Peperomia Prostrata, otherwise known as String of Turtles, is one of the plants taking 2022 by storm. These plants are native to the rainforests of Brazil, and enjoy their fair share of water. They thrive in warm climates, and acclimate well to indoor growing environments. Their leaves have complex patterns to their circular shape, thus coining their name ‘String of Turtles’.
Watering is pretty easy with this plant, keep it moist. You may experience some die-back if the soil dries out too much. Since these plants typically grow in rainforests, they’re no stranger to a heavy watering. Personally, I’ve even seen folks place the pot on top of a glass with about ½ an inch of water at the bottom, and it has helped them to achieve the thick, turtle shell leaves that this plant boasts. The plant will show you it needs water when the coloration in the leaves start to fade back to green, a deep watering later and watch as the plant instantly rejuvenates its patterned leaves. If kept regularly watered, this plant will grow to maturity in about 3-5 years.
When grown outside, these plants will do well with regular rain watering, but may need supplemental water if it dries out too quickly. These plants can tolerate 2-3 hours of full sun if the soil is kept moist. During the summer, they can be grown outside in most temperate zones, and 10b or above all year round. In the summertime outside, there are better growing opportunities, and they really aren’t too fussy about the heat, watering is key with these. I’ve found in my experience that they only need fertilization about once a year in late summer with succulent fertilizer, and they will grow for the rest of the year. If you choose to grow this plant indoors, it will inevitably be putting off smaller leaves. If you are looking for large turtles, a southern or western window will do the greatest good in achieving that look.
The flowers on this plant are sort of toothpick-like and puts them out in both ideal and stressful conditions. When growing Strings of Turtles, you may start seeing their flowers in late spring or early summer. It’s quite fun to watch if you catch them at the right time, and it makes for a nice change in its traditional scenery.
Propagating these plants is relatively similar to strings of hearts in terms of its means, simply take a roughly 2” cutting and place it on top of a pot and water it in. Keep the soil lightly moist for about two weeks, and roots should be popping out of the bottom. Don’t move it though! In another week or so, you’ll start to see little turtles growing out of the ends of the cutting and even further along there will also be turtles coming out the sides! It may take about a year to fill the pot completely, but a very fun journey for these guys. Just bearing witness is already about ½ the fun, especially when grown from cuttings.