A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 prayer plant...

ok folks,
Last post of the day (at least for now ). I have a prayer plant cutting in water on my desk. It is doing ok (leaves are dropping or turning brown) BUT when ever I turn on my desk light (in the overhead cabinets over my desk) the leaves curve down as if to get away from the light. They don't fold as far as I can tell. I have had the cutting for about a week and it doesn't have roots yet. It is in water with a cutting from an arrowhead philodendron. they were both in the same planter in another office and I snitched Can you help me - and how long before they start to root??

hmmm, did you use tap water? some flouride can cause plants to get brown n brittle. it takes a while to root the one i had i ended up throwing away the clippings because i was so annoyed waiting for it to root. -cassie

Cassie,
I used standing water that had set out for a couple of days. Actually it was water from the ice that had melted in my cooler here at work. that is what I use to water my office plants as it doesn't have any clorine in it, and I don't think it has any flouride either. So...

Prayer plants do their praying at night. When you turn the light on, she just thinks it's time to get up and go to work, so she unfolds her hands.
I have far better success rooting my cuttings in moist vermiculite. It's much quicker and there is far less stress when it is time to plant the cutting.
Are ther any leaf nodes submerged in the water? That is necessary because that is where your new roots will develop. Give the cutting another week or so, then you might consider appropriatinganother cutting and trying again, using moist vermiculite.
Good luck!

If the desk light is an incandescent light, then the prayer plant cutting may be reacting to the heat that is given off by the bulb. Fluorscent lights are much more effective for plants and don't give off heat.

The overhead is a flouresent light. And I did "appropriate" some more cuttings, so now I have some in potting soil (that's all I can get here at work) and some in water. Will keep you posted. Also, I moved them all to another area that doesn't have the light directly over them.