How do you care for houseplants? Remember 3 tips and you can keep any flowering plant alive

Houseplants are becoming more and more popular these days. They not only beautify the environment, but also add vitality to the home. They can purify the air, improve your health, and relieve stress. What kind of environment do houseplants actually like?

I. Tips for watering

1. Keep the potting soil moist but not soggy

Soil that is too dry or frequent watering will damage the root system (there are plants that are especially drought-tolerant and waterlogging-tolerant). Plants with delicate leaves, like pothos and nerve plant, need more water, while plants with leathery or waxy leaves, like snake plant and rubber tree, should not be watered much.

Moist soil is soil that can be squeezed into a ball; soggy soil is soil that falls apart when squeezed into a ball and releases water when squeezed. You need to understand whether your plant likes slightly moist potting soil or prefers to stay slightly dry.

2. How do you tell whether the soil is dry enough?

Stick your finger into the soil so you can directly feel whether the soil is dry. Inserting a small bamboo stick also works.

Overwatering easily leads to root rot, and the leaves and root stems rot easily too. If a plant is dehydrated, its leaves will droop, the leaf tips will dry out, and the lower leaves will turn yellow and curl.

3、Use water at room temperature

The best temperature for water is room temperature, not too cold or too hot. Better water quality is of course more beneficial to plant growth. Let tap water sit for three days before using it; rainwater is the best choice.

Water that is too hot will burn the roots, send the plant into shock, and easily kill it; water that is too cold will affect the plant's dormancy and cause cold damage.

4. Choose containers with good drainage

Choosing containers with good drainage is especially important for plant growth. If you occasionally give too much water, it can flow out from the bottom of the pot (the bottom of the pot must of course have holes), so you also need to make sure the drainage holes at the bottom are not blocked.

The bottom of the flower pot is best lined with a drainage layer such as gravel, pebbles, broken tiles or clay pebbles.

II. Taboos in caring for houseplants

1. Give plants proper light

Plant growth requires photosynthesis, and the intensity of light affects plant growth. Plants that are kept well are all kept in a fixed spot. Of course, you first need to know whether the plant can take direct light.

If your plant cannot take direct sunlight, fluorescent lights are a good substitute for sunlight. Give flowering plants 12 to 16 hours of artificial light a day. Give foliage plants 10 to 16 hours of artificial light a day.

2. Don't move the plants around you

Plants adapt to a new environment very slowly, so don't move the plants around you. Keep them in a stable environment they have adapted to.

Moving a plant suddenly from a dark place to a sunny spot will sunburn and kill it. Plants that have been in full sun for a long time are also not suited to being suddenly moved to a place without light. There needs to be a transition period, adapting slowly.

3. Mist the plants or use a humidifier

Apart from plants like cacti that like dry air, most houseplants like a certain higher level of ambient humidity, especially tropical plants. Misting the greenery regularly is a good choice.

Plant leaves cannot always have water sitting on them, so you can only mist around the plant to increase ambient humidity, which keeps the plant lush and green.

If you see the plant's leaves becoming wilted, turning brown, or the flower buds not growing, then you need to lower the ambient humidity and stop misting.

Note: do not mist the flowers or flower buds.

4. Notes on fertilizing

Houseplants generally just need a balanced fertilizer, that is, a fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 10:10:10. On proper fertilizer packaging there are three numbers in a ratio; the first number represents nitrogen, and the second and third numbers are phosphorus and potassium respectively.

Don't use fertilizer at random. If you are growing a flowering plant, you can buy a fertilizer with higher potassium. If it is a foliage plant, use a fertilizer with higher nitrogen.

5. Prune plants regularly

Some plants need regular pruning to grow better. When repotting, cut off dead roots and old roots as appropriate. Pruning not only promotes branching and benefits flowering, but also makes the plant grow gracefully and helps it avoid pests and diseases.

But you cannot prune within three months before the plant flowers, or it will affect flowering. Many plants are pruned before spring budding, and also pruned appropriately after flowering, which can promote reblooming.

6. Don't use tea dregs, coffee grounds and rice water carelessly

Tea dregs and coffee grounds cannot be poured directly into the potting soil, and cannot touch the roots and stems, or these dregs will release heat as they decompose, burning the root system and also breeding insects. (They are only good to use after fermentation.)

The same goes for rice water. If it has not been fermented, pouring it directly into the soil is not really suitable either. Those hobbyists who have no problems are fine because their environment is well ventilated, so the water in the rice water evaporates quickly. If you water with it on cloudy and rainy days, it easily breeds fungus gnats.

III. Know your plants

1. Learn the classification of plants

It is very important to understand what kind of environment a plant needs to grow, so that you can take better care of it, such as the sunlight and water it needs to grow. For different houseplants, consulting a little about plant care will make growing plants very easy for you.

2. Determine whether your plant is a foliage plant or a flowering plant

Flowering plants and foliage plants need different fertilizer, sunlight and water. You also need to know the plant's flowering season, so you won't prune at the wrong time.

3. Choose plants that suit you

If you are a diligent person, you can grow plants that like watering, such as prayer plant, nerve plant, and umbrella papyrus;

If you want to grow some plants that don't need much care, you can grow plants like geranium, pothos, and parlor palm;

If you often forget to water, you can choose plants like snake plant, aloe, dragon tree, and spider plant.