Article name
Plan carefully for growing plants indoors
Description
Successfully growing houseplants starts with understanding their needs. Primary among these
is light. Light is the energy plants use to create their food. You cannot grow a plant where there
is not enough light, no matter how good it looks in the location.
Content 1
Successfully growing houseplants starts with understanding their needs. Primary among these is light.
Light is the energy plants use to create their food. You cannot grow a plant where there is not enough
light, no matter how good it looks in the location.
Often purchased on impulse, plants need to be planned to bring about more consistently
successful results when it comes to growing them indoors. Walk through your home and think
about where plants would be appropriate. Focus particularly on areas where the family spends a lot of time, such as the
kitchen or living room. Where is sufficient light? How many and how large should the plants be? Will they sit on a windowsill or on the floor, or
perhaps hang in a basket?
Houseplants are available from a wide variety of sources, but
wherever you purchase them pay attention to quality. Always
purchase plants that are vigorous and healthy and have an
attractive shape with no insects or diseases. Look at the
foliage carefully. Avoid plants with yellow leaves, brown leaf
edges or spots that indicate the plant has been poorly cared
for. Look for signs of scale, mealybugs or mites that could
infest your other plants at home.
Light
Choose a plant that will survive in the location where you intend to place it – particularly
regarding the amount of light the spot receives. Different types of houseplants will grow
in higher or lower light conditions. Ask the nursery staff to help with the selection or
check references on growing plants indoors before you make your final decisions.
When you purchase a plant, make sure the pot has a tag with the name
of the plant on it, especially if this is a spur of the moment purchase of
a plant you are not familiar with. Without a name, you cannot look up
or ask someone for information about the plant.
Houseplants are generally grouped into high light, medium light and low light categories.
High light levels are provided by unobstructed east-, southeast-, southwest- and westfacing windows. Medium (summer) to high (winter) light levels come through
unobstructed south-facing windows. North-facing windows provide low light levels. Low
light levels may also be provided by placing plants several feet away from east-, westor south-facing windows. Light is most often provided by sunlight shining through
windows, but artificial light can also be effectively used to grow indoor plants.
Within four to eight weeks a plant will indicate if there is a problem
with light. Whether there is actually enough light in that spot is, after
all, the plant’s decision – not yours. If there are no pests present and
the plant has been watered properly, a deteriorating condition usually
indicates insufficient light. Move the plant to a brighter location.
Content 2
Water
People are always obsessing over how to water their houseplants. For the majority of plants it’s really quite simple. Stick your finger
into the pot. If the soil feels wet or moist, don’t water. If the soil feels dry, water. Do not allow plants to wilt before you water them.
This stresses them and can cause leaf drop, flower bud drop and brown leaf edges.
Apply water until some runs out of the pot’s drainage holes and into
the saucer underneath. That way you know that you have moistened
the entire root ball. Do not let the pot sit in a saucer full of water,
however. Remove the water in the saucer if it is still there a few hours
later. You can use a kitchen baster to suck the water out of the saucer
if the plant is too large to dump the water out of the saucer. There,
isn’t that simple?