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
leave me a comment and I’ll do my best
to get back to those if you haven’t
already done it go ahead and hit the
subscribe button or the bell next to it
that way you know anytime that I’ve
uploaded a new video you guys have a
good one take it easy and don’t forget
always plant prudently Thank You YouTube