Decorating the interior of your house with the right houseplants breathes a new life into your living space. However, taking care of indoor plants can be tricky as they need the proper environment to thrive. To properly look after your houseplants, you need to set aside some time in your busy routine and keep a regular check on them. Things can get a lot easier for you if you know exactly how to grow healthy plants at home. So, to help you in this regard, we have prepared a list of the most useful tips for growing healthy houseplants, which will be discussed in this blog.
Let’s get started!
Some Useful Tips for Growing Healthy Houseplants
Now we’ll list down and discuss some important indoor gardening tips that will help you healthy plants at home.
- Choose the Right Container
- Use High-Quality Potting Soil
- Proper Lighting Condition
- Water Carefully
- Fertilise Regularly
- Beware of Houseplant pests
- Humid Conditions are Ideal for Indoor Plants
Choose the Right Container
The plant you are choosing to grow at home needs to be placed in the right container. Small houseplants require less place since their roots are small and don’t go that deeper into the soil. On the other hand, if you have chosen large plants such as Chrysanthemums or Bamboo Palm, then you would require large containers. Chrysanthemums are plants that grow flowers, however, Bamboo Palm is a flowerless plant but it is as beautiful as any other flowering indoor plant. Learn more about some of the best indoor plants in Pakistan here.
Making the right choice in terms of containers for your indoor greenery is how to grow healthy plants at home. Along with focusing on the size of the container, you should also be focused on its material while choosing it for your houseplant. Clay pots are the most common container used for indoor plants in Pakistan. They are not only attractive but also ideal for big plants, The downsides of having clay pots for plants are that they break easily, and are sometimes hard to clean. Similarly, plastic containers are considered ideal for small indoor plants as they come in decorative shapes and colours and can be placed anywhere in your home. You can even get your kitchen countertop decorated with houseplants, which is among the best kitchen counter decor ideas.
Use High-Quality Potting Soil
Since soil acts as the base that nourishes your houseplant and helps it grow properly. Good potting soil provides a balance of proper aeration, moisture-holding capability, nutrition, and promotes healthy roots. The potting soil you choose should have organic materials, which provide your houseplants with a wide spectrum of nutrients so that they can thrive in their containers.
Pro Tip: You should avoid using regular garden soil in containers as it may lack the necessary nutrients and may slowly kill your houseplants. Also, make sure that the potting soil you are pouring in your plant container is pest free.
Proper Lighting Condition
Proper lighting conditions are very important for plants since they get energy from it through the process of photosynthesis. Different species of houseplants may vary in their light requirements. Some prefer the strong sunlight coming through the south-facing window while others grow and thrive in the soft morning light sneaking in through the east-facing window in your home. If you are going to distance your indoor plants from the window, it will affect the light intensity and cause their quality to go down. Matters can become even more complicated with seasonal change as every season has its own sunlight intensity and patterns. However, one thing is for sure, all houseplants thrive when they get light from outdoors. In the absence of ideal lighting conditions, you can choose plants that survive in low light. Furthermore, you can also incorporate suitable artificial lighting to care for indoor plants.
When it comes to arranging artificial lighting for plants at home, we have to choose the best among the options we have. For instance, fluorescent lights commonly known as energy-savers are considered among the most suitable choices for artificial lighting arrangements for your houseplants. LED light bulb is another appropriate option and in this regard. Both of these lightings produce low heat and are energy-efficient. Unlike conventionally used light bulbs, fluorescent and LED lights are so customizable, which is why such lighting options are available in different shapes and sizes in the market. On a side note, If you are confused in choosing between the two aforementioned lighting options for your home, then you can take a look at our blog in which we have covered the LEDs vs. energy-savers debate.
Water Carefully
Like light, the importance of water in terms of the healthy growth of plants can never be undermined. So, if you are wondering how to grow healthy plants at home, then the very first thing that you should be doing in this regard is watering them carefully and properly. One important thing to bear in mind is that the water requirements of your indoor plants may also vary from season to season. Make sure you know your plants and they are neither under- nor over-watered.
After watering the plants, allow the potting soil to get partially dried before watering again. The best way to check soil moisture, stick your index finger just 2 inches deep into the soil. If you find it dry, it’s probably when your plant requires water. Another way of checking the dampness of potting soil is that by lifting the pot. This is how you’ll find out how dry a plant is, for example, It will be heavy after watering and feels lighter after the moisture dries out. Watering your plants carefully is one of the most important tips to keep houseplants healthy.
Fertilise Regularly
Frequent watering often makes your plants run out of important nutrients. In this case, regular fertilisation becomes very important and it is also one of the most useful tips for growing healthy houseplants. Not only do you need to carry out regular fertilisation but you also have to choose among the good quality fertilisers available in the market to effectively nourish your plants. A high-quality fertiliser provides your potting soil and plants with all the essential nutrients and creates the right environment for sustained, vibrant growth of the roots. This results in well-fed houseplants that reward you with plenty of seasonal blooms round the year and healthy growth.
Pro Tip: It is important for you to fertilise your houseplants every once a month, especially when they are growing and flowering. However, during the winter months, when most of the plants are dormant, you need to fertilise your houseplants less often.
Beware of Houseplants Pests
Along with providing essential nutrients to your indoor plants, a good fertiliser will also help to keep your houseplants pest-free. The houseplant pests may include mealybugs, caterpillars, scaly insects, and spider mites. Such types of tiny insects and pests can wreak havoc on your indoor greenery. Following one of the most useful indoor gardening tips, you need to thoroughly check a plant for pests while purchasing it. However, sometimes insects lay dormant and appear at a later stage. So, in order to keep your houseplants pest-free, it’s important for you to carry out weekly inspections and check for signs of insect infestation like holes in leaves or a sticky substance anywhere on the surface of your plant, which is excreted by pests during the process of feeding.
The moment you find pests, isolate the infested houseplant immediately and protect the rest of your indoor garden. This is how to care for your indoor plants against pest infestation. The sooner you treat and cure an infestation, the better for the growth and health of your indoor plants. When treating your plant with any of the chemical-based pest killers, always follow product label directions for the safety of your own and your plants.
Humid Conditions are Ideal for Indoor Plants
There are many types of houseplants that originate in tropical climates. However, indoor plants will definitely survive in the dry air commonly found in Pakistani homes but they can only grow best with proper humid conditions. So, creating an environment of your indoor garden with additional humidity is how to care for your indoor plants against the dry and drafty conditions. Such a type of environment can slowly kill your houseplants, making them suffer from low humidity. Some of the signs of unhealthy plants include leaf curling and yellowing, brown leaf tips, bud drop and also pest infestation.
To get your indoor plants off to a healthy start, you need to be sure that they have adequate humidity by spraying them with a fine mist of water two to three times a day on a regular basis, keep the pressure of water extremely low when spraying delicate plants. You can also create a humidity tray by filling a saucer with polished stones or marbles around the pot of your houseplant. After that, you need to add water, leveled to just below the surface of the marbles or stones, and leave the whole setup of the humidity tray right there. The water evaporation will naturally humidify the surrounding air of your indoor plant. You can also group plants. Since water evaporates from the leaves of plants in the process of transpiration. So, if it occurs, closely grouped plants can humidify each other.
These were some of the most effective tips for growing healthy houseplants. If you think we have missed out on mentioning anything important in this regard, feel free to let us know about it at blogs@zameen.com.
On a side note, you can also take a look at our blogs on tips to keep houseplants healthy during summer, ideas to set up a vertical garden in your home, best houseplants for your bathroom.
For more indoor gardening tips and tricks, keep reading Zameen Blogs. Don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter to receive daily alerts from our blog section.
