Indoor plant care doesn’t necessarily have to be rocket science. As a matter of fact, it could even be a breeze once you get hold of those ordinary details that keep them alive and kicking.
mastering the easy care of indoor plants involves creative watering methods, natural pest control, and thoughtful planning for travel… these fundamental tips will keep your indoor garden in bloom.
1. Easy Homemade Watering System (Drip Irrigation for Plants)
The key to the easy indoor plants care is not in watering too much but rather in keeping it consistent. A homemade drip irrigation system is one of the simplest and most efficient solutions. this will provide your plants with exactly the right amount of water, slowly and steadily over time.
Here is how you can set it up at home: Take a clean plastic bottle (500 ml or 1 liter), prick a very small hole in the cap, and fill the bottle with water. Invert the bottle and stick it into the soil gently, ensuring the opening is close to the roots of the plant. For more control over this method, you can experiment with the size of the hole to see how fast or slow you want the water to drip.
The system is essentially free once you reuse old bottles, and it’s a real cheap thing. It works great for the really busy-forgetter, because sometimes you have to water daily. Great for moisture-loving plants, such as ferns and peace lilies. Save big here-very much opposed to expensive automated systems-plus, it’s much more ecological.
For additional informations about low light indoor plants, you can check our ” Create your green space fpr under 50$ ” article.
2. Natural Insecticides and Fertilizers for Healthier Plants
These will keep your plants pest-free and fed, so long as you never use chemicals. Instead, there are some very good natural alternatives which will not affect the plants, your pets, or the environment.
Neem oil is a natural pesticide: mix it with water and then spray over leaves to discourage spider mites and aphids.
The homemade soap solution is another option: mix two teaspoons of mild dish soap into a liter of water. If a plant is found to be infested, spraying can send most insects running without further harming your leaves.
Fertilizers-just look inside the kitchen for such supplies. Some good ones include banana peels, coffee grounds, and eggshells that would definitely do wonders for your garden. Banana peels contain potassium, coffee grounds make nitrogen, and eggshells have calcium-all to say that mixing it into one smoothie before pouring it onto the soil does just about does the trick.
Many scientific tests have shown that indoor plants fertilized with natural products are healthier and have much stronger leaves than those treated with commercial chemicals.
Bonus Tip: How to Become a Plant Cutting Master
Probably the easiest and most satisfying way to propagate your indoor plants and grow new ones is by cutting. Do this when the plant is in its active growing season, whether in spring or early summer.
Take sharp scissors or pruning shears and snip off a healthy stem of the plant just below a node – that point where the leaf meets the stem. Ensure it is 4-6 inches in length, with at least one or two sets of leaves.
Remove the lower leaves and stick the cuttings either in water or moistened soil, whichever the plant type requires. Keep them in indirect light, letting them stay under constant moisture until they develop roots, usually within 2 to 4 weeks.
Propagation isn’t expensive, plus it’s a very great method of passing plants onto friends and building up your green collection!
3. Keeping Plants Watered While You Travel
Planning a trip doesn’t have to mean your plants must suffer. A little planning and it’s possible to push the easy care of indoor plants to include no-fuss watering when you are away.
One of the most useful tricks for watering houseplants while away involves the wicking system. All you need is a cotton string or shoelace, a container of water, and your pot. Put the container next to the plant and insert one end of the wick into the water and the other into the soil. Over time, the string will draw water into the soil, slowly keeping it moist.
Another approach is putting all of your plants together and placing them in either a bathtub or a sink that has a towel soaked in water. That gives the plants a pretty decent humid microclimate, where the loss of water is at a bare minimum. For longer trips, other options can include putting an upside-down bottle of water in the soil or buying a self-watering pot.
Those will spare you the hassle of hiring a plant sitter or accidentally killing your greens while you’re away. Added advantage-they’re inexpensive and hardly take any effort.