I got a maranta leuconeura (red) this summer and shortly after receiving it, it began blooming and has hardly stopped since, every one in a while it will stop for a couple weeks. Additionally, it has more than doubled the amount of leaves it aready had if not tripled, i have a new leaf or two every week, however the roots are beginning to peek out the bottom and the new leaves are about 4 inches long when older ones are a touch over 5 inches long . Would a transplant shock the plant in any way when its growing this quickly? could the constant blooming cause any issue later on? or is it a result of it being grown under artificial lighting?
Do you want to reply with a photo to show us? Attach photos and files Are you interested in the flowers? It wouldn't really matter if the transplant stopped the flowering for this year, would it? It might not have any effect anyway. I had a green prayer plant for many years. During the winter, it always got leggy and the leaves got smaller. As soon as new leaves started to come up directly from the soil, I cut all the old leaves off at the soil line. Within a few weeks, it looked beautiful again, with all nice large leaves.
Also keep in mind that for houseplants, allowing them to bloom is a direct trade-off for how well the leaves are going to do. I like the to cut off the bloom spikes immediately, since I would rather have flourishing leaves on this type of plant.
Sure thing, sorry I didnt think of adding a picture. The flowers arent super important to me, the only issue was being concerned about why it's still blooming since I do change the amount of time i leave the light on in accordance to the seasons. Because of this I'm not sure if or when its going to go dormant and if i should transplant it just to have it go dormant right after, and I'm not sure how big of a deal that really is. And thats interesting to hear about your maranta, I havent experienced that with any of my plants yet but that does seem interesting
Thats makes sense, I didnt realize the blooming could have much of an effect on the leaves, but they dont normally last long, last week there were about 6 flowers that came out but now only one is left, so it doesnt seem like itd take so much out of the plant
It looks pretty good - I hesitate to say anything. OK, hesitation period over. :) Is there a reason you're using artificial lights? I understood these plants to do well in deep shade, though maybe the red ones need more light? If you would consider cutting it back when the new shoots pop up from the soil, you should do it right away as soon as you see the new growth - once the shoots unfurl, it's a lot harder to see where to cut. I think one winter I even cut everything off before I saw the new growth, but mostly I didn't have the nerve to do that.
