Is garlic vine effective at repelling mosquitoes? Detailed guide to growing it and points to note

Southern folks love to keep a few pots of plants on the balcony, and displaying them at home as the New Year approaches adds even more festive atmosphere. Today we recommend the "garlic vine," which is suitable for indoor growing or outdoor growing in the south. It is a plant that blooms in all four seasons, with flowers shaped like little trumpets, and after blooming it gives off a garlicky scent, so it has a certain mosquito-repelling effect.

So how do you care for garlic vine at home? Actually, caring for it well requires combining soil choice, light requirements, watering and fertilizing techniques. As long as you do the above points well, you can ensure the garlic vine grows healthily and blooms quickly. First, when it comes to soil choice, its requirements are not too strict; it likes loose, well-drained acidic or slightly acidic soil. To increase drainage, you can mix in peat soil and perlite.

Then, in terms of light, the suitable growing temperature for garlic vine is 18~28 degrees. It likes light but is also fairly shade-tolerant. However, if you keep it in a dark environment for a long time and do not give it normal sun exposure, it may fail to carry out photosynthesis, causing its leaves to turn yellow. If yellowing has already appeared, in terms of care you can first move half of the plant to a sunny place, and then slowly move the whole plant to a sunny place, letting it gradually adapt to the warm sun. As long as you keep this up for a period of time, the leaves will slowly return to green.

As for watering, it likes warmth and moisture, so the watering principle is that slightly moist soil is best. If you choose to grow it outdoors in a small courtyard, water only when it feels dry in summer. If grown indoors in a pot, in summer you can water about once every 1 to 2 days, and in winter you can water about once every 3 to 4 days.

Finally, fertilizing is an indispensable thing for every kind of plant, and garlic vine is the same. It prefers natural organic fertilizers, such as fish bone meal or chicken manure fertilizer, which help make the flowers lush. It is recommended to apply once a month during the peak flowering period from August to December, and during other growing periods you can apply a nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer once a month. In addition, besides daily watering and fertilizing, the plant should also be regularly pruned of dead branches and pest- or disease-affected branches. Doing so can stimulate new growth points.