Indoor plants growing tips for beginners
Below are some indoor plant tips for beginners which you can also follow to grow your plants bushy.
1. Potting mix: Have you guys tried following percentage style of potting mix? For example, X% of soil, Y percentage of vermicompost etc. If yes, was it a success? I have tried many times but was never satisfied with the result.
According to me, it depends on the soil what we use. Soil plays crucial role in plant growth. The mineral content in the soil promotes the growth of the plants. How much ever we make the soil airy, it doesn’t matter; the soil should be rich with the mineral contents.
2. Light: - Another important part in plant growth is light. Let us look into an example.
Few years before, in the beginning years of my gardening, I had bought a jade plant. It was given in a grow bag with sticky potting mix. Back then, for me, Jade “was” an indoor plant. So, I bought one ceramic pot along with the plant. After reaching home I repotted the plant. I was very happy to see the jade in an elephant shaped ceramic pot. It was looking cute. I kept it near my wash basin. The warm light from the pendent light hung on the ceiling and the new pot with jade plant was complimenting each other.
Few days later….
Few days later, I noticed that the Jade started shedding its leaves. I completely ignored the change in my jade plant until it became like a skeleton. I didn’t realize that the plant was dying.
Finally, it happened. The death of my jade plant. She left the yellow ceramic elephant planter alone and gone forever.
Let us go back to the nursery from where I picked the jade plant. If my memory is right, I can recollect one thing. The plant was kept under full sunlight. If the plants are kept in full sun at nurseries, then try to keep them in full sun after taking them home. It will be hard for the plants to tolerate the sudden climatic changes.
After this lesson, I got another Jade and kept in my balcony in the same yellow elephant shaped ceramic pot, where they get enough amount of direct sunlight. Another Jade which I got as a gift is also kept in the same balcony. Both has grown well now and looks like a bonsai.
3. Water: - This depends on the location. I used to get lots of queries regarding watering the plants. Many of my clients and YouTube subscribers used to ask me after how many days should they water their plants. To be honest, I should be an astrologer to answer this question. We can’t say the number of days or time intervals to water the plants. Water the plants only once the topsoil is dry. This is applicable only for indoor plants. For outdoor plants the theory is different. Overwatering is another major issue seen among beginner plant enthusiasts. Overwatering may lead to root rot and you end up in kill your favorite plants. So make sure your plants are not overwatered.
4. Fertilizer: - You can use organic or chemical fertilizers according to your wish. I use both. NPK and cow dung is what I use on regular basis. I do experiment on fertilizers too. I have also tried using lot of other fertilizers to increase the growth of my foliage plants and it had worked too. But I felt NPK is the safest chemical fertilizer (this is my personal opinion, this may vary person to person). If you prefer organic fertilizers, you can go for cow dung, vermicompost, bone meal, neem oil etc. I generally take 15 days of interval between each fertilizing.
5. Repotting: - You can consider repotting once in a year. Sometimes, the plant becomes root bound. In that case, you can transfer them to a bigger pot which should be 2” bigger than the older one.
If you consider all these points in mind, you can make your plants healthy and bushy.
Until next blog, Bye Bye.