Proper Steps to Healthy House Plants

Kent Higgins

Pests aren't really all that common of a problem for the average home gardener. Most of the time, if an amateur gardener's plants aren't healthy, it is due to neglect or improper living conditions, not pests or diseases. Pests sometimes can be a problem though, so you shouldn't forget about them completely. It would be a shame for your favorite plant to die because you forgot to think about those potential problems.

With proper care and precautions, harmful insects should never be able to get into your house to get to the plants in the first place. You need to be extra careful when you bring new plants into your home from a store, or even from your garden. You need to check the plant and soil over very carefully, and then wash it, and check it one more time. By inspecting and cleaning the plant, you can save lots of problems in the future, for the plant you bring in and all of your other plants even the ( http://www.plant-care.com/peace-lily-spathiphyllum.html ) peace lily.

An additional step you can take to prevent pests and disease is to vigorously spray your plant once a week. To avoid making a mess, doing this in a bathtub or sink is ideal. Unless you have a hairy leaved plant, the leaves should be sprayed with room temperature water, completely drenching both sides of the leaves. Doing this will give the foliage the moisture it needs to be healthy, while at the same time washing off insects that may be attacking it.

Diseases

When you are trying to propagate plants, the seedlings are very prone to diseases. One of the most common is called "damping off." Damping off is a fungus, but you can lower the chances of it affecting your seedlings by using a sterilized starting mixture. It makes sense that by starting your plants in a disease free environment, you are giving them the best chance of a healthy life. If you notice that any of your seedlings have the disease, you must throw away those seedlings to keep the disease from spreading to the healthy plants.

So, most of all, you must take care of your plants by giving them proper water, drainage, moisture/humidity, temperature, fertilizer, etc. You need to study what the plants natural habitats are and try to provide those conditions for them. Along with this proper care, you need to remember the steps to prevent pests and diseases. You will be very likely to have healthy plants if you remember to do these things.