I first received my sansevieria at work, and when it was growing there the leaves never had any ripples or folding. My sansevieria has been growing at home for a couple of years now and the leaves have become more folded and "wavy" over time. I wonder if it is because my home is quite dry. I water the soil very diligently however, as soon as the top inch feels dry (approximately once weekly). Is there something I can do to improve this?

At a guess, I would say the wavy leaves may be due to too much water. Like many succulents, water is stored in the leaves. Excess water in the leaves may be causing them to stretch and wave because of too much water being stored.

Your watering system seems pretty heavy to me for any Sanseveirias I've grown. They are mostly not rapid growers, have shallow root systems, and are very efficient at storing water. One of the plants I grow that are really low water use. I've never watered one with the frequency you describe. I have found them sensitive to temperature and light changes at different times, but that one would be really hard to pin down. Basically your plant looks healthy from what is shown in the photograph, so it may just be natural growth for that plant.

Other, more experienced folks here may well have other ideas.

Thanks for the feedback Donald! What frequency do you use for watering your sanseveirias? Last summer I watered my sanseveiria more infrequently (maybe once every two weeks), but I still encountered the wavy leaves, plus the leaf that was growing at the time developed these beige-colored bumps which never went away. I thought the bumps may have appeared due to under-watering. So I watered more frequently when the subsequent leaf was growing (about once a week), and the leaf did not have bumps, but it was still wavy.

@Jademan
John, my watering intervals are measured in months, not weeks. When they have moved outside during the summer, it happens when I think of it and it's convenient or when the plant is clearly stressed because I've left it too long. In the winter, they are lucky to get any at all, though it usually happens once or maybe twice usually. But they are kept in an unheated, glass front porch in the winter months so it can get relatively cool depending on the weather outside. @Stush2019 can probably give you better advice on a watering schedule than I can, so I'm tagging him here. I have a tendency to be a careless caretaker. Combined with the experience of having killed more plants by too much water than too little doesn't help. The heirloom Sanseveiria had a close call one winter on that score from someone else being helpful and watering plants without my knowledge. The heirloom Sanseveiria and the heirloom aloe are probably the two most neglected and abused plants in my care - which may be why they've been hanging around for probably more than 70 years. They can take a lot of mishandling and just wait for better times .

Donald's initial suggestion of too much water is likely confirmed by those warty bumps. I think your Sansevieira is suffering from Oedema (edema). Read about here:
https://www.missouribotanicalg...

The symptoms appear somewhat different on different plants, but overall good health plus the bumps plus the waviness plus your description of your watering frequency point to too much water

...but we also should have asked: did you start fertilizing it when you moved from work to home? The warts still point to edema, but the waviness can sometimes result from too much fertilizer (in plants like Sans, that can mean any fertilizer stronger than about 1/4 strength once or twice a year, max).

Hey Zoë, thanks for your comments and for the link to oedema. I'm going to try dialing back the water. I actually almost never fertilize my sans, maybe once per year. I have repotted it several times, each time using MiracleGro succulent mix. Is it possible that that type of soil is so nutrient-rich that it mimics the effects of over-fertilization?

I shouldn't think so. I'm not a MiracleGro fan, in part because of the added fertilizer, but one of our members who grows succulents swears by it, so....
Aside from the fertilizer, it has a lot of peat, which holds water, so next time you repot, mix that product with a lot of additional perlite or pumice, from about a quarter to a half total volume. It will drain better and retain less water. Don't add more fertilizer and heed Needrain's advice about cutting waaaay back on watering, especially during the short days of winter

As far as I can see, you plant looks okay. Those bumps could be caused by insect damage or even ruff handling over years. It takes several weeks for sans to show their damage. If they don't get any worse, I wouldn't worry about them.
Water is the hardest part to try to guess at. Most important is temperature and how dry you house is. During the hot summer months, I some times have sans sitting in water and they love it. During winter months I have them in a cool dry basement and I water about once a month but some sans I have I water once a week. All depends on where and how it's kept. I would say that after 2 years of having this plant, you are doing well.

Awesome! Thank you @Stush2019, @NMoasis and @needrain for all of your advice! I'm going to try experimenting with less frequent watering and see how it reacts. I'll be sure to minimize fertilizer as well. Thank you!

My reaction looking at this plant, in what I would consider a very small pot, and the pot being unglazed, I go the other way. I think it needs water more often. I always keep Sans from drying out but have had times when I didn't water that often and saw similar effects.

I'm watering my Sans @ work twice per week because the air is so dry in here, and they are in plastic because I don't want to risk them breaking a clay pot. Regardless of the interval, which there is no way for us to determine, there is no benefit to your plant in waiting longer after the soil has lost most of its moisture to add more water.

Right, and normally I would defer to your superior knowledge,Tiffany, but note that Jademan is in zone 5 and using a peat-heavy soil mix. Add the plastic pot, and I believe there is a strong likelihood of water retention down below around the roots. Imo, of course.

I am in zone 6 and did use a 'Gritty' mix in my pots and had a lot of problems till I switched to my own compost mix (from my own compost pile) and my sans have doubled their size every year since. Of course there is some sans that need a more draining soil like Sans Hahnii Golden Hahnii. But mostly the big ones can go into a peaty mix. I have some in a clay mix. With 70 and counting species of Sans. they require different conditions. Also what works for some doesn't do so well for others.
Tiffany grew some nice sans in her own clay base soil outside in her yard.

Some of my Sans have those warty bumps but I don't worry about them. S trifasciata will naturally display wavy leaves so that wouldn't be a concern either. Inward curling of the leaves is sometimes dues to underwatering, but over watering is much more harmful to Sansevieria. I think your plant looks fine.

IJademan, if Stush and Tiffany agree on this, I'd go with their advice. I'm an entrenched proponent of well draining, non-peaty soils for potted plants. I don't do tropicals or bog plants, but otherwise have rarely met a potted plant that didn't benefit from better drainage.

I don't have any knowledge that is superior to anyone else's, just what I've seen and done and believe as a result. There's no authority that says anyone should do anything I suggest, feel free to form alternative opinions. It's not the kind of thing with 1 right answer that should end all discussion or we would have nothing to discuss. Explaining that one disagrees with something, and why, makes for an interesting discussion with more info for each person to evaluate on their own terms.

Agreed with Tiffany. I'm no expert but just what works for me. I have learned so much over the years since I first started posting here and on Houzz about Sansevieria. We were blessed with some real experts on the subject and even they were still learning.
And I have been wrong in the past and learned from some of my mistakes.

hey all,
very good comments and advice. i'm pretty new to being a plant person. i purchased two plants in my first adventure in plants. one is a snake, and the other was a zz. the snake did so well that after about five years of complete neglect, i decided to try my hand at different plants. also i tried to divide the snake and zz. the zz failed after a year. so sad to see that huge plant die. and all of it's offspring. the timing was off for me to divide the snake. it was early winter. like i said i was new to being a plant guy.
well sorry for the length of this.
i replanted, trimmed and pruned and propagated my beloved snake. and bought more of them! they're awesome plants!
my experience in all this has been a lot of research and dead plants!! well, there are a bunch of living snakes too! on here the best advice i've gotten is,"respectful neglect"! especially in chicago during winter. i forgot- are snakes dormant during summer or winter? big issue! definitely watering too. what i have learned is folding and waves in leaves are result of too little water and wrong light. it does not seem to be a fertilizer issue since you only do it once a year. i also have to take into account if i divide the roots. they are now super sensitive to light and water as they act like a new plant.
you tube and multiple websites have been goldmines of info. some i use are the swedish plant guys, summer rayne oakes plant one on me, this one, planterina and costa farms to buy and use as reference.
the sansiveria is a very hardy plant! it's now in the draecena family. tough to kill. draecenas are awesome too!
thank you for reading.
jay in chicago

I use a commercial soil mix and add "turkey grit" which i get from local farm supply. It is a small (1/4") sharp edges granite. I put about 1" in the bottom of the pot and add 1 scoop to 3 scoops mix. This gives succulents good drainage, especially when outside when it rains. Prevents root rot and over watering.

Dordee said: I use a commercial soil mix and add "turkey grit" which i get from local farm supply. It is a small (1/4") sharp edges granite. I put about 1" in the bottom of the pot and add 1 scoop to 3 scoops mix. This gives succulents good drainage, especially when outside when it rains. Prevents root rot and over watering.

I use poultry grit myself but mixed thru out the mix. And sometimes as a top dressing. Cheap and works great.