8 Things Your House Plant Wish You Wouldn’t Do
So you just bought a new plant for your house today. You’re all excited and you have plenty of ideas on where you’re going to place it, which pot you’re going to put it in, what name you’re going to call it—well don’t, at least not till you’ve read these 8 things.
1. Re-potting Too Soon
That urge to quickly get your new plant into that perfect Terracotta pot you just bought recently so you can finally place it on your matching premium oak wood TV stand is a wrong move.
Plants take a long time to establish their roots, and by re-potting too early on, you potentially risk damaging the fragile roots that have just gotten themselves established. Resist the urge to re-pot them for a while. Put it into a cover pot for now instead, you won’t notice the difference!
2. Placing Them In Direct Sunlight
Plants need sun to live, but that doesn’t mean they need to be placed right in the sun.
Your new house plant was grown for the purpose of living inside your home. That means they were probably grown under a shaded cloth—and they are used to that. Shoving them into the brightest spot in the house would mean that they won’t be able to adjust in time and you might find its foliage start to dry out and turn brown.
Your plant needs to be acclimated to its new spot. If it’s a sunny part you want it at, put it in the shade first before gradually shifting over time.
3. Watering The Plant Immediately
This is to be avoided when you first receive your new plant. Depending on where you got your plant from, it might be a little stressed out from multiple travels, and the last thing you want to do is to go crazy with the watering can.
Overwatering can be potentially harmful to your new plant, so do a little check first: feel the soil, lift the plant up and inspect the state of the soil. Only water it if it is really needed.
4. Dividing Your Plant
It is usually ill-advised to divide the new plant that you just got into smaller pots.
If you really wish to have them separated into small pots, make sure each of them has enough of its individual root system before pulling them apart to prevent damaging the roots. In certain cases, it is okay to separate a plant without harming it if it is made up of 2 or more plants in a pot. But more often than not, you run the risk of tearing and damaging the entangled roots by separating the plant if you’re not familiar with it.
05. Putting Your New Plant Next To Current Ones Immediately
Much like making friends in real life, you’d be best advised to inspect your new plant first before excitedly including it right away into your circle of familiar plants at home without much thought.
Sometimes, your new plant might be afflicted with mealybugs, aphids and the likes. Give your new plant a little ‘isolation’ period of 3-5 days first. If you suspect something isn’t right, you could spray its leaves with horticultural oil or neem oil in rotation—waiting for a couple of days in between, before making a healthy conclusion.
6. Using Leaf Shine Spray
Using leaf shine spray only builds up a waxy layer that gets into the stomata (or pores) of the leaves, not to mention an unnatural fake shine that just makes your plant feel inadequate in it’s looks. Celebrate your plant’s natural given shine! A light wipe with lukewarm water mixed with a little organic dish soap or diluted neem oil will do the trick.
7. Rushing To Fertilize
If you got your new plant from a greenhouse or a reputable nursery, you should probably assume that it has been fertilized, and therefore should wait at least a month or two before adding more. Often, you might think of sprucing up the plant a little with some fertilizers, but over-fertilizing your plant could do more harm than good! So take it easy at the beginning.
8. Moving Your Plant Away From Its Happy Spot
Ugh, don’t we all hate that. Your plants don’t like it too.
Sometimes, it takes some moving around to find that perfect spot that your plant loves; and you can tell—it’s foliage appears more vibrant, and on the whole it looks sturdier and healthier. When that happens, leave it be! Especially with larger plants. Once your plant is in its happy spot, don’t move them away. A rotation once a while is sufficient.