Tangled Heart Plant

Appearance:

Tangled heart is a beautiful hanging plant. Its native place is Africa. It has green fleshy leaves. It is an indoor plant. The purple lines are seen on the leaves if it is kept in sunlight. It’s leaves shape looks like a little triangular heart shape. Its stem colour is a little bit pink, the green leaves with pink stem looks beautiful. Fully developed plants produce small purple-coloured flowers. This plant does not require any special care. It is a succulent type of creeper

Potting Mix and planting, Propagation:

It prefers well drained soil. To make potting mix for tangle heart take 60 percent garden soil,30 percent cocopeat and 10 percent compost. Tangled hearts can grow in any size pot even in small mugs. Choose any pot which you like and make 3-4 drainage holes at the bottom, cover those holes with some stones and fill the pot with potting mix. Tap the pot slightly to remove air, take 5-6 cutting of tangled heart, remove the lower side 2-3 leaves of the cutting. At the time of planting make sure there are 2-3 nodes points of the cutting are inserted into the soil. Water it thoroughly, after a few days the cutting will grow.

According to me, avoid using a pot which has pointy edges, because when the wine grows and lies downwards the stem of the plant gets broken or cut.

Sunlight:

Tangled heart is the succulent type plant so it prefers indirect sunlight or shade. It will do well in morning as well as in evening direct sunlight also.

In winter, it can tolerate direct sunlight the whole day. In summer, avoid exposing it to direct sunlight. It will grow very well in very low light also.

Water:

It is a succulent type of plant, so does not require much water. It stores water in its leaves. Before watering it, make sure the soil almost gets completely dry. Tangled heart tolerates somewhat underwatering but overwatering will kill the plant. Its stems and roots rot by overwatering and the leaves get soft and lose their shine. The colour of the leaves turns to yellow due to overwatering.

Fertilizer:

This plant grows very fast without any fertilizer, but I like to use organic liquid fertilizer for it once every 1 and half months. You can also use banana peel and onion peel liquid fertilizer for it.

Repotting: -

Instead of repotting tangled heart I suggest to grow new plant with small cuttings. It will get becomes bushy in couple of months.

Diseases:

Root rot and stem rot is the main disease I have seen in my tangle heart plant. This happens due to overwatering. The leaves turn their colour green to yellow and get soft, lose their shine and stop growing. When you see these symptoms in your tangled heart, replant it quickly. Choose healthy green leaves stems to make cuttings. Make 6–7-inch cuttings from the healthy stems, remove the lower 2-3 leaves from the cutting.

Take any pot, make drainage holes at the bottom, and cover those holes with stone. Fill the pot with light well drained soil. Makes holes with stick in the soil and insert the cutting into the holes. Make sure while cutting inserting in the soil there will be 2-3 node points under the soil. Water it thoroughly and put it away from direct sunlight for 3-4 days. This way the tangled heart will be revived from dying.

I have had tangled heart plant for 4 years, I never seen any pest attack on it.

Toxicity:

The tangled heart plant is non-toxic for humans and pets also.

Common problems:

- Leaves yellowing and dropping is the common problem I see in my tangled heart. The main reason for it is overwatering, so just let soil dry before watering it.

- Discoloration of leaves is also the main problem with the tangled heart. The reason behind that is exposure in direct sunlight. This is a succulent type of plant so it prefers bright indirect sunlight. So put the plant anywhere where it gets enough bright light.