Baby’s Tears Plant Care

Last Updated on October 31, 2021 by Phil

Baby’s tears are lovely looking foliage plants that can either be hung from baskets or serve as ground cover in your garden.

They have small yellow green leaves that make them somewhat look like moss. But, make no mistake they delicate looks doesn’t mean they’re hard to please or care for. In fact, it’s the opposite.

Learn how to grow and care for baby’s tears by reading on below.

Table of Contents

About the Baby’s Tears Plant

Baby’s tears is a unique looking houseplant that’s perfect for any homeowner who wants to add a point of interest to a room.

It’s fairly easy to care for, making it a good choice even for beginners. Although, it does need regular attention because of its growth habits.

These perennials are low growing plants that spread outwards. They grow to just a few inches tall but will extend up to 3 feet if you don’t trim them.

That said, these versatile plants can be grown indoors, outside, or in containers. All of which work fairly well as long as you know how to use their creeping nature to your advantage.

Indoors, you can enjoy them in a terrarium as well as anything hanging or with a vertical nature to it. This allows the small, green leaves covering their long, thin stems to drape over an area much like a dense mat. Their creeping nature makes them ideal for hanging baskets as it allows their foliage to spill out over the edges.

Outside, their short stature and expansive coverage make them perfect for ground cover or areas in your yard or garden that need filling in.

Their thin stems make them look delicate. But, they’re fairly robust.

But, the thing you should know about them is that they have a very aggressive growth habit.

This is especially true if you provide them with the proper temperature and a good amount of water or rain. When this happens, they grow very quickly to the point that they can be troublesome for other plants around them in your garden.

This is why many people prefer to keep them in containers. This allows you to limit its invasive nature. And, by keeping it slightly away from other plants, it won’t be able to overrun them.

source: Flickr

Baby’s Tears Plant Light

The baby’s tears plant likes partial sun. In fact, it prefers bright, filtered light as opposed to direct sunlight.

That said, while it doesn’t intense sunlight, they can tolerate short periods of it. But, allowing them to stay under direct or harsh sunlight frequently or for prolonged periods of time makes them susceptible to scorched leaves or at the very least browning.

As such, they do very well indoors as long as they’re not left in dark areas.

Outside, it’s a good idea to grow them where there’s shade. This keeps them away from the sun’s rays, while still getting some light.

Baby’s Tears Plant Temperature & Humidity

These creeping houseplants are somewhat tolerant or slightly cooler temperatures. In general, they do well between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

As such, this makes them perfect for most homes.

Outdoors, they thrive in cooler weather as long although they will die back when frost or freezing temperatures come.

But, as long as you give them mild climate conditions, they’ll be happy. In fact, keeping them away from direct or intense sunlight is the main priority outside.

Whether you grow them indoors or out, it’s important to note that they like highly humid areas. This makes them perfect plants for your bathroom and kitchen.

Similarly, it’s also why they do well in terrariums.

Baby’s Tears Plant Watering

Baby’s tears like a lot of water. More importantly, they’re not happy in dry conditions. Thus, you shouldn’t allow them to dry out. Otherwise, you’ll see significant wilting happen.

Here, it’s important to make sure that the soil stays moist, especially around its roots.

Fortunately, they’re fairly resilient. So, if this scenario somehow occurs, make sure to water them immediately.

Doing so will allow them to recover fairly well.

You can scale back on moisture once the colder months arrive.

Soil

When it comes to soil, your baby tears plant enjoys rich, well-draining soil that’s moist. And, if you give it that, you’ll see it grown very fast. In fact, sometimes too fast and too aggressively where it overruns other plants around it.

This is more of a problem outdoors. But less so in pots because you can position them slightly away from the other containers.

It likewise prefers slightly acidic soil with pH levels of between 5.0 and 6.0

This means that using potting soil with perlite or peat moss works well. Both help improve the moisture draining ability of potting soil.

Similarly, you can add humus or compost to increase the organic matter content in the soil. Doing so also helps improve your soil’s overall texture, allowing it to be looser so that more air can circulate.

Fertilizing

Fertilizer is needed to keep the baby’s tears plant’s foliage healthy and dense looking.

To do so, apply a balanced fertilizer every two weeks during the spring and summer. This is when it’s most actively growing. As such, you want to supply it with the proper nutrients to stay lush.

A liquid fertilizer diluted to half-strength works well for this purpose.

Pruning

Due to their fast growth, you’ll find yourself trimming them every so often. For baby’s tears, the pruning is more for aesthetics, shaping, and keeping them from getting too unruly or long.

As such, it’s more for appearance and manageability rather than promoting growth or good health.

Of course, how often you’ll need to prune will also depend on the kind of container you grow them in. For small terrariums, you’ll need to do it frequently. Otherwise, it will cover the entire space fairly quickly.

With pots, the pruning will be more moderate, especially fro somewhat taller containers of those placed on higher furniture.

Probably the least often you’ll need to prune is if they’re placed in hanging baskets or something vertical. Since these locations allow them to drape downwards.

Baby’s Tears Plant Propagation

Their aggressive and invasive nature makes them very easy to propagate. In fact, as long as you allow their stems to start coming into contact with soil, you’ll notice they’ll soon root.

This is why they can quickly overrun sections of your garden if you let them.

The good news is if you want to propagate baby tears, you can use this to your advantage.

All you need to do is separate sections of the stem along with some soil and their roots. Then replant the divisions and regularly water them.

Soon enough, they’ll start growing.

Baby’s Tears Plant Repotting

Baby’s tears plants are fast growers, especially when you provide them with the conditions they like. This means you’ll need to be ready to repot them regularly.

More importantly, keeping them pot-bound increases their risk of drying out. When this happens, you’ll notice that they’ll start wilting. That’s a sure sign that you need to move it to a larger pot or basket.

Also, it’s worth noting that the thin stems are very delicate. Thus, while it may look the easiest way to pull them out of their pot, it’s not a good idea to drag them by the stems.

Instead, you have to tip them on their sides much like many other houseplants, and gently coax them out of the pot.

If it feels stuck, you can push from the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot to help get things going.

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