Fittonias are super cute little plants but they can be DIVAS. They’re actually a great option if you want to get better at caring for your plants (and establishing a plant care routine, because they do NOT tolerate drying out for too long).
I think they’re a great plant to gift because they’re pretty compact and, not to put too fine a point on it, they’re easy to replace should something, er, happen.
Are Fittonias easy to care for?
100% medium care.
They don’t really need any special conditions other than pretty consistently damp soil. They prefer higher humidity but they’re small enough that you could buy a large mason jar or similar and just pop the whole thing, pot and all, in.
Like most moisture loving plant fittonia prefer filtered water but fittonia are mass produced a massive scale so they’ve been bred not to take serious issue with tap water.
My personal rule of thumb is that for 99% of plants, if it’s fine for human consumption, it’s fine for plant consumption. The exception to this rule is carnivorous plants, who are veeery intolerant to water impurities.
Do Fittonias need bright light?
Fittonia are actually pretty unbothered by light type – I kept min on my suuuper bright coffee table (a ouple of feet from a big-ass south-facing window AND in the deepest recesses of the bookcase that gets the sun for about five minutes per day.
It obviously grew faster on the coffee table but it did still grow on the bookcase.
HOWEVER
I have observed that keeping fittonia in darker spots makes them WAY more susceptible to pests.
Do Fittonias need high humidity?
They don’t need high humidity, but they can tolerate it well. I’ve kept mine in ambient humidity and they’ve done just the same as when I’ve kept them in terrariums. I think the rumour that they NEED high humidity can from a combination of:
- They like moist soil and wilt at the slightest hint of drought
- They’re small, like damp soil, and won’t rot in 100% humidity, making them ideal candidates for terraiums.
IME they’re humidity ambivalent.
Do Fittonias need warm temperatures?
Fittonia prefer warm temperatures and will NOT tolerate frost, but they managed just fine in my freezing cold living room (it can get as low as 13ºC/59ºF in winter).
What soil do Fittonias need?
Again, like most plants they don’t care as long as you can control the water in it.
You’ll find that most fittonias come with pretty dense soil when you buy them – many people recommend switching to a chunkier mix but as a chronic underwaterer I leave them in the denser stuff.
Fittonia hail from Chile and live on the forest floor – they’re designed to live in dense, rich soil.
Terraium soil is a good option OR just use whatever you already use for your houseplants and add worm castings.
What type of pot do Fittonias need?
Don’t do terracotta – they’ll dry out too quickly. They like to stay pretty snug in the pot so you shouldn’t need to up-pot it from it’s nursery pot for a while.
When it comes to repotting, don’t mess to much with the roots – just take the plant, soil and all, out of the pot, pop it into a slightly bigger pot and backfill with new soil. Trying to break up the roots will result in a sulking session.
How often should you water Fittonias?
More often than your other plants! I like to make sure the soil never gets dry, so I keepy my fittonia on the coffee table and touch the soil every days. When it’s dry, I pour a bit of water from my water glass into the bottom of the outer pot. Easy!
(Maidenhair ferns also benefit from this approach)
A lot of people inside that fittonia need to be bottom watered. I assume you, they dgaf where their water comes from as long as they get it.
How to fertilise Fittonias
The more time I spend with my plants the more I realise that they don’t care. I ran an experiment where I fertilised one fittonia every time I watered and another didn’t get fed all year. There was no difference between the plants after a year.
If you’re repotting every year or two and adding worm castings, then you kind of…never need to fertilise. or you could feed every time. Or somewhere between never and always.
I know this doesn’t seem helpful so I will say this:
If you never want to feed your fittonia, fine.
If you always want to feed your fittonia, fine.
If you can’t decide and just want someone to tell you what to do, feed once a month.
(If you want to feed over winter, go for it, if you don’t, dont),
Are Fittonias toxic?
No! Also not particularly tasty-looking (or at least my rabbit doesn’t think so), unlike, apparently, Calathea.
How to propagate Fittonias
Stem cuttings
Take a stem, remove the lower leaves and stick in water. Wait.
We remove the lower leaves for two reasons:
- The leaves grow from nodes, and if the bit we remove the leaves from is underwater we know it can root
- Wet leaves will rot and you’re more likely to get bacterial infections and the water will get gross.
(I actually tried rooting hoya bella without removing the leaves and it worked fine – the leaves did rot but there was no bacterial infection. It did get mealybugs thoguh and whilsts I’m pretty sure the two things are unconnected, you never know).
If you’re looking for ways to speed up the rooting process, I got you. Read the article linked below where I propped a Philodendron brasil in several different ways to see which was fastest (spoiler: it was adding fertiliser to the water)
Division
Fittonia naturally produce pups as they grow you’ll be able to see that the plant is made up of several stems. You can literally cut the root ball with a knife and voila, two plants.
You can root fittonia by leaves only, but it takes yonks and is pretty unreliable. Still, if you find a fittonia leaf on the floor…what have you got to lose?
Are Fittonias rare?
No.
What else is there to say?!
Are Fittonias expensive?
Again, no.
Are Fittonias fast-growing?
They can be in warm, moist environments. If they start to get a bit big (especially in terrarium) just snip of some of the stems with scissors. You can prop the stems to have a shorter, wider plant.
Do Fittonias climb or crawl?
Neither. They grow up (but not very high) and then spread out over the forest floor. They don’t crawl like a Philodendron gloriosum, which roots on stem several times as it crawls. along the grow.
Alternative names for Fittonia
They’re called nerve plants because the pattern on the leaves looks like a nervous system.
Not gonna lie, that li’l fact has spoiled them for me a bit.
What redeems them a bit is that their family, acanthus, has the alternative name ‘bear’s britches’. No ide what that means, but I love it.
Adelaster is another name for them.
Are there different types of Fittonias?
Yes, but you’ve probably got a fittonia albivenis.
There are various cultivars with variations in colour and leaf shape.
I do love a fittonia – they’re small and unassuming but with a dramatic streak that I really admire.
