Tradescantia occidentalis grow and care – herbaceous of the genus Tradescantia also known as Prairie spiderwort, Tradescantia occidentalis perennial evergreen or annual in colder climate used as ornamental plant, can grow in mediterranean, desert, subtropics, temperate or tropics climate and growing in hardiness zone 4+ as perennial and hardiness zone 3+ as annual plant, with right overwinter care in hardiness zone 4a.
How to grow Tradescantia occidentalis growing and care:
Strong plant without special requirement but the plant prefer: moist soil, humidity, rich soil, space to crawl
How to care: When the plant young to add mulch to keep the moist of the soil, pruning once a year better after blooming season, add once a year organic matter
What is the best way to start growing? Plant / Seedling / Seed / Vegetative Reproduction – propagate by cutting or bending a branch over and covering it with soil
How to propagate by cutting: Propagate by cuttings – cut stem and better to cut stem with at least 3 leaves, put it in the soil keep the soil moist and high humidity, cutting season spring to early summer another option cuttings in water need to switch every few days the water and after grow few roots to put in the soil or to wait more and put fertilizer
Is it necessary to graft or use vegetative reproduction? No, but easier start from cutting than to start by seeds although germination also easy and when grow as annual better to start by cutting
Difficulties or problems when growing: Invasive, aggressive
Planting season: Spring as annual plant or in hardiness zone 4-8, spring to summer in hardiness zone 9-10a, spring to autumn 10b-11a, all year in hardiness zone 11b+
Pests and diseases: Aphids, mealy bug
Pruning season: All year, better in the winter and after blooming season
How to prune: Dead leaves and bloom stems
Size of the plant: 30-50 cm, 12-20 inches
Growth speed in optimal condition: Fast growing / Medium growing
Water requirement: Average amount of water to small amount of water and can be drought tolerant
Light requirements and conditions in optimal condition for growing: Full sun, half shade, full shade – possible but need to know that without enough light the plants won’t bloom the plant need a lot of hours of indirect sunlight
Is it possible to grow indoor as houseplant? Yes, but in order to bloom need to be mature and that mean place to grow
How to grow indoors Choose location with light (better with even with little sun), artificial home light won’t be enough and indirect light will do the job
Growing is also possible in a pots, planter, flowerpot, containers: Yes, start with container size minimum 5L to 10L (2.6-5.2 gallons) better bigger than the root ball at least 200% (the plant grow very fast), every time that the roots fill the pot need to switch to bigger or to prune the roots and the leaves and re-plant it also better to switch the soil every few years, better to use potting mix or peat soil with perlite, mix it with humus and organic matter, use chopped mulch to keep the soil moist, let the bottom of the pot fill in water but dry once in a few day.
Blooming information
Bloom season: Spring / Summer
General information about the flower: Triangle shape flower that assembled by 3 triangle petals, flower color purple
