Dracaena massangeana, caring for Mass Cane

Dracaena massangeana is part of the dragon plant family.

Dracaena massangeana key facts

Name: D. fragrans ‘massangeana’
Common names: corn stalk plant, mass cane, dragon plant
Family: Agavaceae, indoor plant
Exposure: very well-lit, even full sun

Soil: draining soil mix – Height: 3 to 6 ½ feet (1 to 2 m) – Foliage: evergreen

Its complete scientific name, D. fragrans, hints to its rare scented blooming. Here are tips and advice to care for your Dracaena massangeana, how and when to repot and water it.

→ Related: problems a dracaena plant can get

Planting and repotting a Dracaena massangeana

Dracaena massangeana in a pot

The Dracaena massangeana plant requires good soil mix that can be amended with ⅓ compost, if you’ve got some.

In order to enhance drainage, pour clay pebbles or small stones into the pot to form a layer at the bottom.
This will help ensure that roots won’t wallow in water, which could be fatal to it: check out this picture of a Dracaena massangeana with yellow leaves.

• Set up your dracaena in a fair-sized pot filled with special indoor plant or leaf plant soil mix.
• Although it may be necessary to repot in spring every 2 or 3 years, when not repotting go for regular topdressing instead.

Outdoor Dracaena massangeana

As is customary for plants in pots, feel free to place a bed of gravel, small stones or clay pebbles to drain the water better. Atop this layer, you’ll be using a blend of soil mix, garden soil and sand.

Generally speaking, dracaena is intolerant to the cold and will only grow outside wherever the climate is quite warm with a temperature always higher than 63 to 65°F (17 to 18°C).

Where to put Dracaena massangeana indoors

Under our climates, Dracaena massangeana adapts well to living indoors in our apartments and homes.

It grows best when surrounding temperatures hold at around 70 to 72°F (20 to 22°C) and requires very good light, even direct sunlight.

Choose for it a place near a window facing to the South or West so that it would bathe in a good deal of both indirect light and sunlight – do the opposite if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere.

If you live in a house that is quite dark, avoid purchasing this particular dracaena. It won’t cope well with lack of light.

Watering Dracaena massangeana

All year long, mist water on the leaves, preferably soft water.

Watering in spring and summer

This is usually the time of the year when the dracaena massangeana grows most.
Water regularly while letting the soil mix dry in the surface before watering again.

Watering must be regular but limited, in order to not suffocate the plant’s roots. Every 4 or 5 days is largely sufficient.

More or less every two weeks, you can offer it some liquid fertilizer, taking great care to moisten the soil mix beforehand.

Watering in fall and then in winter

Start reducing the watering because the plant water needs begin to decrease.
Only when the soil is dry down to the first inch or so (a couple centimeters), water to moisten the entire soil mix clump again.

• Read on: overwatered Dracaena massangeana dying

Again, one might say that watering one or 2 times a month should be enough.
But this also depends on where your dracaena is placed: if it is in full sun, its needs will surely be higher.

• This colder season is also when to stop adding fertilizer, from October all the way to March and April.

Corn stalk dracaena propagation

This reproduces very easily by preparing cuttings. This generally means sacrificing one of the stems in order to make new plants.

What’s nice is that you can make several plants : all you need are portions of stems that are around 6 inches long (15 cm) at least.

• Here’s an article on how to make dracaena cuttings.

Problems on Mass Cane

Watering is what makes your Massangeana plant vulnerable: don’t overwater and make sure soil drains well.

→ Detailed article: problems a dracaena plant can get

Dracaena massangeana growing too tall

This plants likes growing. It’ll put all its efforts into into its main stem. It’ll only branch out when the main stem is cut. As a result, you might get a plant that’s too tall, easily more than 10 feet in time.

The solution is to behead the plant and to plant the cutting again. You can even plant it right next to the original stem: this will give you different levels of leafage.

Dracaena massangeana varieties

D. fragrans ‘Massangeana’ has variegated leaves. They’re nearly always darker green on the outside and lighter green on the inside.

• D. massangeana ‘Lindenii’ – also has beautiful yellow markings. They seem painted on leaves in soft swaths.

Other Dracaena fragrans varieties don’t have this:

• Dracaena fragrans ‘Hilo Girl’ shown above/right.
• Dracaena massangeana ‘Santa Rosa’ – all green. Leaves tend to stay attached longer than other varieties, even when stressed.

Learn more about dracaena massangeana

Although some varieties look very similar to palm trees, dracaena massangeana isn’t a palm tree.
The similarity is confusing and the care it needs is often very close to that of a palm tree.

All in one aesthetic, resilient and very easy to grow, this is one of the most appreciated and often-purchased indoor plants.

Its foliage is particularly elegant and unique, and its shape and bearing brings a touch of exotic life to a living room, dining area, or any other room of the house that is well-lit.

• The lifespan of a dracaena massangeana can reach 20-30 years as an indoor plant, and some over 100 years in their native environment.

Read also:

• Did you know that plants cleanse pollution from the air indoors?
• A cousin found in many homes: Dracaena marginata