Wow, what a difference! Thanks for the before and after pics, they really make your point about the soil. Mine are doing well, but I can't help but wonder if I should trying repotting at least one of mine. May I ask how often you water them? That's where I get confused, but I suppose its just like any other houseplant, when the soil is dry.

Eileen, my theory is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I transplanted mine into soil because they weren't doing anything in the water for so long. HOWEVER, it might be interesting to plant one in soil and leave the other one in water.

Nearly all plants prefer to be grown in a well aerated soil, and these Dracaenas are no exception. The limiting factor is not so much the nutrient availability, but the lack of dissolved oxygen. New roots cannot continue to develop if there is no available oxygen...and if a plant does not keep making new roots....then growth ceases. I suspect that many of you have plants that are just barely existing because of this. But that's part of the look of the (so called) Lucky Bamboo.

Keeping your water changed will help. But there's nothing like a good coarse solid growing medium in terms of rapid root growth.

Watering? Water thoroughly (to run off and more) and then allow to dry out somewhat. If your growing medium is a fast draining (meaning coarse) one, over watering is next to impossible.

rhizo is correct. Dracaenas are not aquatic plants and they are not bamboos either. This fad of growing them in water is not for the benefit of the plants health. You will never have them in water as healthy and lush as in soil.

I'll agree to that...I moved my 5 stalks from a tight fitting vase where they hadn't done anything all summer to some starter-cells with potting soil recently (if I was being better about my garden notes I'd say when lol). They aren't in much soil as this is a temporary rooting situation, but already 3 have new shoots. I'll pot them up when they get a little rootbound. If what's going on above ground is any indication, that may not be very long.

This is what happened to my LB afer putting it in soil. I think it took about four months for it to look this way. Lovely!

Unfortunately, I knocked over some cleaning water and the lower half of the leaves went yellow. The stems were yellowing too. In hindsight, I should have immediately changed the soil and rinsed them instead of trying to run the clear water through the pots. Dang bleach!

I noticed when the leaves fell off that what they were attached to were small stalks. So, I bravely snipped them and am now trying to root them. I put them in water with ST added for about five days and just potted them in soil. I'm optimistic. One of them already had a root.

BTW, yes I know the ST is controversial. Please, please, please... I'm not trying to start an uproar. Plants are supposed to allow us to relax, right?? ;-) I'm just sharing what I did. I'll report back in a few weeks to let you guys know how things progress.

I think this forum is fantastic.

{{gwi:91225}}

Oh yeah...

When I first made the transition from water to soil, I kept the soil moist. Not wet, but just sort of moist until they got established. It didn't take long. Maybe 2 or 3 weeks. After that, it let the soil get dryish before I watered again.

Keep up the good work, amany, and report back. I might add that the success of transplanting your Dracaena from water to soil might be easier if you use a very coarse textured soil....fast draining and filled with large pore spaces rife with oxygen.

I just wanted to report that the LBs have adapted well and are putting out new growth.

Mine live in a pond indoors. They have put out a lot of new growth. The fish feed them and it seems to be working. I have never grown them in plain water. I would share a picture of my pond unfortunatly no digital.

Sandywesttexas. I never thought about putting the LB in my pond. Sounds like a pretty good idea as I'm about to toss them out anyhow. I'm not praticularly fond of LB as a house plant, so this may be a solution/experiement to see if they will survive. Thanks for the input! Pat

Yeah, I have a book that says to put LBs in a bowl with a fighting fish. It looks good and it said the fish provides fertilizer. Also, the roots supply the fish with shelter and entertainment to swim through. It sounds like a great idea!

Oh, if you use liquid fertilizer, will the LB grow better, b/c I just got one.

I plant all mine in soil I took a picture to show the strange things I have noticed lately my striped ones seem to be causing the solid green ones to put out striped leaves. Also there is a baby growing now . I have had the biggest ones for about 4 years the 3 tallest did not like to grow at all and limped along for about 2 years in water. I planted them in regular all purpose and they perked up and started to thicken out as well. Snipped the dead leaves off from the bottom and they are doing fine now. They get filtered light all day. But also like western light. I posted some pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: