Plant Care Guide
Looking after plant babies can be especially stressful if you don't know what you're doing. Luckily for you, we've put together a basic plant care guide to help you become a respectable plant parent.
1. Let There Be Optimal Light
Light for plants is the same as food for humans. The right level of light will generate the best amount of energy for the plant to grow up healthy. To keep it really simple, we're not going to go into window orientations. All you need to decide is where your plant will be living and figure out how much sunlight that spot gets.
Levels of Light
- Low Light: this means away from the window where there is plenty of shade and no direct sunlight.
- Medium Light: that's near the window where there's decent sunlight but some obstruction (from curtains, trees or buildings outside).
- High Light: plants that love direct sunlight will need to be right by the window or on the window sill. There should be nothing blocking the path between the plant and the sun.
Too much sunlight will "burn" the plant while too little will mean slow growth with pale coloured leaves and in some cases, the plant grows unnaturally tall and lengthy as it stretches towards light. If you notice the plant growing in one direction towards the light, a quick fix is to occasionally rotate the pot or find a new spot.
For the more advanced plant parents, grow lights for indoor plants are continually growing in popularity especially for use with rare and exotic indoor plants.
2. Don't Overwater
Overwatering is more common and a bigger plant-killer than underwatering. In fact, it's better to underwater than overwater. While plants obviously need water to survive, they do not need to drink everyday and certainly not as much as we do. Overwatering causes root rot and this is harder to recover from than being dehydrated.
Both overwatering and underwatering cause slow growth and brown leaves. However soft and limp leaves result from too much water compared to dry and crispy from underwatering. Read our blog post on common indoor plant diseases to lower chances of your plant from dying.
If in doubt whether your plant needs a drink, check the soil underneath beyond the surface. Make sure you water the soil evenly and do not wet the leaves. Remember, some plants you'll have to water weekly whilst others only need watering every other week.
3. Out With the Old, In With the New
Don't be afraid to give your plants a haircut every once in a while. This is great for keeping the plant looking healthy and happy by encouraging new growth. Plus you can propagate more plant babies and show off to your friends what a great plant parent you have become. You should also check if your plant has any plant pests from time to time.
4. Drain Away Your Sorrows
Imagine wearing wet socks and not being able to dry your feet. Like humans, plants do not like this feeling. Drainage deals with this by allowing the excess water and salt to leave the soil before it causes damage to the plant.
So before you buy that cute plant pot, remember to check if there's a drainage hole! If there isn't, it's a good idea to drill your own. And if you're too lazy, then use the cute pot as an outer decorative pot. Then have a smaller pot inside, with drainage holes.
5. Variety Is Not the Spice of Life
While humans love spontaneity, plants generally do not. Wherever you decide to place them, however you decide to take care of them, remember one thing: give them some space and time to adapt to their new home. When you re-plant a plant, they often experience something called 'transplant shock' especially when put into a different potting mix than what it's used to. That's okay though, as they will bounce back in no time if you have a decent potting mix. If you want to give your plants some extra strength and longevity, consider using some plant fertilisers.
As much as we can go on about what you should or shouldn't do, it's all in your hands now. We have faith in you!
Make sure to check out our Plants Blog for narrowed down lists of plants that are perfect for whatever your needs are.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Now that you know the basics, it's time to get you some plants!