Alocasia Sinuata Plant Care

Last Updated on April 14, 2022 by Admin

The Alocasia Sinuata is a beautiful plant with stunning leaves. While not the largest plant the texture and ridges of its leaves make it stunning to look at.

It is a member of the Araceae and is native to the Southern part of the Philippines.

Another thing worth noting is that there are many different Alocasia Sinuata varieties. These include:

Alocasia Sinuata Silver
Alocasia Sinuata Green
Variegated Alocasia Sinuata
Alocasia Sinuata Quilted dreams
Alocasia Sinuata Mirror face

How do you care for the Alocasia Sinuata? This is a tropical plant that thrives on bright, indirect light, warm temperature and high humidity.

It likes moist soil but cannot tolerate overwatering or waterlogged soil. Always let the soil dry between waterings and use well-draining soil.

Table of Contents

Light Requirements

The Alocasia Sinuata will tolerate different lighting conditions. Indoors, it will grow best in bright, indirect light.

If you want the plant to have its best leaf colors, this is the environment to shoot for.

That said, it will do very well in medium like and tolerate low light as well.

Outdoors, partial shade is best and avoid full sun.

However, note that because there are many different Alocasia Sinuata varieties, you will need to adjust the amount of light depending on the specific plant.

For example, the variegated Alocasia Sinuata will need more light that those that are predominantly green.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember one thing, the Alocasia Sinuata cannot tolerate very strong light. This goes for all varieties.

Therefore, keep it away from direct sunlight during the middle of the day.

It does well in early morning and late afternoon direct sun. But between 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the sun is just too intense for the plant.

Keeping it under this condition will cause its leaves to fade in color.

They can even get scorched.

Temperature

The Alocasia Sinuata is native to the Philippines, which is a country in Southeast Asia.

When it comes to temperature, the most important thing to know about this country is that it is very near the equator.

As such, it has warm to hot climate.

This is why the Alocasia Sinuata enjoys temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. It can tolerate hotter environments as well without harm or any issues.

The downside of being in the tropics is that there are no cold months.

As such, the plant is not cold hardy nor can it tolerate freezing temperature in winter. Instead, its temperature tolerance is 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

And it is best to avoid anything colder than this.

Once you go below this threshold, you’ll see the plant’s growth slow down.

The longer it is left there and the colder the conditions get, the more likely its leaves will turn yellow. Later, leaf drop an occur as well.

In the end, it can result in cold damage or even death.

So, never leave the plant outdoors during winter.

However, it does enjoy the outdoors in USDA Hardiness Zones 10 to 12. These have sunshine and warm weather all year round.

So, if you live in these regions, you can leave the plant outdoors from November to March. In fact, you can grow it outside all year long if you wish with no problems.

Humidity

For optimal growth, give the Alocasia Sinuata humidity of 60% and higher.

This is the other aspect of tropical weather.

In addition to being very hot, it is also very humid.

Average humidity in the Philippines on a day to day basis stays around 60% to 75%. It can reach 85% to 92% during a rainy day.

For this reason, the plant thrives in high humidity.

At the very least try to keep humidity at 50% or slightly less than that.

If air gets too dry, you’ll notice the plant’s leaves turn brown. These will occur in edges and tips of the leaves.

Unfortunately, the lower the humidity and the longer it stays in dry air, the more brown leaves you’ll see. Also, these brown leaves will never turn green again.

To increase humidity around the plant, you can mist it regularly or use a pebble tray.

You can likewise set up a humidifier.

How Often to Water Alocasia Sinuata

The Alocasia Sinuata likes moist soil. But it cannot tolerate wet, soggy potting mixes.

Therefore, it is very important to know how to water the plant.

In general, the plant does not like wet feet nor does it like the soil to completely dry. So, the goal is to stay in the middle of both extremes.

However, of the two, if you were to err, go with the dry side.

This is safer since the Alocasia Sinuata can quickly recover from dryness. Additionally, it takes more sever dehydration to damage the plant.

In contrast, it is susceptible to overwatering and root rot.

This is why you want to allow the top 2 inches of soil to completely dry between waterings.

In doing so, you prevent overwatering as you wait longer before adding water.

The main sign to look for with overwatering is yellow leaves. This often means the plant is being overwatered.

So, if you see leaves turning yellow, check the soil to see if it feels wet.

If so, cut back of watering and allow the soil dry first.

On the other hand, an underwatered Alocasia Sinuata will often develop brown leaves.

Again, check the soil before adding more water. If the soil feels very dry even to 2 or 3 inches from the surface, it is time to water the plant.

Alocasia Sinuata Potting Soil

The Alocasia Sinuata needs fast draining, well-aerated chunky potting soil.

This will allow the roots to avoid overwatering and get enough oxygen.

One thing many people don’t know is that roots not only need water but they also need oxygen. This is why overwatering and waterlogged soil are bad.

When there’s too much moisture in the soil, the water pushes out all the air and fills the air pockets with liquid.

As a result, the roots end up drowning in water.

If this lasts for a long time, the roots suffocate and die as they cannot breathe. This is how root rot occurs.

Therefore, the soil needs to be able to quickly drain excess moisture to prevent the roots from drowning in too much liquid.

Additionally good aeration allows oxygen to easily reach the roots.

The simplest way to get the perfect soil for the Alocasia Sinuata is to pick up a bag of Aroid mix. This soil mix has all the features the plant needs.

On the other hand, if you prefer making your own potting mix at home, combine:

1 part potting soil
1 part peat moss
1 part perlite

This will give you loose, well-draining potting soil that will allow excess water to quickly drain.

Fertilizer

The Alocasia Sinuata is not one of the bigger alocasia varieties. As such, it is not a huge feeder. Nevertheless, it does need nutrients to grow optimally and produce its amazing foliage.

Feed the plant with an all-purpose liquid fertilizer once a month only during its growing season. This means only fertilizing in spring and summer.

Stop feeding once fall arrives.

Then restart again next spring.

Besides a liquid fertilizer, you can also opt for a slow-release fertilizer. These come in pellet form since the pellets will dissolve at different times.

In doing so, it reduces the risk of overfertilizing since you don’t apply the entire dose all at once.

Additionally, using a slow-release fertilizer also reduces the number of times you need to apply per year. In most cases 2 or 3 times a year works well with this formulation.

Pruning

The Alocasia Sinuata will grow to about 14 to 18 inches.

This makes is a fairly small plant. Additionally, its leaves won’t get too big either reaching about 10 inches long.

This allows you to keep the plant on tabletops or counters.

Since the leaves are the main attraction of the plant, you may want to prune them to encourage more growth.

The Alocasia Sinuata has the potential to produce quite a few leaves.

On the other hand, make sure to remove any infected leaves as soon as you can as these can spread and affect other foliage.

Similarly, prune old, discolored and dying leaves.

You don’t want them sticking around the plant as the Alocasia Sinuata will keep expending energy to support these leaves.

By removing them, you allow the plant to channel the energy to healthy or new leaves.

How to Propagate Alocasia Sinuata

The Alocasia Sinuata is often propagated by division or from offsets.

Division is the more reliable method since you don’t know when the plant will produce offsets. Nevertheless, do check once in a while since offsets are very easy to propagate.

Here’s how to propagate the Alocasia Sinuata by division.

Take the plant out of its pot and remove excess soil so you can see the rhizomes clearly. You can decide where to divide the clumps.

Since the Alocasia Sinuata is a small plant, you’ll likely only divide it into 2 or 3 new plants. Otherwise, you could end up with very small new plants.

Note that you don’t need to divide evenly as well.

You can get a smaller division and leave a bigger one if you wish.

Use your hands to separate the clumps. Then plant each division into a pot that’s filled with well-draining potting mix.

Meanwhile, you can likewise propagate the Alocasia Sinuata from offsets.

Here, check around the base of the plant.

Offsets or plantlets are small baby versions of the mother plant. And they will eventually grow into a full-sized mature plant in time.

If you find any offsets, you can separate these offsets or baby plant and plant them separately.

Make sure to wait until the offsets are at least 3 inches in size before you separate them and repot them on their own.

How to Repot or Transplant Alocasia Sinuata

The Alocasia Sinuata has a compact growth habit and won’t grow into a huge plant. Therefore, you won’t need to be in any hurry to give it a large pot.

Instead, it will do well in smaller containers.

This is very important because overpotting increases the risk of overwatering.

This happens because if you have a small plant and put it in a large pot, you end up with lots of excess soil.

When you water the soil, the plant’s roots end up swimming in so much water.

It also takes much longer for the soil to dry.

Thus, avoid using large pots for this plant.

Instead, use one that is bigger than the plant. And when you repot, go up one pot size at a time. The increase of 2 inches in diameter will give the plant enough room to grow for the next 18 to 24 months.

In addition to using the right pot size, also make sure to use well-draining soil.

More specifically, replace the spent soil when you repot with fresh, well-draining soil mix. This ensures you’re using soil with the right texture that has not compacted.

Additionally, it has nutrients which to old soil has already depleted.

Is It Toxic/Poisonous to Humans, Cats & Dogs

The Alocasia Sinuata is toxic to people and pest. It will cause inflammation in the oral cavity and digest tract if ingested.

So, it is a good idea to keep the plant away from dogs, cats and young children.

Alocasia Sinuata Problems & Troubleshooting

Pests

Pests like aphids, mealybugs and scale are attracted to the Alocasia Sinuata.

Unfortunately, these are not just bothersome insects but also damaging once they grow in number.

As such, you don’t want to let they populate, which they do very quickly.

Pest infections are harder to eradicate. Plus, because they feed on the sap of the plant collectively, they can weaken it significantly.

If the Alocasia Sinuata does experience a pest attack, you have a few options.

My favorite is to spray them off with a garden hose. You can use a showerhead since the Alocasia Sinuata is a smaller plant.

Make sure to be thorough as these bugs tend to hide on the undersides of the leaves.

It can take anywhere from 2 to 5 times of spraying spread over a few day in between each spraying to get them all.

You can likewise use neem oil or insecticidal soap.

Diseases

The Alocasia Sinuata can also experience disease. But in most cases, these are man-made.

That’s because the main cause of these problems usually comes from overwatering.

Root rot, leaf infection, bacterial and fungal disease all stem from excess moisture be it in the leaves or in the soil..

So, make sure to be careful with how you water and when you water the plant.

Always let the soil dry between waterings. Also don’t wet the leaves without making sure they dry fairly quickly.

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