Peperomia is a perennial plant, small in size, primarily valued for its foliage and easy cultivation.
Peperomia Rosso is a variety originally from Bolivia that is very attractive due to its leaves’ intense red color.
The leaves have a pointed shape and a dark green color at the top.
The flowers appear as elegant whitish spikes that stand out on the dark foliage.
The flowers are generally yellow, cream or white, very small and usually grouped, forming upright spikes that look like a mouse’s tail.
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Peperomia ‘Rosso’ Care
Illumination:
Peperomia ‘Rosso’ prefers shady places, which makes it very suitable for indoors. Ideally, place it as close to a window as possible, but avoiding direct sunlight.
Substratum:
The suitable substrate will be a mixture of ¾ potting soil and ¼ coarse sand or another element that benefits good drainage, such as Perlite and Vermiculite.
If peperomia rosso are grown in pots, good drainage is essential. The holes at the base of these containers must not be blocked.
To allow excess water to drain well, a layer of expanded clay balls or large stones most be placed at the bottom of the pot.
With a honeycomb appearance, these foam balls isolate the substrate from standing water and prevent the plant from rotting.
Watering:
Irrigation must be controlled. In spring and summer, you will water only when the substrate is dry, and in winter, you will lower the frequency of watering.
Peperomias do not need much watering, and as with other plants, they will recover better from their lack of watering, than from excess watering.
If you don’t know when to water your plant, you should look at the substrate and make sure that it is completely dry. To check it, just insert your finger or a stick in the middle of the substrate, if it’s dry, you should water the plant.
Temperature:
It grows very well in cold or warm climates but is very susceptible to temperatures below 13 ºC/55°F.
Temperatures that exceed 38⁰C/100°F can damage your plant by causing dehydration.
If the temperatures are kept between 16ºC/60°F and 24ºC/75°F for a long time, the growth will slow down.
Fertilizer:
During spring and summer, fertilize the plant every three weeks with a liquid fertilizer to be diluted in the water, making sure to read the product instructions.
During the other seasons, fertilizing must be suspended.
Use a good fertilizer that not only contains macronutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), but also the so-called micronutrients, equally important for the growth of the plant, that is, iron (Fe), the manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo).
Another alternative is to make your own fertilizers for your peperomia ‘rosso’.
For example
Wooden ash:
Making wood ash can promote the ripening of various plants’ flowers and fruits. Wood ash haves potassium and phosphorus, both necessary for the enrichment of the soil.
Besides helping the plant to flourish and providing potassium and phosphorous, wood ash helps protect your peperomia ‘rosso’ from ants and other types of pests.
You should only avoid using this fertilizer if the substrate is acidic, as the wood ash alters the soil’s pH.
Instructions on how to do it:
Take a good amount of wood ash and dilute it in water.
Next, spread over the plants.
Note: make sure the ashes you use are not compromised with polluting elements or heavy metals. These types of elements can ruin the garden.
Banana peel:
One of the best organic compost you can use is banana peel; its potassium content is excellent for plants.
Potassium is an essential mineral for plants, as is nitrogen. Macronutrient helps photosynthesis and build resistant tissues.
Also, it helps to re-energize succulents when they decrease their flowering or acquire a cloudy appearance.
You can make a tea with the peel of the banana and add it to the substrate.
Instructions:
Start by cutting the bananas and boil them in a pot of water for 15
minutes.After the water has cooled.
Spray the compost around the plant.
Apple vinegar:
Vinegar helps the plant maintain a good condition and prevents its leaves from taking a burned appearance.
Instructions:
Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the water for watering the plants and use it as usual.
You can apply once a month.
Eggshell:
Eggshells have high doses of calcium, which is good because it prevents rot in plants.
It is also an ecological, economical, and very easy to make fertilizer.
Instructions:
Crush several eggshells and insert them into the bottom of your plantations.
You can put the eggshells in the sun to dry before crushing them. This will help it become a fine powder.
Then, apply the powder around the plant.
Iron nails:
To provide a good dose of iron, you only need a few iron nails, what you have to do, is to put the nails in the soil where the succulent is planted.
As you water, the iron will begin to release. A simple formula so that plants do not lack iron and grow strong
Propagation:
Peperomia can be cultivated in two ways, by seeds or by cuttings. Both methods are fast and straightforward and allow the roots of the plant to spread quickly.
If you are going to plant by cuttings, cut a branch or stem and place it in a pot with wet sand for an hour or two. When the roots emerge, you can transplant it to a larger pot or to the final soil.
If you prefer to do it by seeds, first water the space you want it to grow in and make sure it has good drainage.
Consider that the peperomia should not receive the sun directly.
It’s recommended to locate the plant in places where the temperatures do not exceed 21 degrees Celsius/69°F.
The soil must be humid, but not waterlogged, to avoid the appearance of fungi. On hot days, spray the leaves to keep them fresh. But don’t overdo it.
It is not necessary to apply filtered water; this could cause white marks that tarnish the plant.
Pruning:
Peperomia is generally not pruned. Simply remove the leaves that gradually dry up or spoil to prevent them from becoming vehicles for parasitic diseases.
Take care that the utensil you use for cutting is clean and disinfected (preferably inflame), to avoid infecting the tissues.
Diseases:
The pathologies that we can find in the Peperomia are the following:
The plant grows little, the leaves wilt and fall easily:
This could be caused by overwatering.
Remedy: Quickly dry the substrate, check the roots and wherever there are rotten roots, remove them, and treat the surface with a broad spectrum fungicidal powder.
After transplanting, regulate the irrigation better, remembering that it’s better to go dry than overwater.
The leaves discolor and lose veins:
This symptomatology must be attributed to too little light. Remedy: place the plant in a brighter position but not in direct sunlight.
Roots are rot:
This could be caused by over-fertilizing.
Remedy: immediately suspend the fertilizers and irrigate abundantly with distilled water so that the soil is cleaned or transplanted with a new substrate and for next time be careful with the fertilizer.
Small spots on the underside of the leaves:
The spots on the underside of the leaves could mean the presence of the cottony mealybug. To be sure, we suggest using a magnifying glass and observing.
They are characterized by having a kind of protective shield, cottony white.
If you try to remove them with a fingernail, they come out easily. This are very harmful insects.
Remedy: remove them with a cotton dipped in alcohol. If the treatment does not work, you will have to use a specific insecticide.
The leaves are dyed yellow:
After these manifestations, the leaves curl and assume an almost dusty appearance and fall.
When looking at the plant carefully, and you notice a cobweb, you are most likely in the presence of an attack by mites or spider mites, a very annoying and harmful insect.
Remedy: increase the watering the lack of humidity favors their development and, eventually, only in the case of particularly severe infestations, use specific chemical products.
If your succulent is not too big, you can also try cleaning the leaves to mechanically remove the parasite using a soapy, wet cotton flake.
Afterward, the plant must be thoroughly rinsed to remove all soap.
Transplant:
The Peperomia is transplanted practically every year, in spring, using a good fertile substrate mixed with peat and a little sand to favor the drainage of the watering.
Upgrade the pots until the plant is fully grown, meaning each pot most be bigger than before.
Then each year, the surface layer of the substrate is removed and replaced with a fresh substrate.
It is preferable to use terracotta because, being a porous material, it allows the soil to transpire and, therefore, correct eventual irrigation errors.