Taking Care Of Houseplants In Winter

 

Houseplants often bring a sense of ever so green vigor in our much gloomy homely surroundings.  It’s not just about aesthetics anymore; plants inside our house bring much elation in our homes in those cold days. However in absence of proper houseplant care, winter will stay true to its nature and suck the life out of your plants living them cold and lifeless.

Ok, let’s part away from the theatrics, shall we? Winter season has always been tough on living things, as the adverse conditions tend to have detrimental effects on plants. But, few plant care tips can certainly guarantee their survival and health.

The sunlight is something the plants will always need. Even with plant activities fall to a near hibernation levels in winter, a minimum of 6 hrs quota of proper sunlight must be ensured. Keep the plants near the most illuminated window, possibly facing south. Clean the windows regularly so the clear sunlight should not get obstructed.

Even thought the essential range of temperature at night may fall to 50-650F, care should be taken to keep the temperature above 500F.

In winter, the water requirement of plants falls heavily. This is even truer in case of cacti and the succulents. In such a scenario, over-watering the plants is always the most frequent oversight which can happens. The moisture levels of the soil could be monitored simply by inserting a finger in the same.

In case of cacti and succulents, the soils should be dried up to the levels of roots in order to demand further watering. The drainage within the pot should be ensured by the aperture at the bottom, failing of which can lead to flooding inside the pot and thus causing root-rot.

Plants need an optimal humidity of 40-50% in order to keep up with normal physiological processes. So, it is always imperative to ensure that plants are not kept near any hot spots such as near the radiator or the furnace. In winter, the heating systems in many homes tend to make the air dry, as the humidity levels can fall up to 10-20%. Employing a humidifier to spray mist of water on plants is the commonly used solution for this problem.  If the scenario are reversed that is in case of high humidity, a dehumidifier may spring into action.

Adding fertilizers is task that could be left out in winter entirely, as the decreased growth processes in plants requires quite none of it in winter. As the winter feds, plants can be put on the resumed schedule of fertilizers nevertheless.

One thing which is often ignored and sidelined often is the cleaning of plants. For healthy plants, it is crucial that they absorb essential gases and water form air continuously. With saturated dirt on plant leaves, the miniscule sized openings on them called as ‘stomata’ is often left non-functional. This problem can easily be solved by washing the plant leaves with soap water with the help of a sponge. Gentle touch is necessary here as to not harm the leaves physically. 

Keeping with the above tips has its merits as to keep your plants green and beautiful in winter, so that they can get through it without much hassle.

Indoor Flower Gardening - A Gardening Paradise

Growing plants, veggies and fruits indoors is as easy as dissolving salt in the butter. Indoor flower gardening is an art very few people understand since this requires a good level of expertise. The factors to care for include Ventilation, Soil PH, temperature, air, sunlight, nutrients and others. A well structured container is also a prerequisite since the absence of a proper base can make or mar the plant flowering process. 

Indoor flower gardening is a step by step process which requires a thorough precision. Any mess in a step can hamper the plant growth stage. Many people staying in urban cities opt for an Indoor garden to care at their leisure. Indoor flower garden is also a pleasure to the senses. Who doesn’t want to watch a beautiful sight after getting up in the mornings? It’s such a delight!

You can use Indoor flowers like Lilies, dahlias, African violets, orchids, Poinsettias, Bromeliads, desert cactus and so on but by my personal experience I just love to grow African violets and orchids since they really appeal to the senses with their fantastic contour and sizes.

Indoor flower garden is a necessity for those who are short of space and need an environmentally friendly environ which is pleasant to stay in. Indoor flower garden is not a complex task but if you understand the basics correctly then it’s just an icing on the cake. 

The factor to consider while creating an Indoor garden includes

• Ventilation
• Light
• Humidity
• A optimal temperature
• Optimal Soil PH
• Well balanced nutrient pack
• Proper base pot

Ventilation: The area where the flowers need to be grown should be properly chosen as it needs to be well ventilated. Proper air flow is necessary for giving life to the leaves and branches.  But don’t do it to the extreme as it can also result in wilting the leaves and buds.

Light: This is another prime factor when growing Indoor plants. For eg: African violets need good amount of sunlight. So these flower babies need to be kept at a strategic location to aid their growing process. Other flowers garden like Orchids, Lilies should be given moderate temperature. 

Humidity: A little amount of moisture is a must for hydrating the flower buds. Moisture is necessary in moderate amount since it provides nourishment to the buds and seedlings.

An Optimal temperature:  Well regulated temperature is a must for an indoor garden. Actually, this is the first step when selecting an indoor garden. Check the temperature periodically to see if it is properly maintained for that particular type of plant.

Optimal Soil PH: The alkanality of the soil medium also plays an important role in determining the success or failure of the plant growth. Optimal PH should be maintained when growing plants. 

Well balanced nutrient pack: Nutrients for blooming the plants are divided into many varieties. It may be water based solution culture called water nutrients, or bacteria resistant nutrient gels. Both offer good yields and bigger sizes for flowering as well as growth.

Base medium container: This may look as easy task but without a proper medium and well structured container all the hard work will go down the drain. Structured container means a well ventilated, porous and well aligned base which provides all the necessary parameters for plant growth. 

Now next time you think of planting a flower garden at your backyard you know where to look. You have all the knowledge at your disposal. 

So Happy Planting Year Ahead! 

Want to know more on gardening or need some expert tips just log in to 

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Planting Fruit Trees Indoors

In the countryside, often you’ll see gardens of fruits trees being maintained for generations. That’s the great thing about the fruit trees. Once you have worked your way through the initial phase, all you’ll do is to bear the fruits of a settled garden for rest your life.

So, what if one wants bear the fruits of the trees grown indoors? If you have a spacious sunroom or a conservatory, then you have an excellent opportunity to grow few indoor fruit trees.

Plants are often bought from nursery in bare-rooted forms, where the roots are completely devoid of soil and thus exposed altogether. One needs to keep sure, that the plants are transferred to garden as soon as possible or to be kept in most soil or sawdust till the actual time of plantation.

Though, most of the fruit trees do require a bright sunlight to grow, few such as Apricots and Peaches often crop earlier in cover. A minimum of 6 hrs of sunlight is crucial to maintain a healthy growth, although many varieties are available in market capable of growing in partial shade.

And there are the dwarf plants for those, who don’t have enough space indoors. Capable of growing in containers, Citrus is one the most popular fruit grown as such. There are quite a lot of varieties of other indoor plants to select from, which include Peaches, Nectarine, Apricots, Mulberry, Figs, grapes etc.

The soil is required for such a project, needs to be well drained, so as to prevent roots getting drowned in water. Compost is added many a times, but proper mixing fully decomposed compost with the soil is recommended. The composition of soil is expected to be light and airy and mixing perlite in it is often the answer suggested. During the growing cycle, many grower tend to remove the top layer of the soil and replace it with compost altogether.

Planting fruit trees is a task generally carried out at the end of the winter as late as first half the spring. So, before getting the plants from nursery, it is always logical to get your timing right.

However, the process of planting could be extended if conditions wouldn’t allow it. This is countered by placing the plants in moist soil for the extended period till the wait for better condition continues.
While planting, a hole of least one meter in diameter needs to be dug. If growing in containers, the required size of 10-15 gallons is often in order. Plants are to be planted keeping in sight the darker coloration consistent with levels of soil that were observed in nursery. So, plants should be kept 1-2 inch above the soil with the uppermost root offshoot going in the soil.

Stakes are often employed to provide support for growing young plant. Well-decomposed natural fertilizers such as Seaweed meal could be applied at this stage, while use of hemp mat has its merits in preventing growth of weed in surrounding ground.

Other plants from the surrounding should be taken care of, unless raised beds are what the desired plants are being grown on.

For the first year, water and nutrients requirements of the plants should be entertained with utmost care. Water should be provided once or twice in a week, as the requirement can be assessed with apparent dryness of soil up to 2-3 inch. Multipurpose fertilizers with high potassium content can provide the micronutrients requirement of the plants. But, these fertilizers are not generally applied until the plant has reached as height of few inches.

Heading is done to for a growing plant with a height of 18-24 inches, thus forcing the development of lower branch. This practice is a prevailing method in use for indoor fruit trees.  Removing the first blossom is another, where the growth of the plant in given the priority, especially in the first year.
In absence of natural pollination activity, paintbrushes are used to transfer pollen from blossom to blossom. Any kind of infestation or appearance of a disease symptom should be dealt with discretion and extreme prejudice.

Establishing the fruit trees in the first year is important, because in years to come all we need to do is little pruning and heading. It won’t be too difficult to imagine a regular availability of fruits in later years.

Few Important Tips for Indoor Gardening

Indoor gardening is an increasingly common trend these days, which has its own merits. Let it be for aesthetic reasons or in pursuit of a productive crop in case of professional; indoor gardening has own territory marked in some regions. This is particularly the case in areas where outdoor conditions are simply not ideal enough for a desired plant. Given the case, modern gardening techniques such as hydroponics has made a solid case for an indoor project for any plant, even for a small scale indoor flower gardening.

However, growing a plant outdoor is a tricky affair by itself. The majority of useful plant species such as flowers or vegetables could be traced back to a rather warmer environment. Introducing these crops in temperate conditions that of Europe and North America, by itself was an arduous task. However, selective breeding is an ingenious practice applied through centuries has led the development of varieties whose temperature demands are quite manageable.

If you are someone trying to grow few plants in the luxury of your home; some precautions remain imperative in order to get good results. Let me enlist some of these requirements for you, gardening tips as you may call them; if you are indeed an aspiring indoor gardener.

• Types of plants: Let’s be honest, you can’t have the one strain you been longing for, if it is completely incompatible for indoor conditions. However, variations of all sorts are still available to get you started. So, a little background check while buying the seeds or plants makes it a crucial step indeed.
• Soil: The idea that you can just transfer the soil from outsides has its flaws. Bug, insects and all sort of nasty creatures could inhabit that very soil and in turn can simply destroy your whole operation. Getting a potting soil from a nursery is always recommended, given that amount of clay in it falls in acceptable range.
   
• Air: A familiar problem in any indoor conditions is the non-circulating stagnant air. If it not possible to keep the windows open, employing fans is the easy way out. It is necessary to keep the air in constant motion to ensure healthy growth of any plant.
   
• Water: Though it is one of the basic demands for any plant, one may even improve it further by supplying water at room temperature. It is so easy to miscalculate the water requirement, but regular observation of moisture levels of soil helps to supply the needed amount.
   
• Sunlight: Now if you have ample amount of sunlight in your house, this issue won’t matter much. However, rotating the plants at regular interval is something you can do in natural sunlight. This practice has its roots in the tendency of plants to reach out at the angle of sunlight, thus making it inclined in structure.
  
  In absence of sunlight, artificial grow lights could make their way into your setup. LED lamps are frequently used for the few plants grown with aesthetic inclination. The bigger picture however demands the presence of better illumination, thus making the way for High Density Discharge (HID) lights.
   
• Fertilizers: The drainage aperture in the pots allows the water to flow outwards, thus leaching the nutrients with them. Therefore, the replenishment of the same through fertilizers tends to mollify this scenario. Times releasing nutrient formulas are there for those with very less time to look after their plants.
   
• Temperature: The optimal temperature range one needs to observe for any plant falls in 70F-75F. Daytime temperature above 95F or the same below 62F may ultimately stunt the growth process in plants. Use of air conditioning units do work in favor of plants in general.
   
• Maintaining a Record: Keeping the log of spectrum of regimen applied on you plants, will certainly help you to monitor the efficacy of your inputs.

With little work and much care, an individual can certainly attain desired result for self, may it be an entire crop in a big grow room or a simple flowering plant in the living room.

6 Commandments to maximize your Yield using Hydroponics!

What is it that all hydroponic growers want in common?

Bigger yield and Faster harvest. Now this isn’t a piece of cake. Bigger yields and faster harvests not only take sheer hard work but also the right equipment and careful consideration of your specific situation. Get the right hydroponics tips; and I can bet any grower can enjoy amazing returns harvest after harvest.

First commandment: Always maintain a grower's journal – Trust me I have tried gardening hydroponically without a grower’s journal and it can be exceedingly difficult to keep track of all the variables that go in your hydroponic systems. Now when you decide to change the results to improve weaker plants or a get a bigger yields, it can be a daunting task to exactly find out what made your plants change. The Grower’s Journal comes into play here. It will allow you to track every change in nutrients, watering, pH level, lights, as well as record on how your plants are faring on a day-to-day basis. You can use this data to pin point what factors are helping your plants. Over a period of time, you can tweak all the factors major or minor that go into your grow.

Second Commandment: Avoid too much or Too Little Water – The second commandment here is one of the most valuable hydroponics tips you may ever hear. If you use too much water, your roots will rot. If you use too little, your roots will dry out. You need to very careful with adjustments here to achieve optimum hydration. Monitor the leaves of your plants before and after each watering. If your plants appear to perk up after a watering, water more often. If your plants appear to wither shortly after a watering, water less often.

Third Commandment: Make fair Use of Your Pruning Shears -Whenever you see a leaf or stem that appears futile or rotting, prune it off. Anything you see that appears to be robbing expensive energy and nutrients from the rest of the healthy plant is a waste. The "cleaner" you can make each individual plant, the bigger your yields will be.

Fourth Commandment: Bulls eye on your Nutrient Solution Temperature – Research suggests almost 72% of hydroponic growers ignore this. Try and maintain the temperature of your nutrient solution in between sixty-five and seventy five degrees Fahrenheit. Anything above or below this temperature will slay your plants gradually.

Fifth Commandment:  Make Investments in Plant Stimulant or High Quality Fertilizer – Just purchasing ordinary energy solutions from your local store isn’t going to give you vast yields. What you really need is a plant stimulant that is designed specifically for hydroponic growing. Always ensure the fertilizer you purchase comes from a reputable hydroponic retailer. 

Sixth Commandment: Choose CO2 generators with utmost care - Always use CO2 generators with your hydroponic system if you a qualified gardener that knows what he or she is doing. Yes, it is true that this method can dramatically increase yields, but it can also kill your crop if done sloppily. When using a CO2 generator, it is important to increase the amount of light and nutrients your plants are receiving as well. You should also measure your atmosphere conditions very carefully. Most plants can use up to 1500 parts per million, assuming all other conditions are optimized. If your CO2 levels reach or exceed 2000 parts per million, your plants most certainly are going to die. So whenever you hear hydroponics tips regarding carbon dioxide levels, make sure it is backed up by plenty of research.

Happy Gardening!

Taking Care of Your Houseplants

Many of us just cannot help getting some beautiful flowering plants in our home. But it’s not just flowers; also there are different varieties that have found home beside us. These plants not just gives hint of natural beauty to our homes, but they often complements that perpetual nurturing instinct in each and every one of us.

May be tucked into a corner of the living room or settled in an elaborate construction with a personal aesthetic choice for some; plants makes up a part of our home.  So, some level of houseplant care is mandatory to keep them intact and more appealing.

Following are few gardening tips to ensure healthy growth of any indoor plants and to prevent any undesired effects on the same.

Compatibility: Before getting a plant, it is necessary to do some homework. The choice of plants not only depends on the surroundings it demands, but also the time you can offer in order to maintain it. So, a beautiful flowering plant may looks pleasing, but may soon turn gloomy if those needful monitoring duties in houseplant care were not observed.

Water: The most commonly found reason for an indoor plant dying is established to be over-watering. Even when, the pot is equipped with a drainage hole allowing through it all the excess run-off; more than generous watering efforts can put any plant into jeopardy.

The water demand of a plant may simply be understood by inserting your finger into the soil. The moisture level in soil can very well express the water needs of a plants, as dryness of soil lets you know that it’s time to pour some water.

Light: Although light is the principle source of energy for plants, the amount of light plants should be exposed to, is an important factor. Depending on the species and variety, light requirement of every plant is different and so does the period of exposure, thus shaping the directives of typical houseplant care. Some plants such as with variegated foliage need more light than many flowering plants. According to the plants needs, setup the ideal position for a plant close to bright sunlight and follow a light cycle recommended for the same.
Use of artificial lights such as LED or HID bulbs may come in handy, if your house is not illuminated enough.

Fertilizer: Regular regimen of fertilizers should be kept on schedule. As most of the available fertilizers are developed for flowering plants, thus they have rather low levels of Nitrogen. Identify the products which provide similar proportions of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as in 10:10:10.
Plants are to be fed with fertilizers once in a week, the amount which is to be further decreased in winter i.e. once in a month. Use of water soluble products are commonly used, however use of slow- release granules and fertilizers spikes is not uncommon either.

Humidity: As many of popular plants are often tropical nature, they require humidity of 50-60% in general scenario. At winter, conditions even get more difficult due to introductions of furnace or heater at home, making the air much drier. Hand-held spray can certainly help to maintain required amount of humidity, something which can be further enhanced with grouping the plants on a tray of damp gravel.

Maintenance:  Regular monitoring supported grooming exercises helps to keep the plants healthy and beautiful. Pruning will help a plant become bushier and fuller, as trimming can remove those wayward branches. Deadheading often carried out to remove dead flowers, so as to divert the bit of energy from seed development to further growth.

Pests and diseases: In case, any symptoms such a tuft of white fluffs, presence of tiny bugs or yellow speckling are observed, the affected part should be removed and mist to be applied around  the given region. This prevents any further progress of pests and diseases and thus further damage.

Regular monitoring and proper track of important factors should help anyone to develop some beautiful looking plants in any indoor conditions.

Benefits of Aeroponics as an Indoor Gardening System

Primarily considered as a hobby before 90s, Aeroponics has quickly grown to become the flagship of modern farming techniques. The idea of soil-free farming has always found its takers, as conditions and cost have often compelled us to seek out the new ideas.

Being from the similar background of soil-free rearing of plants, Aeroponics takes one step further by eliminating the need for any medium whatsoever. Aeroponics system often consists of plants supported on channels with their roots dangling midair for the whole time.

So, when in hydroponics, the nutrients are supplied to the plants thorough water acting as a reservoir, Aeroponics just takes out the middleman entirely. The nutrients are directly sprayed onto the roots of the growing plants dangling in form of an atomized mist sprayed with much high pressure.

So, here we’ll discuss the benefits of employing the Aeroponics system for gardening, by citing the some basic differences that separate the same from the conventional hydroponics.

Better Results

As the plant roots directly receive the nutrients in atomized form, the uptake for the same certainly is faster. Also, since every spray of nutrients is separated with intermittent time gap, the oxygen intake of the plants is much more. This not only accelerates the growth of the plants, the roots even spread out seeking more air and speeding the vegetative growth altogether.

Aeroponics is the most advanced method of farming, which takes the whole ‘accountability to every input’ idea to a entirely new level. As with the absence of any growth medium and thus resultant spatial availability issues , the plant are no more deprived from any  amount of nutrients and oxygen.

Efficient Resource Management

Three crucial factors are to be considered here. Water, nutrients and air, these are the factors which were primarily targeted in the first place with the advent of aeroponics. 

No system of any kind in modern farming provides such efficient use of water. As the nutrients solution is directly sprayed on to the roots, the water requirement is much less. This is in lieu of fact that water is no longer acting as the medium, but instead as to transmit the nutrients to the roots directly. Thus the total water requirement can be maintained up to 1/20^th of the amount that is used in conventional methods.

With no medium to dilute the possibility of uptake by roots, the nutrients requirement in an aeroponics system can be tuned much more closely. As the maximum amount of nutrient supplies taken by roots, the total nutrients input in the system decreases even further. Nutrients are can be now supplied evenly throughout the crop, thus eliminating the randomized effect that a growth medium has in this respect

In hydroponics or any other method, the supply of air is managed thought the medium itself, which in turn leads to uneven distribution. So, now we have dangling roots in constant supply of air i.e. oxygen and CO_2, making the equipments such as aerators more or less redundant.

Economical

Aeroponics systems are generally built with few commonly found or even recycled materials. A readymade setup is also available if one is looking for an aesthetically pleasant structure. Tubes, buckets are often used in a modular structure to build an efficient system.

Money is also saved in maintenance of the system with a nutrients solution of 700-900 ppm is found to be quite adequate for a typical scenario. A simple water pump giving out 60 psi worth of pressure can be used to provide the required atomized mist. 

Disease-Free Conditions

With a constant supply of fresh air and absence of a medium which may act as a shelter, pathogens are less of a problem in any Aeroponics system. Not only the excess oxygen keeps the anaerobic bacteria at bay, removal of affected plant part is much easier. 

Mobility

An aeroponics system offers a certain ease when it comes to moving the entire crop from one place to another.

Changes in the Regimen

Any kind of change in the nutrient input is much economical if not easier, as the plants do not need to be flushed altogether. This gives a grower certain freedom so as to manage the crop more efficiently

The benefits which are listed above presents a better scenario for any grower in order to procure the maximum yield with best of the quality.