Nowadays, viral videos circulate on the network with faulty instructions that many people follow when they maintain their houseplants. This means that hobby gardeners often lose their favorite plants through false plant care. If you bring a houseplant home, learn that it is more difficult to keep it alive. In addition, most beginners access social media to inquire and have healthy plants thrive. However, this can often be the wrong step. Find out hereWhich frequently made mistakesYou should avoid healthy plant growth in your home.
What you shouldn't do if you want to maintain healthy houseplants
In a world in which information, and in particular “fake news”, spread quickly and easily, it is only a matter of time for you to terribleAdvice for plant carebump. Sometimes, as a new garden owner, they also absorb bad habits and only recognize them after it is too late for the plants. Here are a few of the worst tricks and plant killers from the Internet that you should avoid to be able to remove bad practices in plant care once and for all.
Error No. 1: Pour plants such as orchids with ice cubes
A popular trick that can be seen online is to irrigate the air roots of a tropical orchid with ice cubes. However, they make them freeze. This hack is very popular everywhere on the Internet, but can put the roots with ice water into a shock state. So take a moment and think logically about this tip.
The plants that they bring into their home are almost always exotic, such as desert plants. However, these are not exposed to the low temperatures associated with snow and ice and would not survive in such conditions. If you let an ice cube melt over it, the plant will be damaged over time and finally die. The time and the effort for this method is much more compared to normal irrigation with a watering can. In the end, there is more damage than benefits if you care for your houseplants and want to keep you alive. So keep the ice cubes for your drinks and pour your plants with room -warm water.
Error No. 2: Add uphill plants into potting soil
The cultivation of epiphytes in the soil is also a bad practice, as it tends to grow in the wild. The problem is that in nine out of ten cases after such plants are bought in the nursery, beginners then grow in potting soil. The other problem is that most hobby gardeners have no idea what an epiphyte is and how it affects its ground needs. In its natural habitat, a uphill plant grows in treetops or in rocky columns, where somewhat organic waste has accumulated. In addition, these types of plant do not develop large, underground root structures such as a tomato. In contrast, they absorb the majority of their water and their nutrients from their above -ground leaves and roots.
Such roots are usually known as air nodes. Epiphytes also use these air nodes to help them cling to every surface and climb, near whom they randomly grow. As soon as you see an epiphyte in the wild, start to understand why it is so unhappy in a pot with potting soil. Some ordinary houseplants that are considered epiphytes are Christmas cacti, orchids, deer antlers, bromelia, porcelain flowers and other pineapple plants.
Therefore, a suitable floor should consist of bark rather than of earth. Most epiphytes that spend their lives in potting soil finally succumb to the root rot. The weight of the potting soil can also squeeze their roots and kill them at the end. If you maintain one of these houseplants and have in a saucepan with potting soil, it is best to do it with a specific potting soil, such as a mixture forOrchids to turn overAnd add a little peat moss.
Error No. 3: Use the Leaf Gloss Spray and thus maintain the houseplants
It somehow sounds strange to polish the plant leaves. It would be much better to look forward to real and no art plants. However, many people do everything to make their natural plants look as unnatural as possible. They spray leaf gloss to make the plants shiny like plastic plants, but they can suffer. Plants "breathe" through their leaves, and if they spray them with such polishes, clog the stomata of the plant. Think of pores, but for plants. Many of these leaf gloss formulas are based on oil or worse on wax, so that they do not detach themselves after spraying.
The tips on homemade leaf gloss, which can always be seen on social media, are even worse. Such are, for example, wiping the leaves of a houseplant with olive oil and mayonnaise. With this practice you only beg for pest infestation. Your plant may look good for a while, but in the end it will suffocate. Apart from the fact that the leaf gloss is bad for plants, they become dust magnets as soon as they use such a means. The shiny leaves hold a week before taking the whole dust and transforming into a rubber -like mess. Therefore, wipe the leaves with a soft, damp cloth when you care for your houseplants and enjoy your natural silky shine.
Error No. 4: Place stones on the floor of a flower pot
This is another hack that appears everywhere. On the surface, it somehow makes sense that it wants an appropriate drainage for your plant so that it does not sit in damp earth and develops root rot. However, if you take a closer look, find that you cheat the plant for vital nutrients. Usually plants form their root structure in the ground in order to absorb water and nutrients. To do this, however, the roots must have contact with the ground. That is why root-bound plants stop growing. There is no longer enough soil for a good nutrient and water exchange with the roots. So by putting stones in the pot, they claim valuable property. Depending on the size of the stones and the pot, you could halve your biser. The smaller the pot, the less scope they have.
The best way to ensure good drainage is to use a pot with a hole in the floor and start with a high -quality potting soil. A good potting soil contains a mixture of peat or coconut fibers, wormstone (Vermiculit) and Perlit. These are all substances that have a good oneDrainage of the soilas well as promote oxygen exchange. If you use a good potting soil, the stones are unnecessary. The only thing you should put on the bottom of the pot is a pot fragment or a larger pebble. You need something that is big enough to sit over the drain hole and prevent earth from running out, but not so big that it prevents water from flowing.
Error No. 5: Use Franzbratnwein and thus maintain the houseplants
This is often recommended for pests such as scale insects or to combat mosquitoes. There is usually something like "wipe the leaves with a cotton swab with an alcohol" or "pour alcohol into the ground". However, both methods for plant care are wrong and can kill the plants. Even if this does not let the plants die, you add even more stress to a houseplant that is already fighting for life.
For example, alcohol dries up the skin tissue enormously, which is why people do without alcoholic hair and skin products. These affect natural acid protection and can cause irritation. The same applies if you wipe your plants with alcohol. Pouring alcohol directly into the earth is also a method with which you can burn the roots of your plant and cause serious damage. Therefore, let the cleaning alcohol or Franzbratnwein prefer to leave in the first aid box, where it belongs.
Error No. 6: Set succulents in terrariums
Succulents naturally grow out there in some of the hardest weather conditions. They will find those that grow deep to the ground, baked from the sun over the heads in dry deserts. Or they cling to a rock on the side of a windy mountain. They have adapted to the extension under dry conditions, be it due to constant sunlight or windy conditions that dry out the soil. So if you create your beautiful terrarium and populate it with the beautiful pastel tones of some succulents, you will eventually confront with a lazy mess when you put a lid on it.
The moisture that arises in a closed terrarium means that its succulents are repellent and die. The basic form and nature of a terrarium keep moisture in a tiny micro environment, even if you do not make it a closed terrarium. Think of the natural habitat of a succulent and you can see that you create a terrarium that is doomed to fail. Instead of a terrarium, consider preparing a juicy floor. Use a wide, open container with low side walls for better air exchange.
How you can see bad tips and maintain your houseplants
One of the simplest ways to recognize poor advice on houseplants is to find out about the natural habitat of the corresponding plant. As soon as you know how it thrives in the wild, it is much easier to predict what you will prefer in your home. Therefore, try to imitate a natural environment as precisely as possible. Then it becomes easier to separate the good tips from the bad - for example the part of planting succulents in a terrarium. If you know where succulents naturally grow, it is easy to look at the moist area of a terrarium and to recognize that the two do not mix. Admittedly, this requires a little research and a little more effort, but in the end you will be able to maintain happy and healthy houseplants and let them grow into mature specimens.
