A Guide to Advanced Indoor Plant Care

So you've mastered the basics of low-cal and h2o. You've even swabbed abroad a few houseplant pests. Now you lot're wondering how to step up your indoor institute care. Here'southward a guide to repotting, fertilizing, pruning, and propagating, too as some actress tips on watering!

At the finish of the solar day, indoor plant care is as much of an art equally a science. Information technology'due south non only virtually keeping the plants alive but of growing and arranging plants that volition please y'all.

Repotting

Houseplants have a unique challenge that near outdoor plants don't accept: their roots are confined to a pot. When they offset to overgrow the tight infinite, or when the leaf gets so heavy that they brainstorm to tip over, it may be time to give them more room. Wondering how to repot ? The main rules are to size upwardly slowly and give the establish proper soil. Usually, a pot 1-2 inches larger in bore is a adept choice. A pot that'southward too big volition make proper watering a claiming. Early on spring and tardily fall are both ideal times for repotting.

Fertilizing

Knowing when to fertilize can be a challenge of indoor found care, as it depends on the plant'due south growth rate, fourth dimension of year, and what'due south already in the soil. Yous usually don't need to fertilize until you've had the found for a year. Often, it's better to apply less than more, equally over-fertilizing can burn their roots and stunt their growth. Many houseplants go dormant in the winter and only need fertilizing in the leap and summer.

Propagating

With little more than than a scissors and a pot of fresh soil, you lot tin exist on your way to expanding your indoor garden. Many houseplants, like pothos and philodendron, are easily propagated from clippings. You lot just clip off a branch with a few growth nodes, put it in soil, and it will abound new roots. Bromeliads send up new pups forth the found'due south base of operations, which you can split and transfer to a pot of their own. African violets will root from a single leaf later you put the foliage stem in a jar of water for about two weeks. Many other indoor plants can also exist reproduced by clippings or division.

Pruning

Afterwards a summer of growth, fall is the natural fourth dimension to prune houseplants, only you can do it whatsoever time of year. A scrap of shaping helps the constitute wait skillful and keeps information technology in the size that you want. It also rejuvenates the institute. Many plants answer well to pruning, even succulents like the Jade Plant. As a rule, you don't want to remove more than than i-third of the leaves at a time. Pinching away new shoots or pruning a plant at the top encourages a fuller, more than compact shape around the base.

Avant-garde Watering Tips

You'd probably consider watering ane of the basic tasks of indoor plant care, but a few tricks can help your plants get the right fluids they need.

• Unfiltered tap water often contains chlorine and/or fluorine that can damage the proficient microbes in the soil and inhibit a plant'due south growth. Fortunately, it's easy to remove them. But fill up the watering tin can, let it sit for 24 hours, and those compounds will evaporate.
• Water your plants volition room-temperature water, as cold water can shock the roots.
• Water the constitute until you see the excess liquid coming onto the saucer. Even plants that prefer less water like to exist watered this way, just less ofttimes.
• With the exception of bromeliads, avoid watering the leaves. Instead, straight h2o the soil. Splashing dirt or water on the leaves can encourage fungal growth.

Dusting Your Houseplants

Indoor plants don't have the benefit of rain or wind to make clean their leaves. Like your furniture, they collect grit over time, which can clog the plant'due south stomata—the holes where it breathes—and go on it from absorbing sunlight. Smooth-leaved plants may exist dusted with a wet rag, whereas hairy-leaved plants should be dusted with a soft brush, as the hairs can trap h2o and encourage fungal growth.

Deadheading

You lot can encourage more blooms on indoor plants past deadheading spent flowers. This spares them the free energy from forming seeds and redirects it back into new blossoms. Be mindful that some plants, like hoyas, course new flowers on the quondam bloom stems.

Beautiful Arrangements

At the cease of the day, indoor plant care is as much of an fine art as a science. It's non just most keeping the plants alive simply of growing and arranging plants that will please you. Once you've mastered the nuts, you lot can retrieve near the beauty of your indoor garden. In fact, you lot don't have to expect until yous've mastered anything! You tin first thinking well-nigh pleasing arrangements right away. They may include window shelving , artistic pots , hanging baskets, or miniature gardens .

A fiddling advanced intendance tin can refresh your houseplants and make your indoor spaces more than alive and beautiful. For extra tips on indoor plant care, feel gratuitous to ask the experts at our garden centers in Bloomingdale and Carpentersville. Besides, retrieve to check out our guide to this year's hottest houseplants and download our Wintertime Garden Guide for more than seasonal inspiration!

Platt Hill Plant nursery is Chicago's premier garden center and nursery.

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Source: https://platthillnursery.com/advanced-indoor-plant-care/

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