Gardening

Overwatering is one of the most often causes of plants death

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Watering flowersIf you take measures immediately, it is often the case that even overwatering mistakes can be corrected.
Overwatering on a regular basis is stressful for the plants, thus they become more vulnerable to diseases and parasites, and they loose a good deal of their recovery capacity. Water is the foundation of the plant’s cell walls.  And the constant change of its amount is a premise of the plant’s life decay. When overwatering crosses certain boundaries, the plant wilts conclusively and from then on there is no way to save it. However, if you still see hope give your best to define the nature of the problem and move the pot to a warmer and lighter place, cut down on watering and increase the air’s humidity.

Excessive moisture

Many novice florists experience difficulties in deciding on the healthy amount of water needed by the plant or they just leave their pots immersed in water. The roots need equal amount of water and air, which is why excess in one of the elements at the expense of the other, harms the whole vegetative system. At the end, the roots rot, the plant stops growing and it dies. It is usually hard to pin down the problem if your pots are plastic. With clay pots on the other hand, you can easily spot that green moss has formed on the pot’s outer wall, when the plant has been over watered. Even water-loving plants like the Dracaene and the Hypoestes react negatively to damp soil and hate being saturated in water.

What can you do to save your plants?

If it is your first time trying to “save” water-saturated plants, try the following classic method: gently take your plant out of the pot and if there is any sign of mold, wash and disinfect the pot and then leave it aside to dry out in fresh air. Place the plant horizontally (in most cases, the superfluous fluid is most easily poured out if the plant is put on one side, rather than from top to bottom) on a piece of absorbing material (cooking paper is very appropriate), which needs to be replaced when it gets damp.

Natural process:

Do not think about squeezing the water out of the root system because most probably you will harm it even more. As always, in these cases too, you should allow nature to deal with this on Its own. Just leave the plant to dry out for the night, ensuring that it is placed away from cold, excessive heat , draught, or light.

Follow-up

Before putting the plant back in its pot, check its root system for signs of life – the healthy roots are usually white in the middle. Carefully examine it for parasites or other disease symptoms, so that you can get rid of them too, now that you are done with the over watering problem. Before launching a healing procedure, give the plant some time to recover from the excessive watering.

How to water your plants from now on?

If you are not absolutely sure how much water does your plant require, refer to the instructions in its Passport and do not forget that every type of soil is different too and it has its own needs in this sense. Peat, for example, requires a lot of care, if you over water it even slightly, it becomes saturated in no time. That is why it is most appropriate to stick to the good old “a little but often” approach when it comes to watering.

  • One of the most common mistakes is to place the pot in a plate pad full of water.
  • The plant can be saved many times given that the pot is being properly washed up and disinfected.
  • For the root system to dry out completely, you should place the plant on some sort of water-absorbing material.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the green patina that forms on the outside of the clay pots is actually a sign of saturation of the soil, not of the excessive atmospheric humidity.

Winter indoor gardening tips

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Various FlowersDuring the colder autumn and winter months, the gloomy sky and the short days are more. They are not favorable to the indoor plants.

Herbaceous plants suffer the most since they rot easily if water falls on their leaves during irrigation. The tubers of the cyclamen can also rot easily if we do not pay much attention to the irrigation. The trickle of water should be directed not towards the tubers but towards the surface of the soil in the very edge of the pot or should be watered in the saucer. The constantly working heating makes the air in the room very dry. Therefore you should regularly wash with warm water and a sponge the leaves of the palms and the other decorative plants. The regular spraying is always helpful. All kinds of parasites should be destroyed immediately after being spotted.

Clean the Pachysandra

Most of the perennial plants stay on the terrace during the whole year. Now they pass in a period of rest. Cut the dead parts. Clean the evergreen pachysandra from the faded leaves. Thus the plant will not suffer from infectious diseases including those caused by parasitic fungi.

Secure peace for your flowers

Do not forget the blinds and the curtains in the gloomy days because this is extra weight for the plants. Every ray of light is valuable for them so they can settle down to rest.

Cut down the feeding of the indoor plants and stop it for those which are already at rest or have been recently transplanted in new pots.

Check the support of the plants. Strengthen or replace the support that has been broken trying not to damage the flowers themselves.

Secure the containers

The pot flowers placed in the warm rooms need fresh air. Until it gets cold ventilate the room a few times a day. Then the flowers will not suffer from any diseases caused by fungi.

In fairly shallow containers the soil freezes fast. That is why although the lime-tree, the maple and other cold-resistant miniature woody plants endure the cold they should be placed in containers in which you have put leaves if you leave them in the garden outside. You should make a hole for the unnecessary water to flow through.

Take care of your winter garden flowers

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winter gardenKeep an eye for plant pests.

The sooner you spot any aphids (plant louses) or white flies, the easier you will be able to cope with them. For example, in order to restrict the white fly multiplication, you could make traps out of cardboard that is covered with a layer of special sticky substance. Constantly check under the leaves, where pests usually live. And if you look at the leaves under magnifying glass and spot aphids, declare war on them immediately.

Regular ventilation

On sunny days the air in the winter garden warms up very fast. The difference in day and night temperature could go up to 20C (68F) degrees. That has a damaging effect on the plants. To provide a relatively constant temperature, ventilate the room regularly.

Watering the plants

When there are many changes in the temperature, the plants could either require more water than usual, or less. So, water your plants carefully, without “drowning” them. If temperatures in the winter garden decrease, moisture will be retained in the soil. You should not, however, go into the other extreme – to watering your plants rarely with small amounts of water, because in this case they will dry out.

Go for the golden mean

In winter gardens without a ground heating system, cold air lingers near the ground. That could damage young and sensitive plants. So, take some small pots and place them high above the ground on some shelves or tables. If your winter garden has a heating system, then many of the plants will continue to grow. An evidence for this would be the appearance of many new leaves and buds. Such developing plants should receive nutrients every other week. For this purpose you can use fast-acting fertilizers.

Protect your exotic flowers during the cold winter

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WinterThe temperature that each plant can endure depends on its most sensitive part – the root. When plants are in a flower pot, they are protected by far less soils then in the ground. That’s why they are more sensitive towards low temperatures.

In any warmer place, flowers and plants can live through the winter by just being covered with a heat insulating material, in the corner of the garden. However, in colder places, plants and especially flowers need to be placed inside. Many of them that change leaves can endure winter in a darker room, so they could be moved in the basement. For evergreen plants the most suitable place is a cool room or a greenhouse, where a heating system could be turned on during cold periods.

Should you keep your flowers in a dark or well lit room during winter?

Many people ask themselves this question when it is time to get the flower pots inside. To answer this question, however, is not that easy. All evergreen plants that keep their leaves throughout the year need to spend the winter on the most well lit place possible, and plants that change leaves every season could go into less lit places.

Important: Complete darkness is not the ideal factor for any plant during winter, since such extreme conditions do not exist in real nature.

That’s why in a room with no windows there should necessary be some light source (such as a lamp for plants).

These simple rules, however, are not universal. The problem is that there are certain plants accustomed to certain climatic conditions and they can keep their greenery during winter under some conditions, and lose it under other conditions. Such plants are the cestrum, banana and the bougainvillea. During winter months, these plants need to be placed in a well-lit spot, preferably next to a window.

The next exception to the rule are the evergreen plants such as Nerium oleander, agapanthus and Laurus nobilis, which can live without a lot of light in winter, but the leaves will fall from their twigs and during the next season, these plants will bloom much later than usual. That is why they need light during winter months.

Image resources:

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=18223&picture=first-winter-snow

How to save money on mulch

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MulchSaving money off of your garden is not just fiction. Let us introduce to you a clever way to save your money, by using the following easy steps. In this article you will read on how to save on mulch.

1. Use mulch

Using mulch for your garden is in itself an economizing tool. A layer of mulch helps to keep moisture in the soil, so you do not need to water it that often. Over time organic mulch is decomposed and thus improves the soil’s quality. So, you save money on fertilizers. Apart from that mulch keeps weeds from growing so you save on herbicides.

2. Make use of old newspapers

Instead of spending money on a new synthetic net, spread about 24 sheets from a newspaper over your flower bed, sprinkle them with water and cover them with a thin layer of soil or mulch.

3. Collect the leaves fallen on the ground

There is no need to pay someone to dispose of your dead leaves. Instead, leave them there, get the lawn mower and shred them to little pieces. This will produce a home made mulch or a good material for compost making.

4. Get mulch delivered

Many companies in the timber industry and some processing enterprises give away their waste products such as shavings for free. You just need to go and ask for it. And you should know that wooden shavings make a great material for mulching garden paths. Additionally, shavings absorb nitrogen from the soil. That’s why when you sprinkle them around the trees, you could add some fertilizer in the mixture. Shavings are a good material for compost as well.

5. Collect little pieces of tree rind

Go to the nearest wood workshop and ask if they have any tree rinds they do not need. Only, make sure it is not a walnut rind, since it can harm your favourite plants.

6. Buy wholesale mulch

When buying mulch that way, you can save a lot of money. Sometimes the discount goes as high as 50%.

Image resources:

http://www.moremulch.com/mulch.htm