Davallia is a fern perennial plant, germinating extremely quickly, of the Davalliev family. The common everyday name is "squirrel's foot", but more often you can hear "hare's foot" or "deer leg". Growing in the Asian tropics, Japan and China, the Canary Islands and the island of Java, Polynesia, this plant was dubbed exotic due to its appearance.
Wedge-shaped bright green leaves grow on golden-colored cuttings, and the roots of the creeping system have dark hairs on their surface.
Home davallia care
Location and lighting
Davallia is a thermophilic and at the same time light-loving plant. She, like many other potted plants, needs to be protected from direct sunlight, because she prefers diffused natural light.
A good solution is to place the dawallia pot on the west or east window. If there is not enough light, davallia will grow very slowly.
Temperature
It is also important to observe the temperature regime. Davallia categorically cannot stand the cold. Throughout the year, you need to maintain approximately the same temperature in the range from +18 to +22 degrees.
Watering
It is very important to pay special attention to watering the fern. The plant does not need to be allowed to dry out, because davallia is a plant sensitive to a lack of moisture, so it is worth watering it as soon as the topsoil dries. Water should be taken warm (boiled or settled).
In summer, watering should be more active than in winter. At the same time, you do not need to fill in the roots that have crawled out of the soil, so you should use watering from below or purchase a watering can with a narrow spout.
Air humidity
In addition to soil moisture, the correct air humidity in the room where the plant is grown must be observed. The air in the room where the davallia is standing must be sufficiently humid. To ensure this, the pot with the plant must be placed in a pallet filled with moistened peat or expanded clay. The most optimal humidity will be about 50% or a little more.
It is imperative to spray davallia: the spray bottle should be small, and the water in it should be boiled or settled. When sprayed correctly, the fronds will not rot.
The soil
This plant prefers to grow in a special soil, which consists of a mixture of sand, peat and leafy soil in a ratio of 1: 1: 1, respectively.
Top dressing and fertilizers
The soil in which davallia grows will naturally need to be fertilized from time to time. This should be done from late spring to late summer, that is, from May to August, once every half a month. The rest of the time, fertilizing the plant is prohibited, because this can lead to disease. Complementary foods should be selected suitable for indoor ornamental deciduous plants. From the total mass of the fertilizer, you need to take only a quarter or a third of the dose recommended by the manufacturer.
Transfer
Davallia requires a transplant approximately every two years.During this period, the roots of the plant should already fill the entire area of the pot. The pot should be selected not as long as wide; it is necessary to lay a drainage layer on its bottom. If the pressure pot becomes "small", then it will stop growing.
Reproduction of davallia
Davallia is mainly propagated by layering or division. Small bushes sprout on the so-called "hare's legs", thanks to which the fern reproduces.
The soil must be prepared in advance: a mixture of sand, leafy earth and sphagnum in the ratio, as in an adult plant, in a 1: 1: 1 ratio. To get a new plant, you need to carefully cut off a piece of root with one of these bushes. It must be placed not in the soil, but on it, pressing it a little there. You cannot completely bury a small plant. In order for such a structure to hold, it will not hurt to fix everything with expanded clay.
The soil mixture must be saturated with moisture before planting a young plant. Place the plant in a pot, and the pot in a transparent plastic bag, but do not tie it. It is enough to water it from a spray bottle with boiled warm water, but at the same time do not allow too much dampness. The roots will sprout rather slowly, and you will only see them after a couple of months.
Diseases and pests
As already mentioned, excessively abundant watering of the plant can lead to rotting of the “foot” - the root.
If the fronds begin to dry out, break off and fall off, then this is a signal that it is necessary to increase the humidity in the room where the plant stands. Also, low humidity can attract spider mites to davallia, which is also bad.
If you do not cover the plant from direct sunlight, then soon it will develop burns, which can be identified by pale "faded" spots and general lethargy of the plant. As a result, the leaves turn yellow or become covered with dark spots. It can also be a sign that the room is at a temperature that davallia cannot tolerate. It is necessary either to reduce it, or to increase the air humidity.
If the temperature, on the contrary, is too low, then the leaves of dawallia turn yellow, rot and fall off. This may also be the result of irrigation with insufficiently warm or not settled water.
The use of heavy substrates is fraught with delayed development of davallia and, in extreme cases, even its death due to the fact that the soil becomes limp. For davallia, a lightweight substrate is best.
Of the pests, it can be noted spider mites, thrips, whitefly.
Popular types of dawallia
Davallia ordinary (Davalliabulata) - like everything else, a perennial plant. Its leaves have a linear venation, a deep dissection, toothed closer to the top of the leaf edge. His fronds are pinnately dissected three or four times, and their length reaches 20 centimeters, but there are also longer.
Canary davallia (Davalliacanariensis) - is also a perennial climbing plant. Oval, in shape closer to a rhombus, the leaves are serrated and dissected at the edges, and on the plant they are planted tightly to each other. The rather thick and straight root is covered with light scales. The fronds in this species are green, triangular in shape, about 10-20 centimeters longer than in davallia vulgaris, four times pinnately dissected.
Dense davallia (Davalliasolida) - a perennial plant, like the Canary davallia, winds. She has a leaf with linear venation, finely lobed. Filiform scales cover the thin rhizome. The fronds, just like the Canarian davallia, are 45 centimeters long, green, triangular in shape, but crossed only three times.
