-
- Articles
Index : Container Plants & Patio Gardening
-
-
- 22. Pep Up Your House Plants - Top
- Winter takes it's toll on house plants. The drying effect of home heating combined with shorter days and lower light intensity causes plants to turn pale and puny. Now is the time to bring them out of their winter doldrums with some T.L.C.
Shorter days and reduced light intensity means your plants may not be getting enough light. This is especially true for those plants that are growing in a north or east facing window. Last summer and fall the light in these locations may have been adequate, but now may be lacking. Plants that aren't getting enough light grow tall and spindly, with smaller than normal leaves. Leaves may also turn yellow and drop.
Increase the amount of light by repositioning your plants where they receive more natural light. This may mean moving plants to a south facing window. Just be certain not to overexpose them to direct sunlight. Plants that have been growing in low light areas may burn with too much direct sun. Set plants back from south facing windows, or partially block direct sun with shear curtains.
Artificial light can also be used to supplement natural light for your plants. Any light will do. Even setting plants by a table lamp for a few hours each evening will help. Don't put plants too, close to incandescent lights. The heat these give off may damage plants. Fluorescent lights work well, but need to be placed within a few feet of the plants to provide enough light intensity. The best combination of artificial light to duplicate natural light is a combination of one cool white and one warm white fluorescent tube in a single fixture.
A simple way to provide your plants more light is to keep the leaves free of dust. It's surprising how much light can actually be blocked by dust on the leaf surface. Washing leaves with a mild soap solution works very well in removing dust and soil. Leaf shine can also be applied after the leaves are cleaned. Not only will it make your plants look better, but the wax reduces the amount of dust adhering to the leaf surface.
Salts from water and fertilizers tend to build up over time and can be damaging to plants. Signs of salt injury include a browning or blackening of the leaf tips and margins. Pots which have a white crusty layer of salt should be discarded and the plants repotted. Excess salts should also be flushed out of the soil. To do this, wet the soil thoroughly to help dissolve the salts in the soil. After a few hours, water repeatedly with large amounts of water. This will wash the dissolved excess salts out of the soil. If pots do not have drainage holes, then it will be necessary to repot them in containers with drainage holes in order to flush out the salts.
If plants are pot-bound, they should be "stepped up" to the next largest size container. To determine if a plant is pot-bound, slide a knife down the inside edge of the pot. If it is difficult or impossible to push the knife down, this indicates a thick mass of roots have grown to the edge of the container. After carefully removing the root ball from the pot, roots circling the outside of the root ball should be cut off with a sharp knife or hand pruners.
Groom plants to remove dead or dying leaves. Use a sharp knife or hand pruners to remove the entire leaf close to the stem. Brown tips on leaves may simply be snipped off. Never tear leaves from the plant. This could result in injury to the stem.
Finally to get your plants off to a good start, apply some soluble plant fertilizer. Flowering plants will benefit from using a fertilizer higher in phosphorous and potassium. Foliage plants will benefit most from a fertilizer higher in nitrogen. Don't over fertilize! When in doubt, use less, not more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona 626-5161. Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on Febrary 9, 1997
- Updated: April 20, 2001
-
-
[e-Mail me
the Articles] - [Search
the Articles]
-
|
