Dracaena, dragon tree, corn plant, or whatever you may call it, are amazing houseplants that come in so many different varieties. Though each variety looks different, they have the same needs as far as fertilizing goes. If you’re wanting to keep your dracaena in its best shape possible with the nutrients it needs, it is in your best interest to fertilize it.
To start, we’ll be going over a bit of the science behind fertilizing your dracaena so you know exactly how it works. But don’t worry, as always, I’ll be explaining it in a simple manner so that any skill level can understand. Once you’ve finished reading, you’ll be ready to fertilize your dracaena and understand why you’re doing it in the first place!
Benefits to Fertilizing
First thing you should know, fertilizing your plant is like giving it a vitamin. And just as a vitamin does, fertilizer provides your plant with nutrients it needs and keeps it in good health, but it’s not necessary for its survival. In other words, your dracaena will not die because you decide not to give it it’s “vitamin”. It can take years for your plant to show you that it absolutely needs some fertilizer via yellow leaves or discoloration of leaves in general. Fertilizing your dracaena can help it have optimum growth and will also help it have less problems, if properly done.
Though dracaena aren’t very well-known for their blooms, fertilizing can actually increase your chances of having it bloom and they’re known for smelling quite sweet. If you’d like to see your dracaena growing at an optimum rate, provide it with the nutrients it needs, and have a greater chance of seeing it flower, then fertilizing your plant is the right path for you.
What Fertilizer To Use
Choosing a fertilizer can be overwhelming with the many choices available and stop you from starting. There’s SO many options to choose from out there, and some fertilizers are better than others.
My personal opinion is to steer clear of organic fertilizers including things such as “fish meal”, “blood meal”, “worm poop”, etc. There are a lot of different types that will tout how organic they are and have catchy names but most, if not all of them, have little nutritional value and are more expensive than the standard fertilizer. The only upside of these organic fertilizers is that they definitely are environmentally friendly, but I would argue that normal fertilizers are just as environmentally friendly when they’re used properly.
As long as you aren’t dumping your fertilizer down the drain or into your local river, you won’t be having a negative impact on the environment with your normal “un-organic” fertilizer. That’s my two cents on buying organic fertilizers, and you’re welcome to take it or leave it.
I have been using Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer for my dracaena. I’ll put its Amazon link right here. (We are Amazon Associates and earn a small commission from sales that use these links at no extra cost to you.)
I’m not being paid by this company to recommend this product to you, it’s just one that I’ve personally used and have been really pleased with. I’ve used it for about a year now and it’s given me and my dracaena no problems at all to complain about. It has good nutritional value that can be used not just on your dracaena, but multiple houseplants as well. Another plus about this product is that it lasts a long time. Even though I’ve had my fertilizer for a year, I’m still not even halfway through it. It’s definitely a worthy investment for a healthy dracaena or for the health of many indoor plants, for that matter.
Understanding Your Fertilizer
Knowing how the fertilizer is going to work with the soil and why your dracaena needs to be fertilized is a key piece of doing this properly. The 10-15-10 on the fertilizer label relates to the percentage in active ingredients of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium(K)), in that order. You will ALWAYS find these numbers listed on every fertilizer so you can compare their NPK values. For Schultz 10-15-10 Plant Food Fertilizer, 10% of the active ingredients is nitrogen, another 15% is phosphorus, and 10% for potassium. The remaining percentage is micronutrients or other needed fertilizer ingredients.
N, P, and K are considered to be the three main macronutrients that all plants need and in larger quantities than other nutrients. Nitrogen helps with overall greenness, phosphorus helps with flower development and roots, and potassium helps with the general cellular functions.
The question remains, why do you have to be putting all these nutrients into your plants soil? Each time you water your dracaena, your plant takes up nutrients and water through its roots to be used for growth and to be able to function, therefore, these nutrients are slowly depleted from the soil. If you were to decide to never fertilize your plant, it would eventually run out of key nutrients and show signs of deficiencies with yellowing leaves, off-color leaves, etc. This would especially be the case if you also decided to never replace it’s soil since repotting your plant can supply it with needed nutrients.
Most dracaena would take multiple years to show signs of nutrient deficiency, so if you do notice a yellowing leaf, use the method of deduction to figure out what it may have been caused by before assuming it simply needs fertilizer. Dracaena will naturally have leaves turn yellow every once in a while when the leaves are old or it can turn yellow in cases of under or overwatering. You can easily cause more problems than you need if you prematurely assume your plant needs fertilizer because of some yellowing leaves.
How Often Should I Fertilize My Dracaena
Even though some sources might tell you otherwise, there’s really not a certain time of year or strict schedule to follow with fertilizing your dracaena. The amount of sun that your dracaena is getting will determine how often you should or shouldn’t be fertilizing it. For that reason, some people will fertilize more in the summer and less in the winter due to light levels changing. Here are some general guidelines that you can refer to when fertilizing your dracaena:
-
High light = Fertilize every 2 months
-
Medium light = fertilize four times a year
-
Low light = fertilize once or twice a year
If you decide to fertilize your dracaena more often than the guidelines above, you risk overloading your dracaena with nutrients and it could cause nutrient toxicity or fertilizer burn. You’ll see this manifested in crisp leaf edges, especially on the tips, or sudden yellowing leaves.
The reason you fertilize more often when the dracaena is in high light is due to the plant gathering lots of energy and taking up nutrients rapidly to keep up with all the energy it’s getting from the sun. A plant in low light is not growing quickly and not taking up nutrients very fast, therefore, will not need to be fertilized as often. If you’re still not sure or doubt your ability to know how much light your dracaena is getting, go on the conservative side and only do it twice a year.
Fertilization Steps
With your new knowledge of the fertilization basics, its benefits, and how often you should be doing it, you’re ready to fertilize your dracaena! Before we begin, check off the following two statements to make sure you’re actually ready to fertilize.
-
My dracaena is in good health & has no underlying conditions
-
I am not fertilizing to fix present problems with my dracaena
The reason I have you check off these two boxes is because too many times I’ve seen people use fertilizer as a sort of “Hail Mary” to fix all of their plant’s problems and get it to some unattainable image of where they think their dracaena should be. Unfortunately, fertilizing doesn’t work that way. If your dracaena is already dealing with another problem like improper watering practices, pests, sun scorch, etc., then fertilizing it will just add stress and could cause more harm than help. Sometimes the stress can push it over the edge and cause your plant to die. If your dracaena isn’t struggling with any outside factors and is in good health, it will handle being fertilized just fine!
#1: Gather Supplies
Fertilizing is a simple process so your list of needed supplies should be pretty small. All you’re going to need is your fertilizer, a clean watering can or bucket (I keep a separate bucket just for fertilizing), a liquid measuring cup, and your dracaena, of course.
#2: Mix Water and Fertilizer
This step is the most important step when fertilizing because it’s where damage can happen if done improperly! If you use too much fertilizer, you risk causing fertilizer burn which can damage your plant with browned leaf tips and edges (more details on step 4). Read the label of your fertilizer and make sure that you’re adding the right amount of fertilizer for the amount of water you have measured out. If anything, err on the side of adding less fertilizer than what the fertilizer says to add so that you don’t risk harming your dracaena.
Once you’ve put the drops of fertilizer into the room-temp water, give it a good mix around with a stick or spoon to ensure that it fully dissolves into the water.
#3: Drench Soil
Fully drench/saturate the soil so that water comes out of the bottom drainage holes of your pot. This will ensure that ALL of the soil in the pot has a chance to replenish its nutrients and reach all of the roots. I recommend placing your dracaena in the sink or somewhere where you don’t mind the excess water running out.
**If your dracaena’s pot has no drainage holes at the bottom then do not follow this rule! Instead, you need to be very careful with how much water you pour into the soil. If you add too much, you risk having it sit at the bottom of the pot for days and causing your roots to literally rot and your dracaena is likely to die or lose a lot of its foliage. To avoid causing problems, you can stretch out watering it with your fertilizer-water mixture over a set of a few weeks, or you can carefully water/fertilize it once without adding too much.
#4: Watch for Signs of Over-Fertilization
Over the next few days, if you notice any brown edges, browned tips, entire yellow or entire browned leaves on your dracaena, it’s a sign you used too much fertilizer. But don’t fret! You can help it by placing your dracaena in the sink or shower and leaching out the soil. This means that you place it under running water and let the water drain out the bottom of the pot. Do this for a minute or two to help wash out excess fertilizer/nutrients and your dracaena will have a greater chance of being able to bounce back and survive without a problem.
I sincerely hope this guide helps you understand fertilization and know how to properly fertilize your dracaena without causing any problems for you and your plant. Fertilizing can be a great way to replenish the soil’s nutrients, increase vigorous growth, and help your dracaena stay sturdy and healthy. And perhaps it will allow you to see your dracaena flower! You deserve it too after all the research you’ve put into this plant of yours!
Be sure to pin this article for future reference and you can read more about dracaena care here:
…
