What practical tips are there for indoor flower care?

When beginners grow flowers, because they don't know how to care for them and are also rather overindulgent with their plants, not only do they fail to do any good, but their flowers end up in worse condition until they turn yellow and die.

Below are several major principles of indoor flower care compiled by Haoyanghu and several points to note for beginners growing flowers:

1. Potting soil must not become waterlogged

Plant roots need water but also need air. If water accumulates in the potting soil for too long, the roots will suffocate and die because there is no air available for them to breathe. You should learn how to water correctly.

2. Let plants go dormant

Many indoor flowers enter a relatively dormant period in winter or after blooming, during which the plant needs less water and fertilizer than during vigorous growth, and also requires a lower temperature.

It is normal for some plants to go dormant after blooming

Popular potted flowers such as cyclamen, gloxinia, and chrysanthemums gradually turn yellow and drop their leaves after blooming, entering a dormant period. This is the plant's normal growth process, and it is not caused by poor care on your part. Increase air humidity. In the north, after indoor heating in winter, the air becomes very dry. You should find ways to increase indoor air humidity.

3. Deal with plant problems quickly

Whether you are an expert or a beginner, you will run into some problems. If you discover pests, as long as you treat them promptly they will not cause major damage. If a virus infection occurs, treatment is more troublesome, so isolate the plant as early as possible. Overwatering may not seem like a big problem at first, but over time it will lead to death. Learn to recognize the early symptoms of problems in plants.

4. Group multiple plants together for care

When multiple plants are placed together for cultivation, almost all of them grow better and look better as ornamentals. You should learn why and how to place plants together.

5. Learn to repot

After potted flowers have been cultivated for one or two years, most plants gradually weaken in growth. In many cases, simply giving them a larger pot can restore their vigor.

6. Choose suitable species

To make plants flourish indoors, you must choose species suited to growing in indoor environmental conditions; that is, even an expert cannot make shade-loving plants grow well in direct sunlight and under a window.

7. Choose appropriate tools

Commonly used tools include: a watering can with a long spout and fitted with a fine nozzle; a sprayer for increasing humidity, removing dust, and controlling pests; good potting media such as peat soil, river sand, and moss; flower pots, trays, or cachepots in different sizes; moss poles for climbing plants to grow on and nylon line or wire for tying plants; insecticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and leaf shine; pruning shears, grafting knives, etc.

Methods for killing pests on indoor flowers

When growing flowers indoors, it is not advisable to use highly toxic pesticides to control pests. People often use laundry detergent, tobacco liquid, chive liquid, and chili liquid to prevent pests, but these are rather troublesome to use, requiring spraying two or three times a day.

If not handled well, alkaline laundry detergent can also harm acid-loving plants such as azaleas, orchids, and Aglaia. Below are 3 methods recommended for quickly killing pests.

1. Mosquito coil fumigation: Light a mosquito coil and hang it on the infested plant, then seal the plant and flower pot with plastic film. After 1 hour, all the aphids, red spider mites, and whiteflies are eliminated.

This method is especially suitable for kumquats, which are susceptible to red spider mite damage.

2. Essential balm spray: Dilute essential balm with water 400 to 500 times and spray the plant.

Essential balm has a strong penetrating effect, so it is effective against various pests, especially pests such as green wax scale insects against which ordinary insecticidal liquids do not work.

3. Place camphor balls in the potting soil: Flowers with tuberous roots (such as peonies and dahlias), flowers with bulbs (such as lilies and Lycoris), and flowers with fleshy root systems are often harmed by nematodes.

An appropriate amount of camphor balls can be crushed and mixed into the potting soil, which is very effective for controlling nematodes.

Fertilizing flowers smells bad? Teach you a few tricks to remove the odor

When growing potted flowers at home, fertilization is often needed, but fertilization inevitably brings some unpleasant odors. Here are a few small methods to help you avoid or remove fertilizer odors.

The first method: apply rice vinegar

When fertilizing flowers, be careful to add a few drops of rice vinegar appropriately to the liquid fertilizer being applied. This can eliminate the odor of the liquid fertilizer, because rice vinegar is weakly acidic and can neutralize the smell produced by some decaying substances in the liquid fertilizer.

The second method: use orange peel

In the fermented fertilizer water, you can put some orange peel (either fresh or air-dried), so that the orange peel and fertilizer ferment together. The large amount of essential oil contained in orange peel can reduce the odor of the liquid fertilizer, and the fermented orange peel is also a very good flower-growing fertilizer.

The third method: add white liquor

Flower growers often say, "When fertilizing with fertilizer water in a pot, the smell is strong; add a little white liquor and the smell is gone." This saying makes good sense. When fertilizing, adding an appropriate amount of white liquor to the fertilizer can noticeably remove the odor. In addition, flower lovers can also make some odor-free fertilizers at home.

The fourth method: use soybean cake

Crush soybean cake into powder form, soak it wet, and after fermentation it is not only a good organic fertilizer, but also does not bring an odor after application.

The fifth method: use crushed bone fertilizer

Many flower growers use the crushed bones of chickens and ducks left after eating as flower fertilizer. The specific method is: first soak the bones for one or two days to remove the salt, then use a pressure cooker with water to cook them until soft, stir them into a paste and take it out, then add 20 percent fine sand or coal cinder ash, mix evenly, cover the container with a layer of dry fine soil, sprinkle some insecticide, then cover it and keep it loose and moist. After two or three months, the fertilizer is fully decomposed. Applied to flower pots, it has good fertilizer effect and not the slightest odor.

The sixth method: use composted fertilizer

Many flower growers collect various fruit peels and vegetable leaves and put them into a small vat, then add some water and an appropriate amount of black alum, let them fully ferment and decompose, then open the lid and leave it exposed for a few days. This homemade fertilizer not only has no odor, but is also especially suitable for the growth needs of common potted flowers such as azaleas, gardenias, and jasmine.

The seventh method: use yogurt water and eggshell fertilizer

Use the water from rinsing yogurt bottles (cartons) with rice-washing water and crushed eggshells, then put them together to compost for 7 to 10 days, and it becomes a flower fertilizer with complete nutrients. Using it to water flowers gives high fertilizer effect and no odor.

For flower lovers who do not have time to make fertilizer themselves, when using ordinary liquid fertilizer, the following methods can be used to reduce the odor.

1. Apply liquid fertilizer skillfully:

Before fertilizing, first reduce the amount of watering to make the potting soil dry, then in the evening apply the fertilizer outdoors. Because soil that is on the dry side speeds up the absorption rate of the fertilizer liquid, it reduces the time the fertilizer liquid is exposed. Therefore, after the fertilizer liquid seeps into the potting soil, you can water a small amount of clean water again to evenly rinse the residual fertilizer liquid on the surface down into the lower soil. In this way, the odor of the fertilizer can be eliminated. Even if a small amount of fertilizer remains on the surface of the potting soil, after evaporating overnight, the odor can also be greatly reduced.

2. Cover with soil after application:

Put some fertilizer with a relatively strong odor into a container and seal it. After it ferments and decomposes, dilute it with clean water about 10 times before use. After application, cover the surface of the pot with a layer of fine soil prepared in advance, which both prevents the odor from volatilizing and helps maintain the fertilizer effect.