How I grow maidenhair ferns

Back in early 2016 I got a little fern to keep in my office.  Maidenhair ferns don't cope with direct sunlight, they don't love extremes of temperature, and they appear to dislike change, so they are really well suited to office life.  

Over the past 5 or 6 years my little maidenhair fern has grown rather large.  To give you an idea of size of my maidenhair fern, the pot is about 20cm across.  There is a bit of variation but most of the fronds measure about 50cm long.

Maidenhair fern

One year later, same fern, lush growth

My little fern grew well.  I used to bring it home over Christmas as there was no one around to water it.  Other than that it was always in the office.  People often used to comment at how much they liked my office fern.

I had to bring my maidenhair fern home a while ago because I have not been in the office very much.  It wasn't really happy where I had it at home, it was a little too dark and I didn't rotate the pot so it only grew on one side.  I eventually worked out the problems.

Now I rotate the pot each week and my fern is picking up again and starting to fill out on all sides like it once did.  Hopefully it doesn't take too long to long good again.

Office fern front of pot

Office fern back of pot

Office fern side of pot

The same fern a year later - growing strong

Maidenhair ferns have a reputation for being finicky and difficult to grow, but they look so nice that I think the effort needed to grow them is worth while.  

By far the easiest way to grow them is to accidentally stumble on their preferred growing conditions.  Failing that I have noticed a few of their needs and listed them below.

Maidenhair ferns need constant moisture, but really don't like to sit in water.  I grow this one in a self watering pot and always keep water in the reservoir.  Other than the few times when I tipped out the water to take the fern home or take it back to the office the reservoir has never been empty, not even for a little while.  They don't like sitting in water as it will rot, so a self watering pot is perfect.  I have others growing in regular pots that I feel like I am watering all the time, but it is less work having them in self watering pots.  

Maidenhair ferns need bright indirect light.  From what I have seen, direct sunlight burns them and kills them pretty quick.  While I never let direct sun hit mine, if it is too dark he plant suffers and slowly declines.  Office lighting was good for this as it had many hours of low level light every single day.  At home I have it on a book shelf not too far from a glass door, it is a little dark for it there but not too bad.

Maidenhair ferns don't like being touched by people.  I am told the acid on your hands burns their fronds.  If you have to touch them please wash your hands first.  Kids shooting nerf darts or throwing paper planes also seem to do some damage to their fronds (don't ask how I know).  I don't have cats but assume that a cat rubbing against them is not great either.  If you can put them somewhere that they are not being touched they will reward you with nicer looking growth.

Maiden hair ferns don't love draughts or being blasted with an air conditioner.  That being said I have seen them in some extremely windy positions in nature and have a few growing outside under cover where they get lots of wind.  Perhaps they can survive strong wind if they have some sort of protection, being in a pot on your shelf they have no protection so it is best to protect them from wind if you can.

Ferns don't love regular fertiliser, it is usually too strong for them and burns their new growth.  I was told many years ago to tear open used tea bags and sprinkle the leaves on their soil to fertilise ferns.  I can't remember the last time I did that with my fern, but it always grew well afterwards.  It also seemed to encourage some kind of fungus, so I haven't done that in a while.  I am also told that banana peels are good for ferns.  Spreading banana peel on the soil causes insects to be an issue.  Cutting up the banana peels and drying them before mixing in the top of the soil seems to prevent insects from being a problem.

Maidenhair ferns don't love change.  When you bring your fern home, or repot them into a larger pot, or move them from one shelf to another some of the new growth will likely burn off and you should expect them to look bad for a little while.  I am not sure what the deal is with this, maybe it is because I have touched their fronds with my hands or maybe it is some other reason.  It isn't too big an issue as they seem to recover pretty fast.  Do rotate the pot each week to ensure they grow evenly on all sides, other than that try not to change too much too often.

I do sell maidenhair ferns, as well as a few other plants, through my for sale blog page.  If you are interested you should have a look.  From time to time I may have variegated ferns for sale.