A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Dieffenbachia questions.

Will Dieffenbachia Camile tolerate dry air, lowish-medium light, and about two hours of direct sun a day ? I have the plant grouped with other plants, it's on a humidity tray, and I mist it twice a day. It's also about 5 feet away from an air vent.

Hi welcome to the garden forum
It's better to have it in indirect light, NOT direct light as it could burn the leaves. Keep the soil moist but not wet or soggy- more like a damp sponge. They don't require a lot of humidity but if you want to mist it once a day that's okay but remember that misting is only good for a few minutes and is extremely temporary as humidity, you don't want to crowd in plants as they need air circulation around them to "breath" :wink:

I would pull it away from the window more, indirect light is best, and turn it every few days to get even growth.

Hmm I could always close the window around 3 cause that's when the sun comes in. i don't really know how to measure medium and low light very well.

Indirect light means you have it away from the window a few feet and the rays of the sun don't hit the plant directly. The sun hitting the window will heat up the glass thus making plants close to the window getting more heat which can damage the leaves,as well as direct rays of the sun.,, although some plants require more heat/sun the Dieffenbachia does not. You could even put the plant across the room as long as there is good light in the room you'll be fine.

how tall do these get btw?

Generally they stay just under 3 feet.

I heard that these plants are also very sensitive to EMR(electromagnetic radiation) and will deform if in high levels of it. Do you happen to have your plant by any electronics or other things that give off high levels of EMR?

uh noooo,, and that's if you have loads of electricity running thru your house, which is very unlikely, like if your live right next a utility community unit. and still that's unlikely.

Well the guy doing the experiments has a bunch of stray voltage throughout his house, and he lives by a cell phone tower so that might explain it.

Agree with everything about the dief, except watch out if you start to get brown tips on the leaves, you'll need to let the soil dry more between waterings.
The whole low-medium-high light thing can be tricky. You can go at it with light meters etc, but a simple way is, if there's not enough light to read, there's not enough light for a plant; if you can read, but not for a long time, it's low light; ordinary working light, such as in a typical office, is medium light; high light is near an unobstructed window. Of course, there are many gradations and conditions, much more to be said, but this gives you a working definition and a place to start.

Well I notice that my dief likes A LOT of water!! The soil dries only after 3 days!!