Follow the simple Tips to Get a Poinsettia to Turn Red with expert tricks and keep the festive vibe forever in your home.
You have seen poinsettias in many shades, but red poinsettias have their own charm; if you want to keep their vibrancy every year after fall, learn the best Tips to Get a Poinsettia to Turn Red.
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What Makes Poinsettia Red?
Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and Christmas are synonymous with each other. The cheerful seasonal leaves fade the vibrant hue after the festivities are over, and the question arises as to why they are not red and how to bring back the color.
Well, you can make the bracts red; the process that helps is known as Photoperiodism, which characterizes poinsettia’s visual reaction to day length and daylight in hours. This plant exhibits photoperiodism by forming colorful red bracts near small yellow blooms responding to short days and low light levels in winter.
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Tips to Get a Poinsettia to Turn Red
1. Keep in Dark Spot During the Night
The plant requires bright light in the daytime, but poinsettia should be kept under full darkness every evening. Have a look at some important points:
- Put poinsettia in complete darkness for 14 hours each day; do this eight weeks before you want to showcase it.
- Keep in mind that street or small night light coming through a window can disturb the process of turning poinsettia red again.
- Within 4 weeks, the bracts will start to change color and turn red. Keep the nighttime darkness routine for more than four weeks till the plant turns completely red.
- You can do this by keeping it in the dark closet every evening or covering the plant with cardboard boxes, which will help the plant to become red.
2. Humid Surroundings
At this stage, the poinsettia will require a bit of extra humidity as indoor air becomes dry in winter. You can increase humidity by using a humidifier, placing a bowl of water in the cupboard along with plants, grouping poinsettias together, or placing the pot on a saucer filled with water and pebbles.
Note: Remember to keep the level of water below the pebbles; it will prevent the base of the pot from touching the water and the roots from getting wet.
3. Control Temperature
Poinsettia is tender towards cold temperatures; it needs constant warmth to promote color change. Keep in mind that temperatures below 50 F can result in leaf drops, and chilling surroundings can kill the plant; the 60-70 F range temperature is ideal.
4. Limit Light
Restricting the light at the start of early fall will help in changing the color of the poinsettia for the late-year holiday season. Move the plant indoors by October to change the color of the bracts; you can keep it outdoors in summer in a warm area protected from the wind.
From early to mid-fall, keep your poinsettia in the darkroom or in a lightproof box for 14 hours consecutively and under 6-8 hours of bright light that should not be harsh. Do remember a small break in this routine can stop the process of turning the bracts red.
5. Fertilize once at the beginning
Before you put the poinsettia in the dark, feed it with the NPK ratio of 20-10-20 or 15-16-17, and dilute it to the strength of 1/2 or 1/4 once or twice. This will help in boosting the growth and color of the plant.
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Secret to Turn Poinsettias Red
A plant pigment known as phytochrome becomes more powerful in dark conditions and helps make the poinsettia plant red. To make it clear, short days and long dark nights during fall and winter promote a red hue in this plant, similar to the Christmas cactus.
You can make indoor poinsettias more red by keeping them in dark areas for a long.
TIP: Go with ‘Red Elegance’ or ‘Sonora’ for the red hue.
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Points to Consider
- Start placing the poinsettia in a dark room during the day in the fall. It will cause photoperiodism, and leaves will start to turn red.
- Begin to move the poinsettia to a dark room from 1st October and continue for up to 8-10 weeks. The plant will require 14 hours of full darkness each day.
- Also, When you keep the poinsettia under 14 hours of darkness, it will also require 6-8 hours of bright sunlight.
- To maintain its vigor, use a general liquid fertilizer. Do follow the instructions on the label for the right dosage.
- Over the end of November, you can notice a striking difference with red leaves shining through.
Note: In commercial farming, the same thing is done on a huge scale; they use artificial lights, blackout cloths, and regulators to make poinsettia ready for Christmas. You can do this at home by following the above tricks and preparing for the coming festive season.
