When caring for indoor/house plants, there are just a few things you must consider: watering, feeding, lighting, temperature, humidiy, and repotting.

If you follow these tips, you will find the job easy.

1. Watering
The number one house plant killer is overwatering. Sometimes if your soil is of good quality, it may look as though the soil is still moist. On the other hand, you may be tricked into believing that the plant is dry . . . that it needs watering. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry.   Either way, check your soil by sticking your index finger up to the first joint into the soil…and if the soil is damp, leave it alone.

2. Feeding

If your plant is mainly foliage, it will usually require a high nitrogen fertilizer while other indoor plants who flower need fertilizer with K²O. Moreover, certain plants like cacti and orchids need its own special fertilizer. Of course I’m partial to feeding plants, any plants, with vermicompost or any other type of compost you may have. If you want, you can mix in slow release fertilizers with your compost. Remember, though,that plants should be fed only when the plants are actively flowering or producing foliage.

3. Lighting

There are plants such as the Sanseveria and the Aspidistra which can grow without direct sun, so these can be delegated to a spot away from the window. Others such as the spider plants require only semi-shade, so these can be put near a window that does or does not get sunlight. To find out how much sun your plants need, just check the label.

4. Temperature

Although houseplants can survive in cool or warm temperatures, drastic temperature changes may be harmful to them. If you have gas heating, you will probably not be able to keep any houseplants because they cannot survive in gas heating. By the same token, if you have a plant that likes warm conditions, keep them away from the air conditioner in the summer.

5. Humidity

Certain houseplants prefer a humid environment, so you could maximize humidity by putting the pot inside a larger pot and filling in the gaps with stones or compost to keep in the moisture. Another idea is to group plants together to create a microclimate that they all benefit from. Also, depending on the temperature, you could add humidity by spraying the plants with water once or twice a day.

6. Re-potting

Should all plants be repotted? Well that depends. Although some plants need to be repotted to allow optimum growth, others just don’t like to get their roots disturbed. Also, if the root system is still small, then the plant does not need to be repotted.

To check to see if the plant needs repotting, turn the pot upside down, tap it to release the plant, and check its roots. If you see a whole bunch of roots, it’s probably best to repot. Sometimes the roots grow so much that they come out of the bottom of the pot. In that case, either cut off the roots or repot the plant.

To summarize, if you just give your plants a little bit of care, in turn you’ll have indoor plants which will not only add to the beauty of your decor but also provide you with much pleasure and satisfaction.

Marcie

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Indoor Plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.