How to heal a snake plant? A damaged snake plant can be saved if you are quick enough to notice the symptoms. If not, then you will have to say goodbye to your plants. But don’t be too sad, since there is a way to duplicate your snake plants before they completely die. Snake plants with yellow or brown leaves are typically damaged by overwatering and poorly draining soils. Also, temperatures below 50°F can cause the problem.
How To Heal A Snake Plant?
The way you heal a snake plant depends on the symptom itself. So here are the symptoms of a damaged snake plant and the treatments you can apply to it based on the symptoms you observed.
Symptom: Yellow Or Brown Drooping Leaves
How to heal a snake plant that has been damaged? If the symptoms are yellowish or brown leaves or both, here are the things you can do in order to save it.
Scale Back The Watering
Overwatering snake plants occurs when you water them more than once a week. Generally, snake plants should be watered once every two to three weeks. However, this doesn’t mean it’s okay to let them thirst! Brown or yellow leaves indicate the soil must be completely dried.
Replace The Soil
If the soil is moisture-retaining and slow draining, snake plants can turn yellow or brown and droop despite being watered properly. To replicate the well-draining soil characteristics of a snake plant’s natural habitat, if your snake plant is in potting soil, you should remove it from the pot and replace it with cactus or succulent soil.
Make Sure The Pots Have Drainage Holes
The excess water in the pot should be allowed to escape freely from the base of the pot in order to prevent the roots of snake plants from becoming too damp. Once you adjust the amount of water you give or replace the soil, the snake plants will start showing signs of recovery in a couple of weeks. If the rot-affected leaves are still yellow or brown and have a soft feel, remove them from the plant at the base. Leaves that do not recover from this rot will not be susceptible to spread elsewhere on the plant.
As the rest of the plant will probably die back, it is best to take cuttings of any healthy remaining leaves to propagate new plants. You can learn how to encourage snake plant propagation through leaf cutting.
Symptom: Curling Leaves
How to heal a snake plant that has curling leaves? For rehydrating snake plants, simply place them in water for 10 minutes. During the 10 minutes the root ball will be submerged in water, it will allow the snake plant’s roots to take up much needed water.
Water should be soaked generously. Submerging the roots for ten minutes will allow water to efiltrate and reach the roots if you are forcing too little water into a soil that is resistant to watering. Soak the roots for 10 minutes if the soil rejects watering. The drainage holes at the base should be able to drain water adequately. You can use this method to determine whether you have watered the plant enough to keep it healthy.
If water is running off the surface of your snake plant, you may need to replace the soil underneath. A special soil, well-draining, porous succulent or cacti soil that mimics the environment in which snake plants naturally grow is the best choice for planting snake plants. Soils for cacti and succulents allow water to penetrate well and won’t bake like some potting mixes when they are dry.
Make sure you soak your snake plant for ten minutes in water after watering it properly. After a week, you should begin to see some improvement. Eventually, curling leaves can start storing water again and become plump and full again instead of looking thin and wilted.
How To Heal A Snake Plant Damaged By Cold
As we have mentioned above, a damaged snake plant can be caused by cold. As soon as snake plants exposed to temperatures below 50°F (10°C) are transplanted into an area where it is consistently warmer than 50°F (10°C), they will return to a thriving state. However, snake plant leaves are unlikely to recover if they have white areas with mushy feelings. With a pair of sterile pruners, cut the damaged leaf blades to the soil to prevent the damage from spreading.