There is a wealth of information out there about how to care for houseplants. When first starting out on your houseplant journey it can be a bit overwhelming, that's why I thought I'd compile a basic list of the things I wish I knew when I first started caring for indoor plants.
WATERING
Like most people new to houseplants I was an over waterer, I essentially was killing my plants with love and inexperience. So here's what I learnt, and as a general rule is sufficient for most plants until you are experienced enough to start tweaking things for individual plants.
Let your plants dry out a bit between waterings. By a bit I mean test the soil by sticking your finger in about a couple of inches, if this portion of the soil is dry you can re-water.
Take your plants out of their cover pots/saucers and put them in a sink or outside then really flush the potting medium when you water, this helps flush out an accumulated minerals and salts from fertilisers and tap water. It also helps to oxygenate the soil and eliminate any "dry pockets" within the soil. This mimics what happens in nature when it rains and your plants will thank you for it.
It is fine to use tap water (lets be honest it's a lot more convenient) when watering but if you're in an area where the water is chlorinated allow it to stand without a lid for 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate off before using.
FERTILISING
Just like us plants need food, for plants this comes in many different forms. You'll be reading for a week if I covered all the different types so for the sake of both of us I'll just cover what works well for me.
I find a liquid fertiliser containing all the primary macro nutrients (Nitrogen (N) Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) as well as the secondary Sulphur, Calcium and Magnesium and micro nutrients such as Iron, Zinc and Copper etc provides everything my plants need. I use this for all substrates including soil, and soiless mediums such as leca, and coco fibre.
I have always fertilised with every water, even throughout winter as my plants don't stop growing. However, I use less than the manufacturer's recommendations approximately 1/2 and have never had issues with nutrient burn.
I also like to add a little worm castings and biochar to my mixes which are a natural fertilisers (technically soil enhancers) helping to encourage healthy, natural soil microbiology and diversity. Both of these can be used on already potted plants by top dressing.
SOIL
You can really use any potting medium as long as you follow the above guidelines. However, in the interest of being the most helpful to the most people I will just focus on soil based mediums. Let me just say from the get go not all potting mixes are created equally. You'll probably find most plants you purchase in stores is in a muddy peat based soil and for someone new to the houseplant game this can be disaster as this type of soil is not free draining and therefore, makes your plants suspectable to root rot. So I recommend after letting your plant acclimate to your household environment you repot into an amended mix.
Purchase a good quality houseplant mix and with a few additives you'll have a great mix that any plant can thrive in. Here are some of the additives I recommend and also use in my own houseplant mix.
Coarse pumice is a great additive for increasing drainage due to its porous nature. Perlite can be used in a similar fashion but does tend to float to the top of your mix eventually due to it being so lightweight.
Coco Chip is one of my favourite additives as it helps with drainage because of it's chunky nature but is also good at facilitating moisture retention (because it can't always be just about drainage). Bark is another option that has similar properties and can generally be easier to source.
Fern Fibre, don't even get me started on how much I love this stuff, it is the bees knees for propagating on its own or a wonderful additive to soil based mixes. It improves aeration (because roots like oxygen and don't like being smothered) and is porous and spongy which helps prevent your soil from becoming hard and compacted.
PESTS and DISEASES
I confess to not being a expert in this field as I have experienced very few issues with either on my plants. I do check new plants I bring in before introducing them to the family but I don't routinely quarantine unless I find an issue. I put the fact my plants have had so few problems down to the fact that healthy, happy plants this helps their resistance to pests and diseases. When I have had to treat pests my go to is neem oil, just be careful the plants you have treated are exposed to any direct sunlight as the combination of oil and sun will burn the leaves.
POTS
I love a good plastic pot, cover pot combo, I just find them easier to use and it means I can use clear pots which I am actually obsessed with. Clear pots allow you to keep a close eye on root growth and health as well as making it super easy to see when plants need rewatering. They are fantastic for new and experienced houseplant lovers alike as they eliminate a lot of the guess work. If I could recommend anything for a houseplant lover it would be amending your soil and clear pots. My other piece of advice on the subject of pots is don't overpot it increases the risk of over watering and also means the plant will focus on filling the pot eg: root growth at the expense of top growth.
I hope you have found this blog useful and have picked up some tips for your houseplant journey, stay tuned for further blog posts.
Happy Planting, Rachel xxx
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