Botanical Title: Asplenium nidus
Fowl Nest Fern is among the best sorts of ferns to develop indoors. This tropical native is fast-growing and can reside for a few years with excellent care.
Uncover how a lot gentle, water and humidity it needs, plus when to repot this stunning houseplant.
Get to Know Fowl Nest Fern
In its pure habitat, this fern grows as an epiphyte (a plant that grows on timber) within the heat, moist, tropical rain forests.
Regardless of its tropical beginnings, Fowl Nest Fern adapts properly to being a home plant. Place your potted fern the place it’s out of direct solar and away from drafts, which might scorch the fronds. Present humidity and you will maintain it wholesome.
This distinctive fern grows within the type of a deep rosette of huge, shiny, spear-shaped fronds. New fronds unfurl from the middle of the plant. Its fronds are fragile, so I might put this fern the place passersby will not brush up towards it.
These fronds can attain 4 ft (1.2 m) lengthy in its native habitat.Fowl’s Nest Fern Issues, Options and Solutions
As Fowl Nest Fern ages, the oldest, outer fronds will flip brown. That is regular. You possibly can minimize them off on the base to maintain the plant wanting neat.
These upright fronds are typically dust-catchers. Maintain the broad, shiny fronds dust-free by spraying with water and gently wiping them with a humid fabric. By no means use leafshine merchandise on ferns as a result of it may possibly severely injury their delicate fronds.
Repot younger vegetation in spring, each couple years or when the roots fill the pot. If you happen to discover that the roots are connected to the pot, run a knife across the inside to loosen them earlier than you’ll be able to take away the rootball. You could want to interrupt the pot to take away it. It is a good suggestion to use a container with drainage holes to keep away from soggy soil. Take care to not pack down the potting combine; Fowl’s Nest Fern likes a unfastened combination.
This fern’s issues are few. Look ahead to scale bugs, that appear like small, brown discs on fronds. If you happen to discover an invasion of those pests, spray with soapy water adopted by clear water. Do not use pesticides on ferns as a result of they’re simply broken by chemical compounds.
Fowl’s Nest Fern will get its identify from the unfurled fronds within the middle of the plant that appear like eggs in a nest. In its native habitat, these fronds shortly attain 4 ft (1.2m) lengthy.
Fowl Nest Fern Care Ideas
Origin: Southeast Asia and Tropical Australia
Top: 2 ft (60 cm) in a container indoors
Mild: Give your plant brilliant, oblique daylight. No direct solar, which might scorch the fronds. Give the pot 1 / 4 flip every week for even progress.
Water: Maintain soil evenly moist. Use a pot with drainage holes to stop overwatering. Water the potting combine, not the middle of the rosette, in any other case it may possibly simply rot. Water much less in winter when progress is slower. Yellow fronds are sometimes an indication of overwatering.
Humidity: This tropical fern likes moist air. If the relative humidity drops beneath 50%, use a humidity tray or cool-mist room humidifier so as to add moisture to the air across the fern. Brown leaf ideas are an indication of dry air.
Temperature: Barely cool to common room temps (60-75°F/16-24°C) swimsuit this tropical fern simply high quality.
Soil: Peat moss primarily based, comparable to African violet potting combine.
Fertilizer: Feed each 2 weeks in spring and summer time with a balanced (comparable to 10-10-10 NPK) water-soluble fertilizer at half power.
Propagation: Fowl’s Nest Fern is propagated by spores, which is tough to do for the house grower.
