Types of money tree
The Crassula comes from the Crassula genus. The appearance of representatives of the class can vary greatly, depending on the subspecies. Plants can have not only a tree-like form with a clearly defined trunk, in which we are accustomed to seeing the money tree, which is popular among us. They often resemble a bush or have characteristics of ground cover and canopy forms.
Ampel-type money tree
There are even varieties in the genus for landscaping aquariums. But still, in our homes, it is precisely mini-trees with a thick trunk, burdened with signs of woodiness, and fleshy oval leaves that are lovingly grown. Today we will talk about the specifics of caring for this species.
Tree type money tree
History of the Crassula
Crassula has many names. It is called the Crassula, Money Tree or Monkey Tree, Tree of Love or Happiness .
The plant belongs to the Crassula family and the Crassula genus, which has about 300 species of money trees. Homeland of Crassula
An ornamental foliage plant native to Africa - the arid tropics of the South and South-West, Madagascar and South Arabia. Therefore, when choosing a place for a flower, choose the warmest and sunny side of the apartment.
Why is the Crassula called the money tree?
Money tree is the name of certain species of Crasulla that have round leaves shaped like coins . This concept arose in connection with the legend of the Solar Tree, which says that you can find yourself in paradise if you show generosity in earthly life.
The name was first introduced by the Chinese during the Han Empire. Evidence is provided by the excavated tomb of the emperor of this dynasty, decorated with bronze and earthenware.
Basic secrets of proper care
Maintaining a money tree is not particularly difficult. The main thing is not to forget where this plant came to us from and to create optimal microclimatic conditions for it. To do this, you will need to know when the Crassula has active and passive life cycles. The growth period of the money tree falls in spring and summer, and the resting time is autumn and winter.
How to water
Since the money tree is a native of South Africa, it does not like moisture too much. During the period of activity, the fat plant is watered no more than twice a week. During rest - even less often. The guideline for the need to moisten the soil in a flowerpot should be its condition. The soil must be absolutely dry.
Overwatering is harmful to a money tree.
You shouldn’t overdry the soil either, but it’s still less dangerous than overwatering, which is really detrimental to the money tree. After watering, there should be no water left in the pan, so moisten the soil moderately.
Lighting
The role of light in the development of a plant is very important, but the scorching sun is completely contraindicated. The ideal place to place the pot would be the windowsill of a window facing southeast. There will be enough light there, and the sun coming in in the morning will not harm the leaves, due to its mild morning activity.
The money tree does not like direct sunlight.
During the warm period, the money tree can be sent to fresh air, for example, taken out to the balcony, but it would be better to place the pot with the plant on the floor so that the sun does not burn the crown. In winter, the fat plant should be moved to a south window.
In summer, the money tree can be taken outside
Soil and features of fertilizing at home
Since the money tree is a succulent (of this species the most popular among us are cacti), it also needs turf soil for good growth. If this is not available, you can use a universal primer.
It is preferable to plant a money tree in a turf post.
Experienced gardeners often independently select the soil composition, which includes:
1. 4 parts turf soil.
2. 1 part sand.
3. 1 part leaf soil.
4. 1 part humus.
It is necessary to arrange drainage at the bottom of the flowerpot. Pieces of coal and brick chips will cope well with this mission. Those who believe in the magical properties of the fat plant also place a few coins at the bottom of the pot.
Ready drainage for money tree
To feed when caring for the plant, use either universal fertilizers or specific additives intended for succulents. As with most plants, nutrients are added after watering. This way they are absorbed better.
Fertilizers for succulents are suitable for money trees.
In the summer, feed the money tree about once a month, during rest - once every couple of months.
Temperature
Crassula, in principle, does not particularly respond to temperature fluctuations. Despite its southern origin, the plant tolerates temperatures well even at +6o, but the money tree should not be placed specifically in such conditions. The optimal indicators for it will be +18o – +25o. In winter, the operating conditions may be slightly reduced, to 10-16o. When there are temperature changes, you need to monitor the appearance of the fat woman in order to promptly notice problems with its condition.
In winter, pay attention to the appearance of the money tree
Air humidity
The money tree does not need constant spraying. It is better to wipe its coin-like leaves with a damp cloth periodically, thus ridding them of settled dust
Wipe off any accumulated dust from the leaves of the money tree.
If the humidity indicators are not so important for the fat woman, then access to fresh air is simply necessary. Make sure that when ventilating, the plant does not get exposed to rampant drafts. It doesn't like it very much. On warm days, it makes sense to take the money tree out into the garden or onto an open balcony.
Money tree does not like drafts
Subtleties of choosing a flowerpot
When caring for a money tree, it is very important to choose the right “home” for it. A pot of the wrong size can not only slow down the growth of a seedling, but stop it altogether.
Crassula needs a stable, small height, wide pot. This is an ideal option for its shallow root system.
Low wide pot for money tree
The crown of the plant will help determine the width of the pot. The diameter of the flowerpot should be equal to or slightly exceed its spreading nature.
The diameter of the flowerpot should correspond to the width of the crown
Crassula propagation
Propagating this plant is very simple and can be done by every novice gardener. There are three ways to propagate a money tree: cuttings, using leaves or seeds. How exactly does this happen? Let's try to figure it out.
Cutting method
If you don’t want to buy a plant, but the money tree fits very well into your interior, you can simply steal a few cuttings from someone. If you approach the issue correctly, you will soon have your own fat woman.
How the process works:
- Cut cuttings need to be dried
- Select a container with soil in advance. Don't forget drainage
- To make it easier for the plant to take root, you can cover it with a disposable cup, making a kind of greenhouse
- These cups need to be removed 2 times a day for 5-10 minutes to ventilate the plant.
Crassula cuttings in a glass of water, which have already taken root and are ready for planting
Each cutting needs a separate glass. They need to be removed when the cuttings are well rooted. The plant should be replanted into a pot only after its roots have entwined the soil.
Sheet method
Reproduction by leaves is more common than by root propagation, and the process itself is a little simpler.
To propagate Crassula in this way you need:
- Take a little water into a plastic cup or glass and add charcoal to it. After this, put a leaf in a glass and place the container in a dark place.
- Once every couple of days, the water needs to be changed to fresh. Repeat the procedure until roots appear
- When thin threads of roots have appeared, you need to wait a couple of days. Until they get stronger. After this, plant the sprout in the ground. The process must be carried out as carefully as possible so as not to damage the young roots, otherwise the money tree may not take root.
The leaf of the money tree, fixed in the soil, has already sprouted
Using seeds
Germinating Crassula seeds is not an easy task. This will require a lot of effort and time, but the result of the work will please everyone.
You need to prepare special soil. Mix leaf soil and sand in a ratio of 2 to 1. The seeds are placed in the ground and the container is covered with cling film. Every morning the film must be removed to ventilate the plant. Spend 5-10 minutes on this. In addition, you need to spray the soil with water using a spray bottle. As a rule, the first shoots appear after 2 weeks. Then you need to remove the film, but also spray the plants every morning. When the sprouts are more or less strengthened, they need to be transplanted into another box, not very deep.
It is important to maintain a distance between them of at least 1 cm. After the fat plant has become a little stronger, it is planted in a separate pot.
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Flowering money tree - myth or reality?
“Those who see a blooming money tree are guaranteed material profit.”
Those who have seen Crassula bloom can be classified as lucky. The plant does bloom, but it does so extremely rarely at home. Its buds are small, and the flower petals are most often light in color:
1. White and green.
White and green money tree flowers
2. White.
White flowers of the money tree
3. White and pink.
White and pink money tree flowers
The flowers exude a subtle sweet aroma. The flowering period is quite long and can last for several months. Naturally, it falls on the active phase in the life of the plant.
The flowering period of the money tree is quite long.
There is also a belief about this, akin to the story of the fern. Those who see a blooming money tree are guaranteed material profits.
There is a completely scientific explanation for why Crassula rarely blooms even with excellent care at home. The problem is the lack of daylight: in the tropics, daylight hours are much longer. So no mysticism!
The flowering of the money tree is quite a rare occurrence.
Is it possible to stimulate the flowering of the money tree?
“It has been noted that the Crassula loses its color after any stress.”
Expecting the Crassula to bloom due to excellent care in the first years of life is nonsense. At home, such a miracle can happen no earlier than in seven, or even ten years. Sometimes flowering does not occur at all, despite all the efforts of the gardener, but this is not a reason to give up.
Start moving towards your goal by following all the recommendations for caring for a money tree growing at home. Learn to recognize subtle changes in a plant's appearance.
The first flowering often occurs after 7 years
It was noted that the fat woman loses its color after any stress. Some create such situations for the plant intentionally, for a long time, without watering it or organizing an unacceptable temperature regime for it. The first watering after a dry period and getting into optimal conditions can produce the desired effect and, in gratitude for the salvation, the money tree will bloom. But is the game worth the candle? After all, your talisman may not withstand the test and simply die, taking with it your hopes for material well-being.
Money tree: care at home
It depends on the owners whether there will be a dusty crooked bush with sparse leaves on the windowsill, or a beautiful flower with a compact crown and a thick trunk.
Caring for crassula at home is really simple and does not take much time.
Lighting and temperature requirements
Crassula naturally grows in direct sun, but over many years of indoor breeding it has adapted to growing conditions. The flower does not like to stand in the shade; there it develops poorly, the leaves lose turgor and become dull.
If desired, the fat woman can be accustomed to intense light, but this must be done gradually. Otherwise, the plates get burned - they become flabby, covered with an uneven reddish or purple tan.
If everything is done correctly, a burgundy rim appears on the leaves of the Crassula from bright light, without affecting the inner area. This is not a disease or a care error, but a feature of many species of the genus Crassula.
You can grow a money tree at normal room temperature. The culture can withstand heat well, but if you add bright lighting, the leaves will wrinkle. It is better that in spring and summer the apartment should be about 20-25° C.
The temperature during the resting period can be the same as in a living room. The main thing is not to place the fat plant next to heating devices or under a window that is opened for ventilation.
But, if the owners want to see flowering, care involves lowering the temperature to 10-14 ° C in winter and artificial lighting.
Watering and air humidity
Caring for a fat plant is really simple, but it has one “delicate” point - watering. The money tree does not tolerate soaking soil; the roots rot easily. The substrate should dry out by a third between waterings in spring and summer, and at least half in winter.
Overmoistening coupled with low temperatures is especially dangerous. When leaving, the fat plant tolerates dry soil more easily than overwatering.
Some owners irrigate only after the leaves begin to wrinkle - after being saturated with water, they quickly restore their shape. But you can’t care for a fat woman like that! She constantly experiences stress, spends all her strength on survival in an unfavorable environment - she grows poorly, the trunk does not thicken, and she certainly will not bloom.
Crassula with coin-like leaves does not need to spray the crown. The operation should be excluded from the complex of care for monstrous varieties, species with small, scale-like leaves, or densely planted at an acute angle to the stem.
In the warm season, you can wash the fat woman from dust in the shower. If this becomes necessary, it means that the owners are not caring for the flower correctly. When the pot is in a well-ventilated place, but protected from drafts, dust simply does not accumulate on the elastic, glossy leaves.
Rules for applying fertilizers
Some gardeners generally exclude fertilizing from the fat plant care package. This is permissible under the following conditions:
- growing in store-bought cactus soil (there are starting fertilizers there);
- annual transplants;
- the owners want the fat plant to grow slowly and the leaves to be small.
It is easier to care for a money tree in a gravel or other mineral substrate, but it will not be possible to do without fertilizers. They will have to do:
- from spring to late summer - every 2 weeks;
- transition period (March, September) – monthly;
- In autumn and winter, feeding is stopped.
When caring, they use only preparations for cacti - all the elements are correctly selected and presented in a balanced form. The rest contain a lot of nitrogen, and when the fertilizing is diluted more than indicated in the instructions, the disproportion of the main elements remains.
Money tree: transplantation and specifics of reproduction
The time to transplant the fat plant is spring. It is recommended to replant an adult individual annually, or at least every other season. The purchased seedling can be transferred to a new pot immediately after the end of the adaptation period. Its duration is usually two weeks.
It is recommended to replant the money tree annually.
Drainage is placed in a pot selected by size and soil is poured. The money tree seedling is “dumped” into a prepared container along with a lump of soil in the roots, after which the remaining voids are filled with fresh soil. Everything needs to be done carefully, trying not to damage the fragile branches and delicate leaves of young growth.
When transplanting, do not damage the young branches
If, during transplantation, you find rotten pieces of roots, you need to get rid of them by carefully cutting them off. The healthy part is dried and left to ventilate for a day without covering the roots.
Where else does Crassula live and grow in the wild?
The money tree is adventive (newcomer) in Spain. Isolated specimens have also been observed in the wild of New Zealand, Australia and Mexico . However, the most well-documented representatives of Crassula are specimens from the USA.
Thickets of wild Crassula. Photo used as illustration. Source: Yandex.Images
Although the plant is not a listed California weed pest, it is naturalized in riparian and canyon areas near urban areas in Southern California. Also, some species of Crassula have been found in areas of San Francisco, Northern California, as well as in Los Angeles County and southern San Diego.
How to grow a money tree from scratch
You can get a healthy seedling from seeds and cuttings.
Money Tree Seeds
Seeds are sown in ordinary clay pots with a suitable soil mixture. They don't sow deeply. The pot is covered with film (can be glass), creating greenhouse conditions. Care consists of regular half-hour ventilation, which is organized for the crops daily, and spraying the soil with water, which is carried out as the top layer dries. Sprouts will appear in the third week.
money tree sprouts
It is much easier to propagate Crassula by cuttings. They can, bypassing the stage of settling in water, be immediately sent to prepared soil. For rooting, the cuttings are deepened by 6 cm. The best period for propagation is the month of March. It was noted that plants planted at this time have a greater chance of blooming in the future. Planting a money tree cutting in July significantly reduces the likelihood of flowering.
Propagation of money tree by cuttings
