Today I was going to talk to you about the plant croton

Today I was going to talk to you about the plant croton

now I’m sure that’s really the only name you’ve probably ever heard it called the Croton the Croton crouton but I’ve also heard it called the garden Croton and the variegated Croton but its scientific name is Cody I am very gaydom it is a tropical plant it’s from Indonesia Malaysia and

Australia but it’s a very unique plant it’s probably one of the most difficult

plants that I’ve ever messed with and I think it’s really funny too because a lot of people they feel one way or the other you either love this plant for its stunning variegation and its beautiful leaf colors or you hate it because it drops leaves quicker than anything else I’ve ever seen in my life but I’m here today you can’t talk a little bit about that to kind of help you out in case you do have this plant cause it can be frustrating now I know it’s fall so a lot of you have seen this plant all over the stores and you think wow that’s really beautiful it’s got greens and yellows and pinks and kind of reds and different color hues and everything else it’s a really strikingly beautiful plant but unless you know what you’re doing is

a very hard plant to take care of I mean this plant drops leaves quicker than I go through money so it can be very difficult and that’s really only just because of where it comes from like I said it is a tropical plant so it needs a good amount of light in fact if your plant looks more green than yellow or red or any other color that means your plants not getting enough light and it will start to kind of turn green so that it can better use more chlorophyll and absorb light better but if it’s getting plenty of light it will get it’s beautiful colors and show these different patterns and just really look stunning like the plant is supposed to look so I

would say medium to bright indirect light is perfect for this plant I mean

if you’re getting this plant 1 to 2 to 3 or 4 hours of direct sunlight a day it

should be fine but like I said if it’s turning green you’re not giving enough

light it can pretty much survive at any window except the north I think North is not enough light for it to survive I’ve got mine kind of sitting in like the south when it gets ample sunlight in the afternoon in the morning not so much and he seems to be doing fine there so we’ll make sure he’s getting at least two or three hours of direct sunlight a day and

then bright sunlight the rest of the dayand water you really only should water this guy whenever that about top half or inch of the soil is dry so stick your finger down in there and if you see a bunch of like mud and muck and granules and sediment all over your finger it’s

not time to water give it a couple of days maybe even a week but check it

periodically stick your finger down there and when you go to pull it back up and you feel no moisture and you see nothing really stuck to your finger it’s time to give him some water so in the

spring and summer I probably will water

him depending on how hot it gets it

could get water about every day but this

is mainly an outdoor plant for a lot of

people but a lot of people do keep it

indoors so indoors in the summertime

you’re probably not gonna dry the plant

out as much so you won’t need to water

it is often but in the fall in winter

you will have to decrease the water

drastically this plant will kind of go

into a resting mode and it won’t really

require as much water humidity is very

important for this plant you definitely

should use a humidifier or a pebble tray

and all you need to do for a pebble tray

is to just get a longer tray has some

walls inside that can actually hold the

water in lay some pebbles all over it

and then fill it up with water now you

don’t want the plant to make contact

with the water you want it to actually

just sit on top of the pebbles so as the

water evaporates it will go kind of up

to the leaves and moisten the plant now

as I was saying you don’t want the pot

where it’s actually able to suck in

water to make contact with that water or

you’ll probably end up just drowning

your roots but indoors you’re gonna at

least need about forty percent humidity

really forty-five to fifty percent

humidity is probably perfect but this

guy doesn’t need as much as maybe like a

prayer plant or some of your other

orchids but it kind of needs a good

amount of humidity like I said not as

much as like an orchid wouldn t or

anything like that but I use a

humidifier with mine and it seems to

have helped now I believe this is my

third one of these plants that I’ve had

the first two died and that’s just

because I didn’t give the first one a

whole bunch of light so the leaves were

dropping a second one I didn’t give

enough water so the leaves were dropping

but I think third time’s gonna be the

charm

so wish me luck soil you definitely want

something that’s quick draining I’m

gonna use my concoction that does have a

good amount of sand in it but something

that’s made for cacti succulents would

really work well you want something

that’s gonna be pretty rich in nutrients

so that it will be able to feed the

plant for a while but you definitely

want it to be able to let the excess

water run free now you can use the

saucer to catch some of the excess water

but you don’t want to keep the roots

saturated too long so water it enough to

maybe where a little bit comes at the

bottom and then the plant can just suck

that back up but if you’ve got an inch 2

or 3 inches of water in there drink up

it out because before we can process all

that it’s actually gonna dive root rot

now these leaves are a magnet for dust

and dirt especially the ones with the

larger leaves they collect dirt like

it’s nobody’s business so your plant to

favor and kind of wipe it down what I

usually do is take distilled water and

do about three parts water to one part

lemon juice and then I soak a washcloth

down in there soak it up and then wipe

the leaves down on both sides and it’ll

retain a nice shine and actually not

kind of smother out for the stomata and

let the plan actually breathe

temperature this guy is tropical so he

does like really hot weather kind of hot

and humid just like we kind of like it

on the hot side I know a lot of us don’t

look at how bunch of humidity but as far

as temperature goes we pretty much share

the same kind of opinion on temperature

I think if it’s gonna be hotter than

about 90 95 100 you want to make sure

your plant does if it’s outside have

some kind of protection from the Sun the

hotter part of the day if it gets down

to about 55 to 50 I would actually bring

your plant indoors and make sure it’s

able to be protected from the code and

it will not survive frost this guy is

tropical so make sure you do not leave

it outside whenever the brisk autumn air

comes a-calling because you can’t kill

your plant a little disclaimer this guy

is extremely toxic the roots the leaves

the stems the seeds it is all very very

toxic so be very careful now this plant

isn’t really toxic unless it’s ingested

so if you have a kid especial

young curious one I wouldn’t even keep

the plant just because like I said they

do drop leaves relatively easily and if

somebody were to walk by and pick it up

curiously just kind of nibble on it it

may end up killing your cat your dog or

anything else so that being said I have

one and I have an indoor cat and indoor

dog I kind of keep mine up a little bit

so that they’re not able to combine

nibble on it but anytime you do handle

the leaves and touch all over it you

repot and you trim your roots up I would

wash your hands and wear gloves it has

been known to actually cause an eczema

and some people so it can irritate the

skin pretty well and it’s actually been

suspected as a carcinogen meaning that

it actually can cause cancer now that’s

not for sure yet so we don’t know but I

wouldn’t take the chance you don’t want

to get to be about 40 50 60 years old

and find out that one of your best

friends has secretly been giving you a

little cancer or anything like that so

just be cautious use preventative

measures like I said wash your hands and

wear gloves pick the leaves up throw

them away and make sure no squirrels or

anything else like that it might find it

I don’t think that they’re really drawn

to anything like that but you never know

so just be careful with that again if

your plant is getting kind of tall and

lanky and you don’t really like that

anywhere that you kind of see new growth

on a stem you can take your thumb or

pruning shears and just kind of pinch

about an inch to half an inch off and

that will actually cause the plant to

start pushing out a little bit more

pinching it off is actual term so like I

said just kind of pinch it back and

instead of getting tall and lanky the

tree will actually kind of Bush out and

get a little bit wider propagation this

plant can be propagated by cuttings and

air layering seeds you can also

propagate with seeds as well

pests now I really wanted to get this

plant at Walmart they had the larger

ones but they hadn’t marked them all

down and they were all crowded on this

shelf and you could tell that their

leaves were dropping a whole lot too and

I picked it up and I can see a bunch of

little white dots that were kind of

moving around on the soil

always always always make sure you look

at your plant and kind of check it out

to make sure you don’t see any kind of

anything hanging off any pests any kind

of disease you don’t want to see a whole

bunch of Brown tips this colored leaves

meaning brown or black or any kind of

holes in the leaves

might mean that something’s kind of been

munching on it and checked out in the

pot as well because you’ll see a lot of

leaves in there but it might look like

it’s full

just kind of move your finger around in

there and if they look like they’re

moving a whole lot pick them up and see

if they’re coming off really easily I

wouldn’t buy that plant and now they do

like to drop leaves pretty easily but if

it’s doing a whole lot that something’s

wrong so don’t get that plant and below

down around in there because I couldn’t

tell if those little white dots were

actually moving but once the air hit

them you could see them kind of scurry

around so don’t buy anything that you

see anything that might look like a bug

cuz you’d rather be safe than sorry

I know spider mites can be really bad

with the crotons and again you can kind

of tell if you see a lot of filaments on

the leaves spider mites are a little

hard to detect about a naked-eye so if

you do see those take the plant out

immediately especially if it’s invading

kind of paper or anything to make the

plant like more presentable you’ll want

to throw that away and a trash can

outside if you throw it away indoors the

pests can crawl up the trash can and out

and get to other plants in your house as

well

I need the loose leaves that are on the

plant you want to kind of throw them

away and until you know that there’s

nothing on the plant I would throw and

discard them outside and again as I was

saying you want to take your plant out

and use the garden hose and kind of hose

it off and that’ll knock any kind of

spider mites off the plant check it in a

couple days if you still see some more

filaments on the leaves take some

isopropyl alcohol and apply it to a wash

cloth and just wipe the leaves down on

both sides down around the stems as best

you can and may take a time or two of

just kind of hosing it off and applying

alcohol but that really should kind of

eat these spider mites if it’s are

really bad if the soil is always really

soggy because you know these guys like

the humidity so if your soil is fairly

wet you may get bugs I like to kind of

burrow down in the soil and lay more

eggs again for that I always use gnat

Nick’s it’s just a substance that you

can apply to the top of the soil about

an inch or two deep and it’ll kill

anything that comes in contact with the

net Nick’s by puncturing the exoskeleton

and killing the pests again if anything

is hatched and it comes to the soil

surface and as soon as it makes contact

with the net Nick’s they’ll kill any of

the larvae or anything like that

so net Nick’s works really well

especially if you have a plant that

you’ve set outside all summer and you

bring it back in for the winter time and

you’re not sure everything’s down in the

soil again better safe than sorry

because it will kill it that’s the only

thing that I’ve really experienced in

the way of piste with this guy

other than that though I would say

repotting the crotons they don’t really

like to be rootbound too bad

so if you see roots kind of coming them

out of the pots or through the drainage

holes in the bottom or you see a whole

lot of slow growth it’s probably time to

go ahead and reap pot your Croton and

that’s really easy you just want to grab

your pots if you’re able to and kind of

squeeze it to loosen up the soil pull

that plant out and use a bigger pot so

this looks like it’s about a six inch

pot so the next I would go to either 8

or 10 inches and then again I would use

any kind of soil that’s quick draining

and had a lot of nutrients in it Fox

Farm Miracle Grow are all very good

substrates to use because they will feed

your plants and actually get rid of the

water relatively easily and again I

always use like a little salsa with him

just to kind of hold some excess water

but not a whole bunch now the main

reason I was drawn to this guy aside

from the striking colors and everything

is this plant actually can get fairly

large I think indoors it can reach up to

10 feet I mean all the conditions have

to be met just right but they can get

fairly large indoors and they’ll

actually look like a tree they’ll have a

nice kind of bark ish tint or whatever

to the stems and the leaves with that

and the orange or whatever especially if

you’re using a terra cotta pot it looks

really good and as I said I always like

large plants and this guy can actually

be a large indoor plant so that’s mainly

what brought me to him and as I said

I’ve always had the worst luck with this

guy next hopefully I’ll do an update

video on this guy and I’ll probably go

ahead and transplant him but I wanted to

go ahead since he’s looking pretty good

right now and give you a little update

on him and tell you a little bit about

it because I know a lot of people have

had a bunch of problems with this as I

said always this guy is really kind of a

diva so I wanted to go over a little bit

and I hope this video has helped you all

to realize what these plants need they

need really bright kind of indirect

lights high humidity and fertilizers

these guys don’t have to be fed a whole

lot but a typical NPK solution at 10 10

10 usually works really well they are

foliage plants so they really rely on

their Lea

so they really do like nitrogen if you

could find one that’s maybe a 2010 ten

would really kind of be perfect for your

Croton but as I said they don’t really

require a whole lot in the way of

feeding but like I said if you’re gonna

transplant them and you’re gonna use new

kind of purchased substrate would hold

off on that because like The Miracle

Grow they can feed these gas for about

six months after repotting well guys

that’s really all I know about this

plant like I said I hope this video does

help you out and answer some of these

age-old questions that I know this

really popular house plant has given a

bunch of you it can’t be hard but it is

very worth it as I said it is a toxic

plant the seeds and everything are toxic

so just kind of keep it up high and hope

for the best and like I said if you have

any kind of pets or children or anything

that’s known to put things in their

mouth

I just wouldn’t keep it guys if you have

any questions or concerns make sure you

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