeks. Every month, deep water the soil about three times over. Salts and toxic by-products from fertilizer will be washed away along with it.
– Pruning Requirements
If you don’t prune this plant, it will grow disproportionately all over the place. Think about a particular shape you want to give this plant, then cut off any branch growing against this shape.
The leaves on the stem’s lower part will eventually turn yellow and papery with age. As will some of the newer ones. The plant looks much better with these leaves pruned off. It also creates spaces to improve air circulation throughout the plant.
When pruning, make a very brilliant cut at 45 degrees. This would improve the chances of regrowth and promote further growth. Take care that you use bleach or disinfectant to clean all sharp cutting tools before pruning the plant.
Propagation
Have you been looking for another Philodendron roseocataphyllum for sale? Instead, it would be best to try propagating it yourself at home. There are two easy methods to go about, and both are extremely fruitful.
Take care of timings before you begin propagating the plant. The time between spring and late summer yields the best results.
If your plant looks like it needs repotting, take it out of its pot and instead propagate it through root division. You can start by taking great care while taking the roots out of the soil. One hack is to water the soil abundantly to make it very soft.
Then, you must pour water on the roots to wash off the dirt attached to them. Now, you will see that the roots are quite easy to separate from one another simply by untangling them. However, some of the roots might be too intertwined and need to be cut off.
Divide the plant in moderation. It is okay to divide one plant into just three or four small ones. Each divided part should have its stems and leaves. Mix the new soils just like the soil of the parent plant. Lastly, place each divided plant part in its pot and take great care of it until it takes roots and starts to grow.
Problems
Roseocataphyllum is one of the most unproblematic hoyas in general. This can be a troublesome endeavor only if you don’t take care of the plant properly. Learn why leaf spot disease, pest infestation, and sunburn occur and how to treat them.
– Bacterial Leaf Spot
Leaf spot is a destructive disease to attack Philodendron furcatum and roseocataphyllum. Its causative organism, Xanthomonas, thrives in wet conditions.
Spots barely one-quarter of an inch wide appear all over the plant. These will be wet and black with yellow hallows around them. After the appearance of initial symptoms, the affected plant will begin to die within a few weeks only. All its leaves will fall off and wither in a sad little mass.
To clean this away, make sure to begin by isolating the plant in a distant spot, the reason is that this disease can quickly jump from one plant to the next.
Then, using sharp shearing scissors, cut off the plant parts that have turned black. Cut only the parts that are the most severely affected. You don’t want to shave the entire plant bare. Always sterilize the shears right after using them on the diseased leaves.
Liquid copper is a common antifungal spray that works against bacteria too. Start spraying it on the sick plant every week until the plant starts flourishing again.
– Pest Attacks
The good news is that this plant is generally pest-resistant, just like Philodendron sparreorum. It might succumb to pest attacks whenever there is a lapse in its care. Mealybugs, aphids, mites, and scales are all pests that feed on your plant’s sap.
These parasitic pests suck the sap out of your plant, causing yellowing and weakening. The malnourished leaves become shriveled and start falling off.
Aphids can be too small to see clearly. Most of these other pests can be easily seen clearly. Most of them are found in large clusters near leaf nodes. Don’t worry if you recognize pests attacking your plant. Most of these pests are super convenient to get rid of with just a few weeks’ worth of care.
It is very essential to get rid of pest attacks, hence the first thing you must do is isolate the infested plant from the rest of your plant collection. Followed by taking the pot outside and washing this plant. Direct a beam of water under the leaves to blast most of the adult plants right out of the plant.
For the most stubbornly stuck pests, take a toothbrush to scrub them off physically. Once the plant has dried, it is time to attack the larvae and eggs that we cannot see.
When it comes to natural antifungals, there is none better than neem oil. Apply this to the whole plant using a cotton roll. If applying neem oil on the entire hoya seems like a hard task, make a foliar spray instead. Neem oil foliage spray is made from one teaspoon of neem oil in one gallon of water.
– Sunburn
Hoya plants need only indirect sunlight, whether it be hoya alatiuntuladum or this one. Direct light rays on its leaves will most definitely cause sunburn. In the beginning, the affected leaves only turn yellow. As the exposure continues, they turn brown at the edges and curl.
Sunburn causes permanent damage to the leaves. Therefore it is key to know that if you see a leaf yellowing or its edges turning brown, never take this lightly. Once the leaves have been burned by direct sun, you cannot make them get healthy again.
However, it would be best to improve the plant’s light conditions immediately. Of course, you don’t want all the leaves to burn down. You better prune the leaves that have been burned and add them to your mulch or compost pile.
FAQ
Can I Propagate Philodendron Roseocataphyllum Through Stem Cuttings?
Stem-cutting propagation is very straightforward, and you can complete it in just one hour. Remember to never use gardening instruments that have not been disinfected by rubbing alcohol and washed properly.
By cutting a healthy and pest-free stem piece three to four inches long using these instruments, now, place this cut piece in an air-tight container for a few days until you can see calluses forming at the cut end.
Meanwhile, fill a small pot with a well-draining potting mix like the parent plants’ soil. Make three inches deep hole in the middle of the pot. Gently insert this cut piece of the stem into this hole. The callused part should go into the soil.
Moisten the soil with water right then. Afterward, maintain a proper watering regime as mentioned above. Keep the plant in a window that receives bright, indirect light and high temperatures.
If you have a humidifier, this would be the time to use it to provide moderately high humidity levels. Otherwise, you will have to wrap the plant in a transparent plastic sheet.
Does Philodendron Roseocataphyllum get variegated?
Philodendron Roseocataphyllum can develop variegation, but it is not guaranteed. Factors like lighting and genetics influence variegation patterns.
Under what conditions should I repot Philodendron Roseocataphyllum?
Repot Philodendron Roseocataphyllum when its roots are cramped and fill the current pot. Typically, this occurs every 1-2 years. Choose a slightly larger pot with well-draining soil to ensure healthy growth.
Conclusion
This marks the end of our care guide so let us quickly recap it before we go.
- Roseocataphyllum is a rare type of heart-shaped Philodendron.
- Like most tropical plants, it thrives under bright indirect light.
- As a rule, don’t allow this plant’s soil to dry more than one inch from the top.
- There are two simple ways to propagate this plant: one is by root division, and the second is by stem cuttings.
If you like philodendrons, then this one is not to be missed. Even as your first Philodendron, the roseocataphyllum is a chill plant to take care of.
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