An elephant's foot can remain as a houseplant for decades. But the long-living elephant's foot must not lack the right care.
Elephant's Foot (Beaucarnea recurvata) has a thick, succulent stem that stores water and nutrients. This is how he gets through bad times in his native Mexico. This self-sufficiency manner makes it an ideal beginner plant. Unfortunately, this frugality is not taken very seriously by some overprotective plant guardians. Because with a small sip of water here and a little more fertilizer there you do not support your protégé, but can even harm him. So that the elephant's foot shines in rich green at home, here is everything you need to know about proper care and avoiding brown tips on the leaves.
Care for an elephant's foot: the basics
The small indoor tree grows very slowly, can store water and nutrients and therefore does not need much attention if it is in the right place:
- Location: Warm and bright; no midday sun and drafts
- Window seat: occasionally turn the pot a quarter turn
The trunk grows nicely straight through the twists. In summer, the elephant tree is happy about a nice place outside, protected from the rain, because it is not a couch potato. However, to begin with, you need to slowly acclimate the plant over a period of two weeks. In order for it to get used to the unfiltered sunlight, the little tree is gradually being placed in a brighter and brighter location.
Watering the elephant foot correctly
When caring for an elephant's foot, you rarely have to use a watering can. The following applies:
- Water as soon as the soil is completely dry
- Pour Penetrating
In winter it only needs to be watered if the sapling stays in a heated room. If you water more often in smaller quantities, the risk of waterlogging and thus the risk of rot increases. By the way, hard water is no problem for the elephant foot.
Fertilize the elephant foot properly
Even when it comes to fertilization, less is more, because the elephant's foot only needs moderate nutrients due to its internal storage. The elephant foot is fertilized as follows:
- Growth phase: Every four weeks
- Fertilizer: cactus fertilizer or green plant fertilizer (half dose)
- Fertilize at the earliest eight weeks after repotting
Use an organic fertilizer, reduce the risk of over-fertilization and do something good for the environment at the same time. Compared to industrially processed mineral fertilizers, the organic variant saves a lot of resources. Everything else about fertilizing elephant feet can be found here.
Care for elephant foot in winter
In winter, the elephant foot needs constantly cool temperatures between 5 and 15°C. When choosing a location, keep in mind that the more light this native Mexican needs, the warmer it will be. In addition, heating air that is too warm quickly leads to pest infestation during the winter. That's why you should keep a regular eye out for pests in winter. You can find more about the most common diseases in our overview article on elephant foot. So that your elephant tree doesn't get cold feet in winter, you should lay out wooden, cork or styrofoam plates under pots that are standing on tiles or stone.
Repot elephant foot regularly
Like its gray namesake, the elephant's foot is rather leisurely. But even if feet grow slowly, they eventually become too big for their shoes. For the elephant's foot, the time has come to repot every three to five years. This time is signaled as follows:
- trunk is the same circumference as the pot
- Rootball is pushed out of the pot
The elephant foot then moves into a pot that is about 2 cm larger. You can find more about the correct repotting of elephant's foot and the right pot and substrate here.
Elephant's Foot: Avoid Brown Leaves
The elephant foot belongs to the dragon tree family (Dracaenaceae). With many members of this family, including the elephant's foot, the lower leaves of the shoots die off with age. Only the tip of the shoot has green leaves. So don't worry about a few brown leaves. It only becomes critical when not as many leaves grow back as are turning brown. thenmeans looking for the cause and fighting it.
Elephant's foot has brown leaves: the causes
Unfortunately, there isn't just one cause of brown leaves. A variety of factors influence whether your elephantine greenery's leaves develop brown tips. However, most are related to improper care:
- Leaves bump against floor/walls
- Sunburn from too much sun exposure
- Pruning the leaves
- Waterlogging due to frequent watering
- Winter: Air humidity too low due to heating air; too warm; lack of light; watered too little
- Temperature too cold
- Not enough nutrients due to a pot that is too small
Elephant's Foot: What can you do about brown leaves?
Once brown, no matter how hard you try, the leaves won't turn green again. You can only remove affected leaves or cut off the brown leaf tips. When removing brown tips, leave a small portion. Otherwise more of the leaf will turn brown. The only effective countermeasure is therefore prevention. Don't let the leaves turn brown in the first place. If it has come to this, the following will help stop the damage from spreading:
- Place plant on stool or table
- Do not place the plant in full midday sun
- Leave small brown part; perform a radical pruning of the elephant tree
- Repot into dry soil and remove damaged roots; water less
- Spray with lukewarm, lime-free water; Decrease room temperature
- Increase room temperature; put out of draft
- Repot into larger pot
The listed measures are to be assigned in their order to the above causes.
If you are interested in more care or tips on how to propagate your elephant foot, we recommend this article.