Do you know how many plant life you ’ve killed over the course of your life ? Do you have the feeling you ’re a plant “ successive cause of death ” ? If the reply is “ yes ” , this clause is for you . You will realize that it is much easier than it seems to grow your flora , just take some care and some basic noesis .
There are many intellect why we belt down plants . But to facilitate its maintenance and to avoid some of the most common mistakes ( as in everything in life it ’s soft to avoid a mistake than to pay off it ) I ’ve listed here some of the most vernacular mistakes and fashion to fend off or remediate them . Many of them have already commit , others we have ascertain send many times .
Related : Understanding Plant Death : The Most Common Reasons Houseplants Fail
In this article
1. Choose The Wrong Plants
How many times have we gone to the greenhouse and chosen out beautiful plants at random , only to be completely clueless on how to manage for them ? It does not mean that the plants we select are of poor quality ( which might pass off ) or unmanageable to like for .
It plainly means that we frequently purchase plants about which we are clueless , plants about which we are indecipherable of their life cycle , flowering and/or fruiting period , and plants about which we are unaware of their light , soil , and piss requirements , and as a result , everything goes haywire .
As a resultant , we gave up and let that plant die because we did n’t meet our arithmetic mean for it . So we should avoid buying overly sensible or take plant life that do not do well in hatful or blossom boxwood .
How To Avoid This Error?
We should always know the plants we buy , what their life sentence cycle is ( whether they are one-year , perennial or recurrent ) , if they work well in hatful , if they can stand in the sun , if they opt tincture , what is the menstruation and duration of florescence ( in this case this to be significant ) .
The more information we have , the greater the success in maintaining the plant .
It may be that the plants are not our fault . There are very sensitive plants that really do n’t wish to be in pots andflower boxesand that do n’t adapt to the conditions we have to offer them .
2. Do Not Change The Potted Plant
Often the plants we purchase are at the limit of their capacity to grow in the pot in which they are found . How many times do we go away plants in the pot where we bought them for months on destruction and then wonder if they perish ?
Most of the sentence , the flora want to be changed from sens when it arrives at home ( it is not necessary to be on the same day ) , as it involve a suited substratum for its development pauperism , which most of the clip is not the one in which the plant is pot .
On the other hand , the works needs blank space to acquire and train its solution organisation , which will countenance it to feed in conditions and start out to have a tidy growth .
Sometimes we buy plants on impulse and we do n’t have a vase or planter or substratum for them at home and we wait to go back to thenursery garden center niagra falls NYto steal .
The ideal is when we buy the plant we buy the substrate and the container straight by , however it is always better to have a smallstock(10 - 15 liter ) . They are small bags that can be stored anywhere .
If we do n’t want to buy containers , we can recycle one we have at nursing home . Wooden box , basket or canvas bagful from supermarkets can be a solution for those who do n’t require to spend a lot of money .
The container we prefer for the plant must be magnanimous than the one where the plant is . Just 2 to 3 cm more in diam or length is enough . Within 4 - 5 days we should move the plant to a larger pot and bring a unspoilt substratum . The works should always be at the same height as it is in the pot , neither more buried nor less , and do n’t bury about drain .
3. Choose The Wrong Substrate
When choose the substrate , do not choose just any one . Inform yourself ! The cheapest is not always the smart choice . This is a common mistake . Often for lack of knowledge . Like people and animals , plants are know beings that are born , produce and die out and involve to be fed .
Plants may have unlike substrate requirement ; there are plants that grow better in acidic soils , others that need more organic subject and still others that necessitate poorer substrates .
To choose the appropriate substratum we must know what type of works we are choosing and employ a substratum in which it grows decent . There are substrate on the grocery for everything : veggie , cactusandsucculents , aromatics , acidophilus flora , blossom works , fruit , etc .
If you are go to put two unlike plants in the same stack , for good example an aromatic and a horticultural one , choose the most demanding substratum , which in this case is that of vegetables . The best affair is never to commingle plant with very dissimilar substrate needs in the same pot .
4. Use Wrong Or Excessive Fertilization
Often the tendency is if the plant looks defective , it is givenfertilizer … Often time , when we fertilize , we “ force ” the growth of the plant and it becomes more tender to pestilence and diseases . The excess of fertilizers can even “ poisonous substance ” the plant and it ends up die , because we can impregnate the substrate with salts .
Potted plants do need to be fertilized . For this we can prefer for fertilizers or natural fertilizers such as crawler humus . In the case of fertilizer , we must understand what it contains , what it is for and how often we must apply it .
We often fertilize the plant during the menstruation when it is in vegetal residual , when it grow less not because it is weak or sick of but because it is in a “ remainder period of time ” . At this stage the plant does not need plant food , it take less water and less 60 minutes of sunshine , it is the innate cycle of plants .
We can reduce the need for impregnation if , when planting , we put in a good substratum and opt to put in compost , earthworm hummus or some fresh substrate regularly . When implant , fertilize with red worm humus or an organic fertilizer that admit the plant to access nutrients as it needs them .
Every 9 month you must re - fertilise . In the font of vegetables and fruit tree diagram , you may demand to fertilise more to see to it good harvests ( once a month during the production period ) .
Often the substrates are already fertilized and then we only require to fertilize six to nine months later . A good substratum saves a lot of fertilisation . Do not fertilise in wintertime , even if it does not harm the plant , you are throwing fertilizer aside because as the plant is in a resting form , you will not use it .
5. Plant In The Wrong Season
We often need to constitute “ that works ” that we saw in the greenhouse , in the magazine , on the blog on that twenty-four hour period or week . I get many questions about planting season , peculiarly winter bulbs ( tulips , crocuses , freesia , hyacinths , daffodils , etc ) .
These are never embed in summer , they need cold to get out the quiescency and spud , so if we buy winter bulbs in spring we can only plant them in autumn when it ’s already stale .
We must inform ourselves about the time of year of the plants . In the case of vegetables , it is absolutely essential to eff which vegetables are in the warm season and which vegetables are in the moth-eaten season .
In relation to seasonal flowers the same thing , although there may be “ out of time of year ” flowers in nursery as well as “ out of time of year fruit and vegetables ” . This does n’t think they can deal it afield . They are plant life raised in agreenhousewith all conditions controlled and whose efflorescence and fruiting are thrust .
Most perennial flora ( whose life cps is three years or more ) should rather be set in autumn or natural spring . In relation to annual flowering plants , we have to bear in mind that there are autumn / winter efflorescence plant ( which should be institute in early fall ) such as fagot , calceolaria , field daisies , primroses , and the of outflow / summertime flowering , which should be embed in late spring , such as petunias , begonias , portulacas , cosmos .
6. Water Wrongly
For a potted garden , watering is the most clock time - consuming task ( if you do n’t need to invest in a small drip irrigation system ) . We should not forget that plant life need more piss in green goddess or mint than when in detached land , as their rootage systems are smaller and this is where the plant hoard water supply .
You should take some maintenance to water , and whenever you water small and fragile plant with a watering can , you should put a “ shower nozzle ” in your lacrimation can . Water preferably in the ground ( substratum ) and not the leaves . Seedings must be watered with a sprayer .
connect : How To Water Succulent Plants the right way
7. Overwater
It has been proven that this is the boastful cause of plant death , plants need piss but also air close to the roots . If there is redundant H2O , the works die from root asphyxia .
piss only when the soil is ironic , check with a stick or finger on the surface 3 - 4 cm . Pay attention to the signal that the industrial plant give us . If fungi appear or if the leaves start to release a lighter green or yellow color , this could be signboard of excess water . In these cases , stop watering for a few days and , in extreme case , change to another pot with a new substrate and ensure drain .
Related : How to Rescue an Overwatered Plant
8. Water Less
plant perfectly need water to live . We must be careful and on the hottest day irrigate them abundantly and always at the conclusion of the day or ahead of time in the morning .
read to note the sign of plant ( fallen and sere leafage … it does n’t fail ) and water them before it ’s too late . If you notice that you watered but the water did n’t come out of the dish , H2O until it starts to come out and then hold back . Water whenever the substratum is ironical .
9. Lack Of Drainage
The deficiency of drain kill many flora , because if there is no effective drainage , any supererogatory water becomes much more serious as there is no way out . The success of the plants starts with the way in which the drain is done and how the rest is embed , it ’s just a matter of maintain . Vessels often do not have a drainage hole , cumulate water at the bottom and causing theme suffocation .
This is one of the easygoing fault to avert , just pierce the vase if it is not perforated and property at the bottom a drain level of expand clay , crushed rock or clay shards from other vas .
Then it is convenient to place a geotextile mantle over it ( or in the absence seizure of this coffee filters undefendable to cover the full surface ) , this operation gives better drain and great length of service to the substrate , which in this way is not dragged so easily , it also has the advantage of the water that may finally bleed off can be cleaned .
10. Put The Plant In The Wrong Light Conditions
plant have unlike needs for light and sun . By set up them in the wrong conditions , they may not develop in healthy conditions , modernise pestilence and disease , and finally go .
This is a very vulgar mistake . For example , vegetables and herbs loosely need at least five hours of direct sunlight a day to give rise properly . There are plants such as hydrangea , azaleas , jars , etc . that opt few hour of direct sunshine and defy fewer 60 minutes of luminosity . No plant live on without at least 3 - 4 hours of luminousness a day .
This erroneous belief is avoided in two manner , first by evaluating the condition of light and sunshine that we have available and then by using plants that adapt to these conditions .
fight against nature is always an inglorious task and if there is so much diversity of plants , adapted to all kind of situation ( except indoor bathroom without natural light as I have been expect several times in the web log , then only artificial flora )
11. Subjecting The Plant To Stress
We ’ve all made this mistake … Buying a plant in the morning or at lunchtime ( which we regard in the florist near the job and which was even outside the door ) , we take it to work and there it passes all day .
Then we return home with her in the car or in shipping subject to variations in temperature , light , air currents , nip and pushing …
We get home and leave it anywhere , often even stuffed in the cellophane we convey it from the store . Then we wonder that the unfortunate woman begin to decrease off her leaves and that she die .
Do n’t forget that plants are living thing and invalidate buying them on impulse .
If by chance we do and submit them to all this accent , when we get home we must take the cellophane ( do not change the vase right by , otherwise it is even more stress ) , we must irrigate it well , spray it and place it in a place with the recommended light and temperature .
Plants often bring recording label that assist us a lot to take care of them , do n’t confuse away the label . If the plant is conform well , two or three day later you’re able to then move it to a large pot using a suitable substratum for it .
12. On Indoor Plants, Spray Heavily In Winter
Often in summertime it is red-hot and so we have a raw disposition to spray our indoor plants from time to clock time , in wintertime how inhuman it is we do n’t even remember .
It turns out that a heated up family is almost a desert in full term of air sobriety .
How to avoid this error?
Do n’t forget to spray your indoor plants in winter ( if they are in het up area of the house ) .
13. Throwing Away Plants That We Thought Have Died… But They’re Only Perennials
When we have a new flora we must be deliberate to know what its life cps is like . It can be annual ( whose life wheel is completed in one year , such as pansy , petunias , basil , etc . ) ; it can be perennial ( whose life Hz lasts 3 or more years – shrubs and herbaceous plants such asmarigolds , lavender , etc . ) .
Or they can be perennial industrial plant , whose aerial part disappears in winter and reappears in fountain or summer ( such as lotus , jars , peonies ) .
Know the works ’s life cycle , so that we do n’t make the error of throwing away a works that has n’t died .
14. Change To A Pot That Is Too Big
At least at the end of two or three years we will have to shift the pot plants .
We often have the leaning when we change the potted plant to exchange it to a much larger pot , as we recall that this style we wo n’t have the hassle to change it again so presently .
What can happen is that when moving to a much turgid vase or planter , we ’re going to have to put in a lot of new substrate ( which is fluffy and airy ) .
It may be the slip that the plant has its roots very “ loose ” with a lot of free space and launch the risk that it will become waterlogged more easily . The industrial plant may not take root and may suffer from root asphyxia .
When changing batch , just interchange to a slightly large corporation and apply a substratum the same as the one in the pot you are go to move the plant from and desirable for the case of flora we are spring up .
15. Does Not Control Pests And Diseases In A Timely Manner
plant in the home , on the balcony or on the bench are less likely to have pesterer ( normally humble animals , which appear in bombastic numbers and make harm to plants ) and diseases ( can be cause by bacteria , virus or fungi ) , because the environs it ’s more controlled .
We must be measured to buy good for you plant , pay aid to the signs when take them . Stains , spots , dry ends etc . they are never good evidence .
Often the tendency is to assault with chemicals that are not always the most desirable . In the casing of vegetables and aromatics , they are totally disheartened .
touch on : Managing Plant Pests and Diseases Without Chemicals In Greenhouse
To void most of the problems make by pest and diseases , there ’s nothing like preclude them . At least every 15 days , cautiously observe your plants , this style you will avoid many problems .
Remove dry and stained leaves and flowers as they can contribute to pests and disease . When removing the dried flowers also move out the stems where the flowers are and where there will be no more flowering .
In indoor plants , pests and diseases are not very common . However , sometimes too much water ( a very usual fault ) can provoke the appearance of harmful fungi or bacteria .
Often , apparently diseased plant do not have pests or diseases , only nutritional deficiencies , lack or excess of water , more or less heating system , more or less light , more or less humidity .
With clip you will get to get laid your plant and how to deal out with them .
Most of the cuss and disease can be obviate if the plant are in ideal condition of spark and temperature , if they are “ well fed ” with tolerable substratum and fertilisation and if they have the amount of water supply they involve .
refer : Top 10 Worst Garden Pests
