You’ve killed a few plants and now given up hope of ever becoming a successful plant parent.
Sometimes it’s just you had a few key skills missing to make owning a plant a pleasure and rewarding experience, so let’s explore the basics. All plants live and grow in basically the same way. Their essential needs are air, light, water, mineral food materials, and a suitable range of temperatures. Although they have the same general needs, however, plants differ enormously in the quality and quantity of those needs. The most important thing when choosing your new plant baby is where will I keep it? and dose that space provide adequate growing conditions? Although most plants are remarkably adaptable a plant that needs shade will not grow healthily in full sunlight, nor a tropical plant in an ice-cold room.
Light
Perhaps the most important ingredient to a happy relationship with your plant is offering the right amount of light. It is obviously pointless to put a shade-loving fern at a sun-drenched window, or a sun-loving cactus in a dark corner. When selecting a suitable position for an indoor plant the first step is to determine its general light requirements usually found on the basic care tag, usually categorised like this... full sun, part sun, part shade, full shade… still confused here’s a basic guide to what these categories mean.
Full sun = at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily.
Part sun = between 3 – 6 hours of direct sun daily.
Part shade = between 3 – 6 hours of sun per day. need shade during the hottest part of the afternoon. Morning or late afternoon sunlight preferred.
Full shade = Does not mean darkness! Less than 3 hours of direct sun per day, defiantly not the hot midday sunlight.
After choosing the right location for your new green child there will be ongoing care, and the question I undoubtedly get asked the most is how much water and when?
Water
There are no hard and fast rules with watering plants, I can’t assign someone a watering schedule because just like human’s plants are all different and the conditions under which a plant is grown also affect its requirements. In hot dry weather or well heated rooms, an unusually large amount of water is lost through transpiration from the leaves and evaporation from the soil, where as in cool temperatures plants obviously lose a great deal less water. During active growth or flowering, plants often require there full helping of water, but when resting (not actively growing) the same plant can often survive on very little water. Other factors to consider is the pot in which you keep your plant and the soil in which it grows. Unglazed pots lose moisture much faster than glazed or plastic pots, and porous sandy soils lose moisture faster than more dense peat based soils. Because of all these factors its easy to overwater or underwater by only watering in routine, instead assess individual watering needs every day or two. Most care tags will provide a basic instruction on how the plant likes to keep its soils moisture level, usually worded water plentifully, water moderately or water sparingly. Its great they provide these basic watering needs but generally most people are still unaware of what they really mean and are completely inexperienced at efficient watering. Here are my best interpretations of these phrases and how to execute them.
Water Plentifully = water when the surface of the potting mixture begins to feel dry to touch. Flood the surface of the plants soil until it is saturated again and water flows from the drainage holes. Don’t let pot sit in excess water on drip tray tip excess water off.
Water moderately = water when the top centimetre or so of the mixture feels dry to your finger. Pour water slowly onto the soil surface until entire mixture is moistened but not saturated, stop adding water when a few drops appear out the bottom of the pots drainage holes.
Water sparingly = water when no less than two thirds of the mixture has dried out, test with a stake. Tip water slowly onto plants soil surface just covering it then stop. The soil should be barely moist after watering test again with stake, if still dry add a little more water.
Even after you’ve done your very best at monitoring moisture levels, sometimes we find a plant dry to the core and looking rather sad. Don’t give up, with a bit of emergency treatment there’s still hope for the withered creature that was once your flourishing plant baby. Immerse the whole pot in a bucket or sink full of water and leave it there until bubbles stop rising from the soil, this insures that all areas of the soil are sufficiently moistened. Whilst the pot is submerged you can also spray the foliage to add additional relief. Once the bubbles have stopped rising remove the pot plant from the sink/bucket and allow the excess water to flow away, return your baby to its spot and pray. Most plants will bounce back after this treatment depending upon how long the plant was in its withered state, it will take a few hours to strengthen itself once more so be patient. I also recommend doing this treatment once or twice in the hottest part of summer as a failsafe, even if they don’t appear to need it water sometimes doesn’t penetrate every inch of the soil and it becomes hydrophobic in spots causing problems in the future.
Feeding.
So you've mastered watering and found the perfect pozy for your new leafy friend, all is going well, but after a while your plant seems to be struggling. It could be that feeding, a key element that is often overlooked is all that is needed to continue your newfound plantrenthood success. Every plant needs various nutrients in order to grow well. A newly brought or re-potted plant should not require immediate feeding as the soil should have a supply of the necessary nutrients mixed in already. Therefore, they do well for a while in your home then start to struggle a wee bit after 3 or so months and you wonder, what went wrong? the answer could be as simple as, a quick feed or fertilize. Fertilizer can be overwhelming to buy as there are always so many on the shelf. Basically, there are three key elements essential for balanced growth:
Nitrogen(N) - vital for stem and leaf growth.
Phosphorus(P) - promotes healthy root growth.
Potassium(K) - used for producing fruit and flowers.
The label on each fertilizer always indicates the relative amounts of these main ingredients with numbers or a code - for instance 06-10-06. Don't let this overwhelm you it is always in the same order of N-P-K and that particular code means there are roughly equal parts nitrogen and potassium but a greater amount of phosphorus in that product.
Keeping this in mind generally a fertilizer that is roughly equal in all 3 main elements will suit potted house plants. The easiest ones to use are in liquid form and you simply add them to the water when watering. Always follow the mixing quantities on the label, it is always better to dilute the product more than recommended than to under dilute, as excessive amounts can damage roots and leaves.
I now encourage you to head to your nearest local nursery and purchase a new leafy buddy with confidence. There are a huge range of plants to use indoors remembering your plant selection should be partly based on
the level of care you are willing to provide - watering and feeding requirements.
conditions within your space - light and temperature.
finding plants that thrives in your space rather than try to make either the plants or the conditions fit will ensure that owning a plant is a pleasure and not a burden. Thus, turning that brown thumb, Green!