We identify healthy snake plant leaves by looking at their appearance. Usually if they are healthy, leaves need to be plump, fleshy, and green in color.
If the plant is going through any root rot condition, instead of those green and chubby leaves, you could spot them as mushy leaves and often discolored.
Moreover, healthy snake plant leaves are rigid too. Once you spot your snake plants leaves in their usual green color and fleshy, that indicates they are getting adequate nutrients and running in good health too.
On the other hand, if you spot your snake plant leaves carrying a yellow tip of the leaf’s margins or else if the leaves are pale in color and floppy, those are the signs that the plant is going to perish.
Why are snake plant leaves bending?
When it comes to snake plants, their pointed leaves which grow upwards are one of the most striking highlights of them.
They tend to grow from 8 inches to 5 feet in height. However, there could be some snake plants which try to bend randomly too.
Factors such as over watering, issues related to lighting and improper potting activities would attribute the snake plants to bend.
Snake plants hate to be in soggy and damp conditions in the soil as they could suffer from root rots as a repercussion of that.
As such you need to avoid over watering them and most importantly, they need to have a well-draining soil mix as well.
In addition to over watering, if you leave a snake plant in low light conditions for a prolonged period, that could also affect snake plants bending.
Snake plants in general are a set of hardy plants and could thrive well without any direct sunlight, they will not be able to survive like that for a longer period.
How to avoid snake plant leaves bending
It is crucial that you keep the snake plants moist rather than keeping them in damp and soggy conditions.
You only need to be careful when you water the snake plants. Ideally you need to water the snake plants when their top layer of the first 2-3 inches are dry when you touch them.
Make sure that you water the snake plants more compared to others If you have grown snake plants in partial sunlight,
Ideally you need to water them, once every couple of weeks. Once you notice that water is draining through the drainage holes, you need to stop watering them.
When it comes to watering them in the winter months, you need to water them only once every month.
The key factor in terms of watering the snake plants is that the pot you are growing should contain enough draining holes.
Furthermore, it is important that you use a well-draining soil mix to plant them. Alternatively, you could grow them in a regular soil mix and add coarse or even perlite which would fasten the drainage of the pot.
Why are snake plant leaves splitting?
People tend to grow snake plants a lot due to its attractive foliage and that is the most striking factor of the snake plants which make them look attractive.
Snake plants are quite plants due to its sturdiness as well. However, despite all these, chances are that you could spot the snake plants splitting too.
There are several factors which attribute this. They are as follows,
- Overwatering your Snake plant
- Pests’ attacks
- Intense changes in the environment
- Physical damage
- Deficiency of micronutrients
- Location where you have placed the snake plant
How to avoid Why are snake plant leaves splitting?
You need to water them while sticking to a watering schedule ideally so that it would allow you to stop over watering the snake plants.
You need to check the soil condition whether it is still too soggy and damp prior to watering them again.
You need to water them after you ascertain that soil is dry only. Inspect the draining holes in the pot as well.
If you have placed a tray under the plant, ensure that you empty it if it has excess water stored. Snake plants could go waterless for about 1-2 months.
Ensure that you have used a well-draining soil mix to grow snake plants. Furthermore, to avoid this condition, you may isolate the plant from others and remove any damaged leaves from the plant.
When you have to remedy the pests, you could either use organic treatments or pesticides.
If you want to apply something organic, you could use neem oil on them.
When you use them, you could use them while mixing with lukewarm water and then apply this on the snake plant.
Keep doing this for about a couple of weeks which will eradicate the pests as well as their eggs. On the other hand, you utilize pesticides as well.
when you use pesticides ensure that you always adhere to their instructions and dozes. Do not overuse them as they could badly affect the plant.
Once you forecast any environmental changes, like if you expect winter conditions to come soon, you could relocate it to somewhere it does not get exposed to colder climates.
Moreover, refrain in locating these plants closer to radiators. If you wish you could even use a humidifier to observe the humidity level.
Do not mist the snake plant and you could consider using artificial light to control the temperature or optionally you could shift to a place where it will get proper temperature level.
When you do this, ensure that you do it to a place where it would be safer for both pets and for plants as well.
Once you leave the house, make sure that the plants are not accessible for the pets. You could use hanging baskets to grow them and that will keep the plants safe and inaccessible for the pets.
Alternatively, you may grow plants on the shelves and keep some more books and other ornaments as well.
Moreover, you should check on the ph level of the soil mix as well. if you realize that the soil ph is too acidic or too alkaline, you could maintain that.
You could use boric acid after diluting it with water and you may spray it at the plant. Instead, you could even use organic elements as well.
Furthermore, if you have located the snake plant with another plant and if you realize you have overcrowded their growing environment, you should consider giving them an additional space for them.
Moreover, you could consider using spatial placement of the plants too.
Why do snake plant leaves droop?
You could spot your snake plant leaves dropping due to several reasons. Over watering is the biggest reason for snake plant leaves dropping too.
Apart from that, not having adequate drainage in the soil, insufficient heat level, pests’ attacks and other diseases, lack of proper sunlight and finally becoming root bound would cause the snake plant leaves to droop.
However, if you rectify this issue in advance and if you could attend to them and remedy them you could cover this condition.
How to avoid snake plant leaves droop
If you spot your snake plant leaves dropping at the initial stage, you could overcome this issue and save your plant from practicing the following steps.
However, if the issue has spread to a great extent, you cannot revive the damaged leaves no matter what you do.
You could only wait until new growth arises and then trim them off or wait until they naturally die. You need to trim off the rotten leaves or the dead leaves right below the dead or the rotten part of the plant.
When you cut them, ensure that you do not cause major damage to the plant.
Moreover, you need to take the aforesaid steps to overcome the over watering. Furthermore, ensure that you expose them to proper sunlight for an adequate period too.
Why Snake plant leaves are soft?
If you spot your snake plant has become soft, it could have also happened as a repercussion due to over watering.
Apart from that, it could be due to root rots as well. What you simply have to do is water them when the soil is in dry condition without causing it to over water.
You need to adjust your watering frequency depending on the season as well.
If you think you have unintentionally over-watered the plant, you could remove the plant from the pot and check on the soil condition.
If you notice that soil is soggy and damp, you could ascertain that root rot has caused your snake plant leaves to become soft.
How to avoid Snake plant leaves are soft
You need to simply water the plant while making sure that you do not over water them. Keep in mind to check on the soil condition before you water the plants.
If you release the soil is still moist prior to watering, you should wait for another couple of days and then proceed with watering.
During winter you may water them once a month as it would be quite harmful if you over water them especially during winter.
Why Snake plant leaves not growing straight?
Lack of sunlight is the major factor for the snake plants not to grow straight. Snake plants are usually known as slow growing sets of plants.
If you expose them for low light conditions, it could have a slow growth rate.
Once these plants do not get adequate light from the direction where they are placed, they find it difficult to absorb sunlight.
As such you could spot them stretching and bending towards the direction where they can absorb sunlight.
In this circumstance, the leaves also tend to curve towards the direction where they can absorb sunlight.
How to avoid Snake plant leaves not growing straight
You could avoid this condition by rotating your snake plant. Moreover, examine whether your plant leaves are growing upward especially when you are watering the plant.
You need to optimize the care conditions so that you could spot your snake plant grows rapidly and healthily.
As such you need to make sure that you provide adequate sunlight for them.
During winter, it is quite normal to see them stop growing since that is their dormant period and the lighting conditions would also be lower.
Further they will not make any new growth during this period too. However, to avoid this situation, you may use a grow light as it will enhance the lighting conditions.
Why Snake plant have leaf hole?
Slug attack or a damage of snails could cause the snake plant leaves to have holes.
How to avoid Snake plant have leaf hole
To treat this, you could change the soil mix whilst using a fresh soil mix. Alternatively, you could leach the plant with water.
Why Snake plant leaves are skinny?
There could be some snake plants of which the leaves would be skinny. It could be due to a nutrient deficiency or due to natural aging too.
How to avoid Snake plant leaves are skinny
To treat this, you could apply a cactus fertilizer which will be effective on these. Moreover you could report the plants also when you spot them have become root bound.
Why Snake plant leaves dying?
You could identify this condition, if you spot your snake plants leaves have become soft mushy and floppy due to over watering.
Apart from that, if you could notice any boggy smell coming out from the potting mix, you could assume that your snake plant is dying.
Once the plant has gone through over watering, it could also affect the roots of the plant and you could feel them mushy.
Moreover, they will turn brown from their usual color. Once these conditions are the signs, they indicate that they are in a more severe state.
In addition to the aforesaid signs, their leaves would also become wrinkled and crispy and withered. Y
ou could first notice these changes at the leaf margins, and they will tend to spread all over the leaf gradually.
Under watering could also have resulted in these conditions. As such, best is to observe the plant so that you could realize whether there has any pest infection occurred too.
Apart from scales, mealy bugs could also attribute the plant to die. Those are the little fuzzy organisms which usually occupy the places where we cannot even spot them at once.
They usually suck the plant sap and cause the plant to deteriorate. These are the pests which you need to have a closer look on as they could impact your plant on a fatal level.
Finally, a drastic change in the weather conditions would also be lethal on snake plants.
They can withstand the high temperature, but they will not tolerate colder weather conditions as they are not cold hardy plants.
If you spot your plant’s leaves are mushy and soft and if you have not over-watered them, this could be the reason.
All the aforesaid reason attributes the snake plants to die if we do not attend to them then and there with the relevant remedies.
How to avoid Snake plant leaves dying
You need to practice a good watering mechanism for the snake plants without causing over watering. Make sure you water the plants only when their soil is dry.
Furthermore, check whether you are using a well-draining soil mix and whether your pot has enough draining holes too.
You could consider repotting them if the repercussions of over watering are on a critical level.
On the other hand, if underwatering has caused the plant to show the above symptoms. You need to increase watering as appropriate.
If the plant is going through any pests’ invasions, you should treat it accordingly either with neem oil as an organic treatment or even with any other pesticides.
Check on the humidity of the snake plant whilst using a humidifier and on the temperature as well. After that make sure that it is given all its proper care and growing conditions.
Can snake plant leaves heal?
Once a snake plant leaves are damaged, it is not possible for them to heal. Having said that, you could use them for propagation purposes which will reward you with new plants.
If a snake plant leaf is broken or has had any physical damage, they cannot regrow and heal despite us even trimming them.
How to propagate snake plant from leaves
In terms of propagating the snake plants, the leaf method is quite famous and easy to do without any problems.
However, there could be some exceptional snake plant types which could lose their striking foliage once we trim their leaves off.
For example, if you own a snake plant which has yellow tips of the leaves, the best is to propagate them by division which will help them to keep their shape and appearance.
To do this, you could follow the below guidelines.
- you need to take a leaf from your plant whilst cutting it at a slight angle into sections. Those sections should be about three inches in size.
- Arrange a pot while putting sand inside.
- Place the leaves sections in the sand straight. When you do this, make sure you place the cut end down. This will help to keep half an inch to one inch of the leaf under the soil.
- Water them frequently which will keep the soil moist. After about one month to two months’ time, you could spot the new shoots forming.
Related questions
How to clean snake plant leaves?
You could clean the snake plants by spraying water and wiping it with a clean cloth.
How to replant snake plant leaves?
You only need to place the leaf cut edge in a water container under indirect sunlight. However, before you plant them make sure that you put water which will cover the bottom part tissues.
Ideally, the bottom quarter tissues should be covered in water.
You could see them forming little roots faster. After that you could plant them and continue with the regular care treatments.
Read Next: Why Do Snake Plant Leaves Turn Yellow? Explained With 10 Reasons
