Healthy house plants

21 Mar '05 1:04 am

I've decided to address my poor survival rate of house plants. Issues I've identified so far are...

Water

Heat

Light

Space

Oxygen

Anything else I could do to ensure healthy, happy house plants?

I've created an emergency nursery in the south-facing front room. All plants have been repotted with yummy organic compost and they now have pot-bottoms so they can be watered bottom-up, to make sure the roots get the water. The spider plant is looking super green and healthy already - only a day ago it was pale and ill.

While I was at it, I potted up cuttings which have been rooting in water. I also took the advice of Which? gardening magazine on propagation, and pruned the straggly plants, and chopped up the stems into small bits to propagate. Currently looking like dead bits of log in earth at the moment tho Confused

Patience is a virtue.

If anyone can tell me what my (mostly inherited) plants are, I'd appreciate it!

21 Mar '05 7:14 am

Something I have found house plants love is to toss them all in the bath (or shower) and, using a hand-held shower rose, spray water all over the foliage. Gives them a really good drink and cleans dust off at the same time Smile

Once every few weeks is good.

When you re-pot (or the plants are dry) make sure you immerse the whole pot in the sink or laundry tub to thoroughly soak it (wait until all the air bubbles have stopped forming at the top of the soil).

Remember that most houseplants are killed by over-watering Shocked

rather than under-watering. Only water when soil doesn't stick to your finger when you poke it in the pot Wink

Winter is the best time to kill plants with water Embarassed

Not sure if your little logs will sprout...some have to be inserted in the mix. Try a few in different ways, thats what I do if I'm not sure.
Cut a log about 10-15cm, cut just below a leaf joint on the end which goes in the soil (sometimes if you carefully scrape a fine sliver of bark off the very bottom it helps to expose the rooting hormones to the moisture).

Also, when you have a cutting with big leaves, chop them in half to lessen stress. They lose moisture from their leaves and have no roots yet to replace it (and we know what happens when they run out of water Confused

Have fun!

EGGY! OPEN the drapes! Mr. Green

23 Mar '05 10:30 am

Brilliant - thanks Pumpkin!

Leaves are chopped, logs scraped and some buried. Now sitting tight, trying to not to over water.

Perhaps a Bridget Jones style diary for the week - watered 3 times, opened curtains on 4 days... Smile

19 Apr '05 11:02 am

The great house plant revival is having varied success rates.

The logs - aka twig propagation in earth - to no great surprise, were withered mouldy failures Sad

The motto of the story is: if I follow magazine instructions, I must do everything it says in the article. I must not arbitrarily leave out the last two lines of instruction (root hormone for growth, sulphur to stop mould).

The plant propagation in water has been a lot more successful, particularly the sections with smaller leaves, as Pumpkin suggested. The roots took a little while to show, then grew massively almost over night.

The good news is that the plant I took all of these cuttings from is sprouting well on the remaining, shorter branches, giving a far more balanced shape to a once straggly plant.

The biggest (unconfirmed) embarrassment is that two inherited plants which I thought were merely propagating in water and have potted up into earth, are possibly water plants. Ooops, to use a Mooseyism.

All environmental factors have been improved. This includes Eggy going from a poor to a medium curtain-opening success rate. This week will surely see him improving from a medium to a GOOD. Go Eggy!

29 Jul '05 7:55 pm

Progress report required here please Wink

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BUMP!