Characteristics of lyre ficus, tips for caring for a plant in indoor cultivation, reproduction, combating possible pests and diseases, curious facts, varieties.
Reproduction of ficus lyre at home
To get a new ficus with leaves that resemble a musical instrument, cuttings should be carried out, the cuttings should be rooted, or even seeds should be sown.
- Reproduction using cuttings. This method is the simplest and always gives a positive result. Before pruning is performed to obtain cuttings with the arrival of spring, it is recommended to water the plant well so that its parts are saturated with moisture. The next day, you can start the robot. For this, a strong and beautiful semi-lignified branch is selected. A stalk is cut from its top, while the incision is made at an angle of 45 degrees. The length of the cutting should be about 10-15 cm and it is desirable to have 2-3 leaves on the top (the rest are removed so that moisture does not evaporate from them in the future). Since all ficus plants begin to ooze milky juice, the cut must be rinsed under running water or put in a jar of water and periodically changed the liquid until the process is completed. Then the workpiece is slightly dried and either placed in a vessel with boiled water to wait for the roots to appear, or the cut is treated with a growth stimulator and planted in a pot with peat-perlite soil. In this case, the stalk should be covered with a plastic bag or placed under a glass jar - this will create conditions for a mini-greenhouse with high humidity. But then you need to remember every day, to ventilate the cuttings, and if they are planted in the soil, then moisten it when it dries. When the twigs take root, they are seated in separate pots.
- Reproduction by rooting air layers. This method is a little more complex, but it is also commonly used. At the same time, a healthy branch of the lyre ficus is selected at a distance of 60 cm from the apex and an incision is made slightly below the leaf by a third of the size of the trunk. If the shoot is long, then sprinkle such a "wound" with a powder stimulator of root formation and bend it to the soil poured into another pot. There, the branch must be secured with wire or a stiff paper clip and sprinkled with soil. The care will be the same as for the parent plant. If the branches cannot reach when the soil is bent, then the same incision is made. A match or a small pebble is inserted into it so that the edges do not overgrow and sprinkle with root stimulation powder. Then it follows that such a "wound" does not dry out, wrap it with a layer of moistened sphagnum moss, which is fixed with a thick thread. From above, such moss is still covered with a plastic piece of transparent film and with the help of tape they attach the shoot to the trunk. When a little time has passed and well-developed roots become visible through the film, the shoot is cut off just below the layering and, having removed the polyethylene, it is planted in a separate pot with selected soil.
- Reproduction by planting seeds. This method is almost never used, since planting material is needed to complete it. It is bought in a store, and before planting, the seeds should be soaked for several days in a container with room water, in which a little root formation stimulant is dissolved. After the expiration of the specified period, the seeds are planted in a pot with peat-sandy soil. The container is covered with a film and the bottom heating of the soil is provided. The place in which crops will be kept should be with bright, but diffused light. It is required to air the planted seeds daily, and if the soil begins to dry out, then moisten it with a spray bottle. When the first shoots appear (after 10-14 days), the shelter is removed. When the seedlings reach 5–7 cm and a pair of leaves open, you can dive into individual pots. However, with this method of reproduction, it can be difficult to immediately achieve a positive result.
Fight against diseases and pests when caring for lyre ficus
Like many representatives of this genus, the violin ficus will be affected by harmful insects that will suck nutritious juices from the leaves. Such pests are:
- Mealybug, forming whitish lumps, similar to pieces of cotton wool, attached to the back of the leaves and between their nodes. Also, soon the parts of the plant will be covered with a sugary sticky bloom, called padya - these are the waste products of insects. If you do not remove such a plaque, then it will cause the occurrence of a fungal disease - a sooty fungus. In this case, the entire surface of the leaves and branches will have a grayish-black color, which, when touched, will remain on the fingers and will resemble soot.
- Shield manifests itself in the form of shiny small brownish-brown plaques, which are clearly visible from the back of the leaves; the already mentioned pad is present.
- Spider mite sucks vital juices from the foliage, piercing it at the same time. Along the edge, you can distinguish multiple, like needle punctures, and a thin cobweb begins to cover the leaf, which can also be seen on the branches. At the next stage, the foliage changes its color to yellow and falls off, if measures are not taken, then the web will spread to other parts of the plant, and it may even die.
To begin with, it is recommended to wash the lyre-shaped ficus under a warm shower, but before that, the soil in the pot is covered with a plastic bag. After all the foliage has been thoroughly washed, it should be wiped off with one of the non-aggressive solutions, with which you can remove a certain amount of harmful insects. There are many such "folk" drugs, but here are just a few:
- Soap is made on the basis of laundry soap (300 grams is dissolved in a bucket of water) or any other dishwashing detergent.
- The oil composition can be made from rosemary essential oil (5 drops per liter of water).
- Alcohol can be a pharmacy tincture of calendula.
Any of these preparations is applied to a soft cloth and the leaves are carefully wiped on both sides. But these are not all the steps - the main one is the treatment with insecticidal and acaricidal agents, among which Aktara, Actellik or Fitover are recommended.
With frequent violation of the conditions of detention, lyre ficus can respond with the following symptoms:
- Yellowing and foliage shedding occurs when the substrate is excessively wet, a sharp drop in temperature, a decrease in humidity, or under the influence of a draft.
- When infected with fungal diseases caused by frequent floods of soil, the plant forms brown dots and black spots on the leaves. Treatment with fungicidal preparations will be required.
- Lack of light can lead to strong stretching of the shoots.
- Foliage becomes shallow due to lack of nutrients in the soil.
Curious facts about ficus lyre and photos
It does not depend on what kind of ficus is brought into the house or office, including lyre-shaped, as a result of multiple studies, it became known that ficus representatives can be ranked among the three most aggressive allergens. Only pets and ticks are in the first place.
Since the ficus of the violin (like any other) is secreted when the milky juice is broken, in which there is rubber that evaporates into the air, the content of the plant is a problem for people suffering from asthma. And if such liquid gets on areas of especially sensitive skin, then irritation may begin, developing into dermatitis.
Attention! It should not be forgotten that if pets live in the room where the violin ficus is kept, capable of gnawing the branches, stem or leaves of this plant, then it is important to take precautions, since the milky juice is poisonous. But in general, this representative of the flora does not pose a threat. It is also believed that with the help of its features, the ficus lyre will be able to cleanse the environment from harmful substances (among which there are trichlorethylene, phenol and benzene), working as a natural air filter.
If you follow the signs of many peoples, then in a family where there are no children, and you really want to have offspring, you should purchase such a plant and start grooming and cherishing it like a small child and soon you can enjoy children's laughter in this house.
Types of ficus lyre
- Columnaris the plant is large and columnar.
- Bambinoon the contrary, with miniature outlines and compact leaf plates, which are no more than 15 cm long. Differs in rather good bushiness.
- Little fiddle has average parameters in height, measuring a maximum of one and a half meters, with a leaf length of about 25 cm.
- Phyllis craig differs in compact outlines of the crown and rather large foliage, in length reaching 35 cm.
- Compacta is a miniature variety, the foliage does not exceed 35 cm, the arrangement of the leaf plates is quite dense.
