You must have seen at least one of the many common Sansevierias or the Snake Plants around. Haven’t you? These Asian and African native plants are popular for their resilience. One such popular Snake plant cultivar is the Sansevieria Black Gold.
The sculptured sword-like blackish-green leaves with golden borders create an exotic look. In open space, these sharp-edged leaves can grow around 3 feet long.
All the members of the genus can tolerate a range of indirect light levels including partial to complete shade. Moreover, they have a super ability to tolerate minor neglect in watering.
Consequently, this makes them a nice option for beautifying any place in your home, patio, walkway, or yard. Still with us? Let us learn more about the care and propagation of the Sansevieria trifasciata Black Gold Plant.
Sansevieria Black Gold Classification
Family: Asparagaceae
Genus: Sansevieria (Currently included in genus Dracaena)
Species: S. trifasciata
Variety: Black Gold
Genus Sansevieria:
This is a historically popular genus of about 70 flowering plants. According to recent studies, the molecular polygenetic features include them in the genus Dracaena.
The long sculptured leaves with sharp edges associate several common names with all the members of the genus. These names include devil’s tongue, monster’s tongue, mother-in-law’s tongue, tiger’s tail orchid, viper’s bowstring hemp, and the Snake Plant.
Sansevierias include diverse types of plants. This diversity includes thick-leaved succulent dessert plants and thin-leaved tropicals.
Features of the Sansevieria Black Gold Plant
Size:
- Numerous long blade-like leaves grow upward from the base. The entire length of the plant is the length of these leaves.
- In open space, these leaves may get around 3 feet long. The width of a mature leaf is about 3 inches.
Toxicity:
Just like all other siblings, this Black Gold Mother-in-law’s tongue plant is also toxic for animals and humans. Ingestion can lead to issues like allergy around the mouth and throat, nausea, and diroha. Thus, make sure you are not letting kids and pets mingle with the plant. Moreover, don’t ignore to seek emergency medical aid in case of an incident.
Air-purification:
All the Sensevierias are known for their air-purifying abilities. They remove the toxins and give you fresh air to breathe in.
Sansevieria Black Gold Care
Good news! These resilient plants are almost hard to kill unless you expose them to over-watering and direct sun.
Quick Guide:
Water: Moderate.
Sun: Any form of indirect sun including partial and complete shade.
Humidity: Average.
Fertilizer: Mild doses in spring and summer.
Let us have a detailed guide about “how to grow a Sansevieria Black Gold Plant?”
Water Requirement
Sansevierias are tolerant of your minor forgetfulness about the watering routine. Moreover, the thick succulent leaves enhance water retention.
The basic strategy is to water the soil thoroughly and let it dry out completely before watering again. The watering frequency is dependent upon the temperature and sunlight availability. Watering the plant about once a week is enough for the days of spring and summer.
On the other hand, the soil takes longer to dry out at lower temperatures. Moreover, the nutritional requirements of the plant are also minimal. So, watering it about once every two to three weeks is enough.
As already mentioned, over-watering can kill the plant more surely than any other mistake. So, don’t water unless the soil gets dry.
Light Requirement
The tolerance for a wide range of indirect light levels makes them ideal for indoor growth. Place them anywhere in indirect bright to low light and from partial to complete shade. However, medium to bright indirect light is an ideal condition.
Good light helps the foliage to grow healthy. Moreover, plants staying in shade for months may show a slower growth especially in earlier years of age.
You can also keep them in fluorescent light. Just make sure the light source is at a decent distance. The only unsuitable light for this plant is the direct sun. Longer hours can scorch out and even kill the plant.
Temperature Requirement for Sansevieria Black Gold
The ideal temperature range for the majority of Sensevierias is between 45 to 85 °F. These hardy peeps can tolerate severe temperature fluctuations. Moreover, in dry soil, they can even withstand a temperature as low as 40 °F.
The people in frosting regions, be aware! Besides being cold hardy, they can’t tolerate frost. Freezing temperature puts a troll on the plants’ health and even life. Thus, don’t forget to transfer them to some warm place before the frost.
Humidity Requirement
Your resilient Black Gold Snake Plant is not much fussy about humidity levels. They can happily survive in the average levels with around 60% moisture in the air.
Soil Requirement
Loose and well-draining potting mixes are ideal for these plants. Choose sandier soils and low peat potting mixtures to allow draining and aeration. Additionally, all-purpose cactus potting soil is also a good choice.
Fertilizer Requirements
Use a balanced houseplant fertilizer once a month or every three weeks in spring and summer. Liquid fertilizers are always a better option to ensure better absorption.
Overdose of the product can scorch out or even kill the plant. Thus, experts always recommend using half of the stated dosage to avoid over-fertilization.
The growth rate and nutritional requirements of the plant decrease in winter. So, stop fertilizing the plant right at the end of the summer.
Pot Requirements
These plants go well in medium size pots and containers. Just make sure to check for the drainage holes at the base.
De-weeding and Pruning Requirement
Removing the damaged foliage and self-growing unwanted weeds enhances the growth rate and health of the plant.
Growth Zone
The USDA growth zone 2 to 11 is good to grow the plant in patios. On the other hand, zone 9 to 11 is hardy for outdoor plantation throughout the year.
Sansevieria Black Gold Propagation
These hardy plants love to grow and expand. You can easily enhance your collection of numerous Snake plants with just a single plant. Common methods of propagation are as under;
- Propagation by Plant-division.
- Propagation by Leaf-cuttings.
Season:
The days between mid-spring and mid-summer are ideal to get successful propagation results.
Propagation by Plant-division
This type of propagation is used for getting exact replicas of the plant. If you want to get the features of the cultivar, this method will help you. So, this propagation method will help you to get the golden striped borders of the plant.
Method:
These plants grow by underground rhizomatous structures. Moreover, they grow baby plants attached to the parent, known as clumps or pups. You can simply separate and replant these pups to enhance your Black Gold Snake Plant collection.
- Select a well-grown plant. Lose the soil and take the plant out along with the root ball. Just be very gentle as you don’t want to damage the roots.
- Now, check the base and find the base of a clump. It will be a collection of leaves growing out from the same base.
- Take a garden knife and gently cut the rhizome to separate it from the parent. Again, be gentle and careful for the roots.
- You can cut a few clumps/ pups for making more plants.
- Plant the parent and the separated clumps to desired places. The soil/growing mix should be moist.
- You can also get a pup out without taking out the whole plant. Just look closely to find the base of the pup. Lose the soil around it to show the rhizome. Now, cut separate the rhizome from the mother plant. Gently take the pup out along with the roots without damaging.
How to Care for baby Snake Plant?
- In the first month, water lightly as you don’t want to wash out the new plant. Also, place them in medium indirect light. Keeping them in shade at this stage will slow down or even totally stop the growth.
- After a month, you can finally follow the care, as shared in the previous section.
Propagation by Leaf-cuttings
- Cut a leaf from the plant with the help of sterilized shears. You can make further cut it into several pieces, each about 3 inches long.
- Apply some rooting hormone on the lower edge of the leaf-cutting. You might be looking for an alternative to this product. Well, you can use some raw organic honey as an alternative.
- Now, plant each cutting in moist well-draining soil or growing mixture. Make sure you are planting the lower side and not the upper one. The reason being the upper side of the leaf never develops roots if planted.
- Keep the set up in the indirect sun of medium intensity. Also, don’t forget to water the growing mix. Use a spray bottle and mist it mildly once it gets about 90% dry.
- Wait for about 4 to 5 weeks for the cuttings to root. You can even check the root development by softly touching the upper end of the cutting. A cutting standing firm n the growing mix is an indication of rooting.
- If you were using a small pot, you can now transfer the cuttings to your desired place.
- This slow grower will take about 3 to 4 months to become a small ornamental plant. Simply follow the details shared in the previous section to take care of your baby Black Gold Snake Plant.
Propagation of Sensevieria /Snake Plant in Water
The leaf-cuttings can be rooted in water as well.
- Just dip the lower ends in the jar of water keeping the upper sides above the water level. It would be great to see the root development in a glass jar.
- Just don’t forget to avoid mucking and contamination by changing the water every week.
- Once the cuttings have been rooted, you can transfer them to your desired growing medium and pot.
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Summary
Sansevieria Black Gold is a cultivar of the famous Trifasciata Snake Plant. The elongated dark-green leaves with golden borders can get about 3 feet long. Just like other Sansevierias, this one too is famous for its resilience and minimum maintenance requirements. Moreover, it can tolerate a variety of indirect light forms including partial to complete shade.
You can grow these plants everywhere including rooms, offices, patios, and outdoor yards. Water after the soil getting dry and placing them in the indirect sun is what they need to stay happy.
Besides beautification, these plants perform the function of air purification. However, don’t forget about the toxicity which runs in the genus. Keep kids and pets away from your Sansevieria trifasciata Black Gold plant.
