There are seven things plant experts do to their house plants that you probably don’t and it’s why their plants look so happy and healthy and perhaps why your plants are struggling. Stay tuned till the end because I’ve got a bonus tip on a great way to boost your plant’s growth for free. Soil composition is crucial for a happy plant and changing the soil of your plant at least yearly boosts your plant’s health in two key ways. it’s something plant experts do. First, changing the soil of your plant and up-potting it into a bigger pot prevents your plant from becoming root-bound. So a root-bound plant will not have enough soil in the pot to draw up water and nutrients and will begin to look tired with yellow or brown leaves.
The second benefit is that you are changing the soil of your plant regularly which gives the plant a boost in nutrients that then allows the plant to push out lots of fresh new growth. Your plant soil degrades over time and loses vital beneficial bacteria and nutrients for the plant. So we must change the soil periodically to keep it fresh and alive for the roots of the plant. If you have a plant that you have noticed isn’t growing as vigorously or is starting to develop yellow leaves, check the soil and consider changing if you haven’t done so in a while. Plant experts only water their houseplants when their plants need it.
This is something that inexperienced plant owners struggle with or are ignorant about, but plants need less water than you might think. It always pays to check the level of moisture in the soil of the plant before watering. It’s like adding salt to your dinner before tasting. You have no idea whether it needs it or not. So before watering your plant, just stick your finger two inches into the soil of the plant if the soil feels wet, leave it another few days and check again. If you’re repeatedly watering your plant when it already has enough water, then you are overwatering your plant and this will lead to root rot on the plant and probably plant death. Don’t wait too long and put your plant through prolonged periods of drought as this will stress the plant out too.
Researching your plant will tell you whether it needs full sun, like a jade plant, or be kept out of direct light, like diphobacchias, whether it needs constantly moist soil, like calipers, or kept on the dry side, like most succulents, and whether or not they are hungry for nutrients, like allocations. Without this research, beginner plant owners make mistakes, like putting peace lilies on a south-facing window where they get blasted by direct sun all day. If you do this, then you won’t have a plant for long. Use Google Lens to identify your plant through pictures to get a full understanding of the care requirements for the plants you won’t regret it. Pests can be a real houseplant killer. Pest wasn’t something I was aware of when I was just beginning my houseplant collection journey.
And I’m pretty sure most houseplant beginners would say the same. But it’s something plant experts monitor regularly to keep their plants healthy. assumption here may be that bugs can only live outside and how can they possibly get into the plants in our homes? Well, let me tell you that bugs are crafty little buggers and get into our plants in various ways. For example, spider mites are often on the plants we buy from the nursery and unknowingly bring them into our homes. This is because they are so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye. Only their very fine webbing can be identified with very careful examination. So I experienced this recently in Ikea. I was just about to purchase a Ficus Audrey only to find webbing on the soil line and lower stems of the plant.
I avoided buying the plant. Spider mites and other sap-sucking insects damage the leaves of the plants and if left unchecked, can kill a plant as the population continues to grow and take over the plant. So check your plants over periodically for bugs and act straight away if you see something suspicious. This next tip might sound a little counterintuitive, but it’s one that plant experts do, and that is to not fuss over your plants. Fussing over your plants includes moving them around your home constantly, watering when not needed, constantly pruning stems, and fertilizing too often. When I first got into house plant collecting I was pretty excited, and this resulted in me fussing over my plants and having the constant need to do something to look after them.
I thought then if I wasn’t doing something to my plants then I wasn’t looking after them correctly. Which is completely flawed thinking. Plants just want to be left alone much like you don’t want to sleep in a different bed every night. Plants like to be settled in their spot and will drop leaves if they are moved around your home too often. They don’t like to be watered and fertilized too much either. Pruning more than half your plant over a short period will stress your plant out. Much like you would get stressed if someone cut off all your hair and you ended up looking like me. So leave them to do their thing. Plant experts avoid putting their plants in full afternoon sun.
Tropical plants are surprisingly sensitive and will burn when put in the sun. Much like me and you would burn if we were put in the summer sun all day without sun cream. And plants don’t have access to factor 50 protection like we do. You may notice some fading of color of a couple of plants that you have on a west or south-facing windowsill, and this is the plant’s foliage burning from the sun. Now, most of our plants do hail from the tropics, but the key thing here is that most of them live near the forest floor of tropical rainforests, where they get dappled sun throughout the day because they’re overcrowded by much larger trees around them. This means they are not used to having hours of direct sun beaming on them and would become very unhappy.
Unless they are succulents, The rule of thumb is to keep your plants only in indirect sunlight. I have found that the morning sun is okay for my houseplants, but I do live in Sheffield where our climate means we don’t get intense heat from the sun during the day, even during the summer. So it depends on where you live. In my previous tip, I mentioned not pruning more than half your plant’s foliage, but don’t be mistaken. Your plant does benefit from some pruning. Just like you might benefit from a haircut every so often to tidy yourself up, our plants are the same. They need to tidy up to get rid of damaged leaves and stems and keep the plant free of mold and pests.
Air circulation is important for plants to prevent rot and mold on the stems and leaves of the plant. An overgrown plant with damaged leaves will be far more likely to develop problems than a plant that is trimmed and looks neat. Pruning also encourages stronger growth from the plant. which may sound counterintuitive. If we cut the stem of a jade plant, for example, two new shoots will sprout where we cut. And if we repeat this, we end up with a bushy jade plant with a nice thick trunk. I do talk about this more in my How to Prune a Jade Plant video that you can check out after this. This pruning trick will work for most houseplants where there is a stem that leaves grow out from, such as philodendrons, pothos,
monsteras, and tradescantias so don’t be scared to make cuts on the plant the stem will grow back. If you want to boost the growth of your plant with beautiful thick glossy growth then consider turning your kitchen scraps into free plant food. I regularly reuse the nutrient-rich cooking water from boiled vegetables, pasta, and rice for watering my plants. This acts as a light natural fertilizer for your plants and is a free way to give your plants a boost in nutrients. If you boil eggs every morning for breakfast, the water you have used will be filled with calcium which will do wonders for your plants. So don’t throw it out. Keep it, let it cool down, and use the water when your plants need to be watered.
The great thing here is that you are giving your plants nutrients without the risk of over-fertilizing your plants and burning the roots because you are using an entirely natural homemade fertilizer. rather than giving your plants the harsh chemicals found in commercial inorganic fertilizers. All of the tips I’ve mentioned here would count for nothing if you didn’t know how to spot why your houseplant has stopped growing.
