Overwatered Christmas fern Despite how much it loves water, it is possible to overwater the Christmas fern. This is most likely to happen if you leave your plant sitting in a pool of water or use a planter that doesn’t have drainage holes. Either of those conditions will be too wet and will prevent the roots from being able to take up nutrients and moisture. Too much moisture in the soil can also allow fungal or bacterial diseases to develop. Wilted and yellow leaves are the initial symptoms of overwatering. Over time, the stems may droop and fall over, or begin to feel soft and mushy. However, be sure to check for other causes if you suspect your Christmas fern is overwatered, since other issues can look similar and it’s difficult to give this plant too much water. Underwatered Christmas fern Vigilance is required to keep this plant wet enough, unless you’re using a self-watering planter, meaning that many fern owners inadvertently let their plant get too dry now and then. In dry conditions, this plant can change in appearance seemingly overnight, from lush and green to brown and crispy. In extreme cases, the plant may dry up so thoroughly that it seems there are no living fronds left. But it may still be possible to save the plant if some of the roots are still healthy. Cut off all of the dry and dead stems, then water thoroughly and return the plant to its usual location. Unless the roots are all dead, this plant can be surprisingly resilient and start putting out new fronds. It may take several months to grow back to the size it was before, but this is possible if you provide proper care in that time.

Your Christmas fern prefers consistently moist soil that mimics its native enironment, which could mean watering as often as every one or two days. This is a plant that should not be allowed to dry out. Once the top layer of soil begins to feel even slightly dry, it’s time to water again. And don’t just give it a few drops of water: soak the soil completely until water drains out from the bottom of the pot. After the excess water has drained out, dump it so the pot isn’t sitting in a puddle. This is the best method to ensure that soil never gets too dry.

The amount of humidity in the air around your Christmas fern will influence how often you need to water it. Higher humidity in the air means less frequent watering, as evaporation is slower. Keeping this plant near a heating or cooling vent will cause it to dry out quickly, so choose a location that is protected from any type of draft. They prefer dappled and indirect sunlight and temperatures between 55-80 degrees F (13-27 degrees C) meaning that keeping these ferns in a warm and sunny spot windowsill could cause them to get dehydrated quickly. Rainwater or distilled water is great for this plant if you have access to it, although tap water in most places also works fine. Certain minerals and chemicals in tap water can cause brown leaf tips, especially since Christmas fern has very thin and delicate leaves. Small pots can cause issues for Christmas fern , because they only hold a small amount of potting medium and can dry out more quickly. It is best to allow this plant more space in the pot than many other houseplants. Consider using a self-watering planter for Christmas fern. This type of pot uses a wicking system that allows the soil to continuously soak up water from a central reservoir, meaning that the moisture level in the soil stays consistently moist. Not only does this type of pot keep you from having to constantly water your fern, but it is also quite beneficial for the roots to have a constant supply of water instead of going from dry to wet and then back again.

Pruning your Christmas fern is a fairly simple process. First, you will need a reliable set of hand pruners or hedge trimmers. You may use a clean pair of sharp scissors if you don’t have pruners or garden shears on hand. It’s important to always clean your gardening tools before and after using them to prevent the possibility of spreading disease or infection to other plants. To prune your Christmas fern simply allow your plant to go dormant over the Winter. Some time between late winter and early spring – or when new growth starts to appear – take your clean pruners or trimmers and cut away any dying, damaged, yellow or declining foliage. Repeat this process until you reach the base of the plant or until there are no dead pieces left to cut. When pruning, be careful not to damage the new growth that may be emerging near the base of your plant. These parts cannot be restored and pruning can increase the ventilation of the plants and facilitate their growth. Any pruning that is done to this plant should be cut straight across the blades or stems. No angled cuts are required. Diseased leaf blade foliage can be removed as it appears. This could be done anytime when your Christmas fern is growing.

Once you’ve pruned your plant, you should dispose of the stems and leaves either by composting the healthy ones or throwing out the diseased parts. You can also fertilize just before or after pruning, which gives Christmas fern a little vitamin boost that can provide it the nutrients needed to better protect itself from any nearby pathogens or diseases. Do not water the Christmas fern immediately after pruning as this can lead to fungal infestation of the plants through the wounds. You don’t need much after care when you’re done pruning. It might benefit from light watering and some liquid plant food to encourage new growth.

Early spring and late winter are the best times to prune your Christmas fern on a large scale. If you want to control the size of your Christmas fern, you can prune them as you wish, but be careful not to prune more than a third of the size of the plant. Yellow and diseased leaves may appear during the summer months when the Christmas fern is growing vigorously and these types of leaves need to be pruned back immediately. These parts of the Christmas fern cannot be restored and pruning increases the ventilation of the plant and facilitates its growth.

Strategic pruning is usually done at different times of the year or during certain stages of growth depending on the plant. However, knowing when to prune your Christmas fern depends on where you live and how established your plant is. For example, if your Christmas fern is a new resident, it’s a good idea to wait until the plant starts to grow back before you start pruning. On the other hand, if your plant is already established, you will want to prune the dry or dead parts in plant before new leafy growth appears in early spring or late winter. This is the time of year when plants are dormant and pruning causes the least damage to them. This is also the best time of year to do more extensive pruning. It’s important to note that if Christmas fern is pruned too late in the season, it can leave new growth at risk for damage or disease. However, if your Christmas fern is indoors this is not a problem and you can prune at any time. Since this can affect the long-term health and appearance of your plant, it’s important to keep this in mind when deciding when and how to prune. As your Christmas fern grows larger over time, you can trim it as needed after annual pruning. Dead, damaged, or diseased leaf blade foliage can be removed as it appears. This could be done anytime when your Christmas fern is growing.

Christmas fern should receive a small amount of indirect light each day. Filtered light from a tree canopy often provides the best growing conditions. Typically, three hours of daily light exposure represents the maximum for this plant. When the Christmas fern gains exposure to either too much light, more than three hours per day, or light that is too direct, it will likely burn, dry out, and die.

At all times, you should avoid giving your Christmas fern too much sun exposure. Likewise, you should also refrain from moving your Christmas fern into direct sunlight very suddenly. Most of Christmas fern are more tolerant of morning and afternoon sunlight than midday sunlight as midday sunlight is the hottest, most direct, and most capable of harming your Christmas fern quickly. Likewise, if you grow your Christmas fern indoors, you should not allow it to sit where it can receive direct light from a window. When growing indoors, choose a place that receives a small amount of indirect light each day, just as you would when growing outdoors. Finding the correct amount of sun exposure from the start, whether grown indoors or out, is ideal. However, if you find your Christmas fern is receiving too much light, you should move its container immediately, or, if your Christmas fern grows in the ground, find a more shaded area to transplant it.

While the Christmas fern requires very little light compared to most other plants, it still needs a few hours of light to put forth healthy growth. Without those few hours of indirect light, the Christmas fern may begin to lose its foliage color and can exhibit stunted growth. However, since Christmas fern is so fond of shady conditions, it is rarer for it to suffer from lack of sunlight than it is for it to suffer from too much.

Generally, the low light needs of Christmas fern will remain the same throughout the entirety of its life span. However, the one exception to that is when this plant is young. While the Christmas fern at any growth stage is vulnerable to damage from excessive or sudden direct light, the Christmas fern that is younger is even more vulnerable. The same is true for any Christmas fern that has been recently transplanted to a new growing location and has not yet had the chance to establish itself.

For the healthiest growth, Christmas fern should receive about three hours of indirect light per day or less. You can consider any amount of light beyond three hours to be too much for this shade-loving plant group. Christmas fern thrives naturally in the forest understory, which is why they can conduct photosynthesis with quite low volumes of daily sunlight.

The best temperature for Christmas fern is determined by the time of year, as well as what part of the growth cycle Christmas fern is in at any given time. The seasons determine which stage the plant is in because of the changes in temperature from season to season. In some plants, temperature can determine how well a plant will flower each year, when it goes into dormancy, and when it will sprout up again after the cold season. Typically, 65~80℉(18~27℃) is best during the growing season.

There’s a big difference between acceptable growing season and dormant season temperatures. During the growing season, Christmas fern needs warmer temperatures in order to sprout, mature, and eventually reproduce, typically is 65~80℉(18~27℃). However, if temperatures get too cold, Christmas fern won’t be able to complete this growing season cycle and may either die off entirely or try again next year, if it still has the energy to do so. The growing season typically runs from late spring to early autumn, but the changes in temperature year to year can vary this time range by a few weeks, so don’t expect a certain date for the growing season to start or end. Temperature decides these factors. Once the temperatures during the day stay above 15℉(-10℃), this plant comes out of dormancy and begins to put on mass amounts of foliage.

Christmas fern can tolerate growing season temps up to 85℉(30℃), but will need constant moisture either from mist or drip irrigation to survive anything hotter. It helps to protect Christmas fern from the hottest parts of the day by providing shade during peak temperature hours. Shade and moisture are two ways to prevent extreme heat damage. Temperatures that are too low for the growing season, that is below 15℉(-10℃) at any point in the day, can cause problems if Christmas fern has already begun to sprout and grow foliage. Random cold snaps do happen, and it’s best to be prepared. You can help protect your Christmas fern from any cold damage by using clear polycarbonate plastic to create a miniature greenhouse around the plant, or by using a thick layer of mulch around the base of the plant to provide insulation from the cold.

Christmas fern requires a certain low temperature consistently throughout the dormant season in order to not only enter dormancy, but also to gauge when the dormant season is over. It can withstand temperatures of -5~5℉(-20~-15℃) or less. Having this cold period helps Christmas fern to grow healthier and stronger the following growing season. However, temperatures that get too warm during this time before the danger of the last frost has passed can get complicated. During this season, which begins anytime during the late autumn to early or mid-spring months, Christmas fern begins to die back for the year, entering into its dormant period in order to rest and store energy for the next year. This process begins when temperatures dip below 40℉(5℃) for more than eight hours at night, and continues on as the weather gets colder. However, if the temperatures outside reach above 15℉(-10℃), Christmas fern is signaled to start making its yearly comeback.

A large part the temperature preferences of Christmas fern coincide with humidity. Proper humidity can help it withstand the effects of extremely hot weather, while less humidity during the cold season can provide a buffer from the effects of freezing temperatures. The Christmas fern can survive much harsher temperatures with the right humidity. In very hot weather, try soaking the ground around the Christmas fern in order to create a small humidity bubble. As the surrounding water evaporates, it creates water vapor, which helps support the heat-sensitive foliage of Christmas fern. You can also leave a bucket of water close to the plant if it’s planted in a raised bed or planter, or try installing a mister to maintain a steady flow of water throughout the air. When it’s chilly outside and the rain or snow keeps coming down, everything gets a little bit colder. Moisture can make the ambient air outside feel even colder, which gets to be a hassle for plants. If your Christmas fern happens to be planted in a pot, it can be moved inside to a garage or shop that isn’t heated or heavily insulated, just to keep the worst of the moisture away until temperatures rise back up over freezing. If the Christmas fern in question is planted outside in the ground, you can also try mulching around the base of the plant with a cedar-based mulch, or use horticultural cloth to cover the area the Christmas fern is planted in. If snow is present, the cloth should be propped up above the top of the plant with stakes or twine.

Why you need to fertilize Christmas fern is pretty simple. Your plant needs the extra nutrients to produce healthy new growth. The additional nutrients also support the health of old growth and can help your plant fight off diseases and pests.

Where Christmas fern is growing determines its feeding schedule. It is not a particularly hungry plant but does require some additional nutrients. Outdoor plants require fertilizing once in the spring, while indoor specimens need a monthly feeding starting in the spring and continuing through the summer.

Do not fertilize after the early autumn, which can cause too much growth just before winter. Also, Christmas fern should not be fertilized during hot and dry times of year, since dry soil does not deliver fertilizer as effectively as moist soil. Fertilizing at this time can also stimulate growth which in turn needs more water that may not be available. It is best to keep fertilizer for earlier in the season when temperatures are cooler. Finally, remember that Christmas fern can absorb fertilizer that has been applied to nearby plants or lawns, so be cautious about inadvertently giving ferns a double-dose of fertilizer.

You have a few options when choosing a fertilizer for Christmas fern. It also depends on if the plant is growing indoors or in the garden. Outdoor plants will thrive with a layer of mulch or compost. For indoor plants,an ideal fertilizer will have an N-P-K ratio of 3-1-2. However, a general-purpose fertilizer that has an even blend of nutrients can work well in some cases. Still, even when using a balanced fertilizer, the ratio number representing the volume of each nutrient should be at 3 or lower.

Fertilizing Christmas fern isn’t difficult, but it will depend on where the plant is growing. Outdoor garden plants do best when a layer of mulch or compost is added to the soil. Make sure the organic material is around the base of the plant. Indoor plants typically thrive with a diluted liquid fertilizer applied before watering, monthly in the spring and summer.

You want to remember Christmas fern is a slow feeder. It does not require a lot of extra nutrients, especially nitrogen. While fertilizer does help support health growth, too much can burn the plant’s sensitive root system.