It’s a trend now that people are buying home plants to try and mix and match with their home decor. Even crazier, the fanatic green turned some corner of their house into a little jungle in the building – boy, what a view to see every day
Having home plants is actually really beneficial for you but today I would like to give you 101 tips on taking care of your home plants especially for beginners.
Not All Plants are Suitable to be kept Indoors
Before buying a home plant, you need to learn a few basics about the plant’s likes; what is the bright light plant, medium light plant, low light plant, direct sunlight plant and more. If we know each type of plant based on the light needed, we will understand where to place the plants. FYI, all flowering plants are only suitable outdoor because it needs direct sunlight to boost color pigment so the flowers will look beautiful.
To identify these types of plants, you can easily observe it when visiting the nursery. They will locate plants meant to be indoors under the shade. Then you need to check the plants, whether it’s a bright light, medium or low light plant. As we know this, you can determine the right spot to put your plant in the house.
Identify the Light Intensity Before Placing the Plants
The bright light plant is a type of plant that you need to put it close to the window so it will get enough sunlight and the low light plant is different where you can actually place it 5 feet away from the source of light in any area of your home. When you’re able to understand the bright and low light plants, it’s time to put it to a test.
It’s easy to test the light intensity in your home, you do need to install the light meter app on your phone and check the light intensity in the area that you plan to place your plants – but remember to test it at noon where the light is at maximum during that hour. Then you can decide what kind of plants to buy and where is best to put it.
Study About the Plant Before Purchase It
As now you’re eager on deciding your home plants, make sure to know a little thing about plants that you want to bring home by knowing the type so you can put it at the right place, how to take care the plant cause you shouldn’t just buy it because it looks pretty and please understand what the plant needs so you can make your plant grow taller or more lush.
Whatever it is, know yourself first – are you the type of person who frequently travels or are you just a homey person? From this you also can decide on purchasing the suitable plants to be placed in your home cause not all plants need to be watered regularly.
Keep New Plants in Brighter Light for 3 Days
You have already marked the position for all your plants that you purchase in the nursery and you’re ready to place each of it in their places. But wait! Before that you should place all the plants close to the window or maybe at the balcony for 3 days because we want to give a moment for the plants to adapt at new places and aware with the surroundings.
After 3 days in the bright light, you can position each of your plants as planned and from there your plant will start the grow beautifully. Do remember this method, especially made for the low light plants as part of introduction for them before placing it away from bright light.
Practice Until It Becomes a Habit
As your plants already become a citizen in your home, you need to practice living with it and turn all the things about plant care into habit. In order to give nutrient, you need to get suitable fertiliser for your plant – the best option is to buy liquid type fertiliser because you can dilute with water so it will easily absorb into the soil.
I believe you don’t just want to see your plant alive, but also want it to grow and be healthy. That’s why you need to learn specifically about what your plant needs but don’t worry, you can get most of the information on the internet – LOCCO’s suggestion is to visit Daun.com.my to learn more about plant and they also sell plants, check it out!
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Get a Moisture Sensor
Moisture sensor is a tool to measure water content in the soil, this is to check whether your plant needs more water or not. If the soil becomes too moist it will not be good for your plant because it will give root rot disease which will cause your plant to become unhealthy and die.
The best to have one sensor at your home, so you can easily track the water needed for your home plant. You can plan how often you need to water your plant and what is the volume of water required before you do it – not all plants need to be watered regularly.
Choosing the Right Pot for Plant
Each type of pot will determine how much water needed and how frequent you need to water your plant. Mainly there are two types of pot which the plastic pot and the ceramic/clay pot – for the plastic pot you will need to water your plant regularly meanwhile for ceramic/clay pot you only need to water your plant like once a week. This is because the surface of ceramic/clay can maintain the moisture of soil longer than plastic pot.
For the size of pot, this actually helps you to determine the volume of water needed for your plants. By choosing the right size, it will become a reason for your plant to grow bigger and lusher because your plant will have enough space to elongate their roots – it will give enough surface for the roots to absorb nutrient and water from the soil.
Get The Right Plant If You have a Pet
Some air purifying plants like Snake Plants and Aglaonema contains poison in their leaf rubber that’s actually not good when you have a pet like cats because they tend to bite plants when they try to throw up the hairball and this may affect their digestive system. If you already have that type of plant, the best to do is to place it at higher spot so it will not reachable for your cat.
To be fair to your cat, you can buy palm plants such Parlor Palm and Areca Palm that is actually suitable for your cat to chew. If you want to avoid your cat from destroying your plant, you can buy a wheatgrass – for sure they will like it.
All above tips are very useful not just for beginners but also for those who are currently love taking care of home plants. There’s no such thing as “I don’t have green fingers” because when you follow the correct techniques on taking care of plant, you will actually see the plant grow as what you want.
To get more info about home plant, you can rewatch our Locco Ajak Borak Facebook Live session with Sara Dalina, Co-Founder of Daun.com.my – watch now!
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