English ivy is a beautiful plant and a favorite of many plant enthusiasts. With indoor plants growing in popularity, English ivy is growing along with it. But, how fast does English ivy grow indoors?
English ivy grows around nine feet (2.7 meters) every year. However, English ivy can grow faster with proper fertilization and sunlight. For optimal growth rates, fertilize English ivy plants twice a month during spring and summer, and provide medium to bright light, but not direct light.
English ivy makes a great addition to your home and brings a piece of nature into your living space. The rest of this article will cover the best ways to care for your English ivy indoors, and the difference between growing English ivy indoors and outdoors
Does English Ivy Grow Faster Indoors or Outdoors?
Whether you’re interested in the English ivy plant itself or you’re wondering if you should move your indoor ivy outside, it’s good to know which environment is best for the plant and will allow it to grow as healthy and fast as possible. So, is indoors or outdoors ideal for this ivy?
English ivy grows faster indoors, as long as the conditions are ideal. English ivy prefers bright, indirect sunlight, which is easier to control indoors than outside. Additionally, ivy grows best at temperatures ranging from 50-70°F (10-21°C), which is much easier to manage indoors.
While English ivy is far easier to grow indoors, you should ensure that you create the ideal conditions for the plant. The essential aspects to remember and keep up with include:
- The proper sunlight.
- The amount of water.
- When to fertilize.
- The type of soil.
I’ll go over these aspects more in the sections below.
Sunlight
Although English ivy isn’t very difficult to care for, there is one thing this plant is picky about: sunlight. If you want your English ivy to be healthy and grow fast, supplying it with medium to bright indirect sunlight is essential.
However, while this doesn’t necessarily mean that English ivy can’t grow in direct sunlight or shade, it does mean that it won’t grow as fast as possible in those conditions.
An English ivy in low light conditions won’t grow as fast as in bright, indirect sunlight. Additionally, direct sunlight can scorch the leaves on the English ivy, so it’s best to keep it in indirect sunlight.
Water
The more vigilant you are with watering your English ivy, the faster (and healthier) it will grow. Luckily, English ivy is relatively easy to water.
English ivy prefers drier conditions. Therefore, it’s better to underwater the plant than overwater it.
It’s best to water your ivy around twice a week, or only when you notice the top inch of soil is dry.
However, overwatering your ivy can cause several issues, including root rot, which occurs when plants receive too much water and drown (or deteriorate) the root system.
Therefore, when in doubt, it’s best to only water your ivy plant when the top inch of soil is dry.
Fertilization
Fertilization isn’t necessary for many plants, English ivy included. However, fertilization is an excellent way to start if you’re trying to make your ivy grow faster.
It’s best to fertilize your English ivy once or twice a month during the spring and summer seasons with a balanced NPK fertilizer such as a 20-20-20. The additional nutrients help your English ivy to grow fast and strong.
Soil
Potting indoor ivy in well-draining soil is essential for its growth. So, if you notice your ivy isn’t growing as fast as you’d like, you might need to replace its soil.
Soil with an overabundance of clay can cause the ivy to grow slowly, so it’s essential to use soil with a lot of organic matter.
Additionally, growing an English ivy plant in soil with a 6.5 pH level is ideal for optimal growth. Anything higher will result in poor growth, which means slower-growing ivy!
Should I Prune My Indoor English Ivy?
While sunlight, soil, water, and fertilization are all essential to ivy care, promoting extra growth may require some pruning. But is it necessary? Should you prune your indoor English ivy?
You should prune your indoor English ivy to prevent it from becoming too long and leggy while promoting new growth. Additionally, you can prune your indoor English ivy and use the cuttings to propagate new plants.
Therefore, pruning your indoor ivy might be the key if you want your indoor ivy to grow faster. Although pruning does technically make the plant shorter, it’ll promote new, faster growth while making the plant fuller.
How To Prune an Indoor English Ivy
Pruning plants isn’t very challenging. However, it would be best if you took note of specific considerations when trimming the plant, including the time of year and the reason for pruning.
It’s ideal for you to prune ivy plants with sharp and disinfected pruning scissors, such as the Fiskars Pruning Shears from Amazon.com.
Here are some tips to consider if you want to prune your indoor English ivy:
- Consider the time of year. Although you can technically trim your ivy plant any time of the year, it’s best to avoid cutting around wintertime, as ivy grows slower in winter.
- Trim off any dead or diseased stems first. Dead or diseased stems only hurt ivy plants and don’t promote growth. Waiting to prune the dead stems after pruning others could leave you too few stems left to sustain your plant.
- Trim the long ivy stems. If you’re pruning your ivy for looks, you might want to trim the stems in a specific way. However, cutting the longer stems more often is ideal for more growth, as it decreases legginess.
- Trim your ivy twice a year. Of course, you can always trim your ivy more often than twice a year, but cutting twice a year will keep it growing fast and healthy.
Possible Problems With Growing English Ivy Indoors
Unfortunately, growing English ivy indoors isn’t always going to be a walk in the park. Although it’s easier (and often faster) to grow this plant indoors, it does come with the occasional challenge. In the following sections, I’ll review some problems you could encounter when growing English ivy indoors.
Lack of Humidity
English ivy thrives in moderately humid environments, so many people will grow it outside. So, when you grow your ivy indoors, it can create a low humidity environment. While a lack of humidity won’t kill your ivy, it won’t allow it to grow as fast as it usually would. It will also attract more pests than usual.
Therefore, creating a more humid environment for your ivy is ideal. There are a few ways to do this:
- Place the English ivy near a humidifier.
- Mist the English ivy every day.
- Place the English ivy on top of a pebble tray. Not only does a pebble tray help with humidity, but it adds a decorative accent to your plant and home.
Pests
It’s common for various pests to feed on houseplants, English ivy included. Unfortunately, these pests often get into your home when you buy a new houseplant or bring an outside plant indoors.
Luckily, there are some ways to prevent pests from bothering your English ivy:
- Keep your ivy stress-free by providing adequate growing conditions.
- Check your plant for any pests before buying or bringing them into your home.
- Use store-bought potting soil rather than soil from outside.
- When purchasing a new plant, it would be best to keep it away from other plants indoors for six weeks.
Inefficient Sunlight
As I’ve already mentioned, English ivy enjoys bright, indirect sunlight. Unfortunately, giving your ivy the perfect amount of sunlight can be challenging when growing it indoors. Therefore, it’s common for indoor ivy to grow “leggy,” causing it to grow much slower and less healthily.
Your Pot Size Is Too Small
Unfortunately, it’s easy to use the wrong size pot with ivy plants. Having too small of a pot can cause it to be root bound, while too large of a pot can lead to root rot, as the soil may stay wet for too long after watering.
When your plant becomes root bound, it’s best to repot it in a pot that’s no more than one inch (2.54 cm) larger than the last pot.
Final Thoughts
English ivy grows relatively quickly, so long as the growing conditions are ideal for the plant. A Healthy ivy will grow around nine feet (2.7 meters), but it could develop faster with extra care.
If you want your ivy to grow as fast as possible, ensure the growing conditions are ideal (including temperature, sunlight, water, and soil), and fertilize the plant twice a month during the spring and summer.
You also check out my other article on how to care for houseplants here: How to Care for Houseplants (The Ultimate Guide)
