I Wish I Knew These Plant Tips 6 Years Ago

These are houseplant care tips I had to learn the hard way! Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and avoid the headaches and hardships! Houseplants can be very fun and rewarding as long as you take these houseplant care tips into consideration.

These are amazon affiliate links, they don't change the price, however after clicking them if you buy literally anything from amazon I get a small kickback. It really helps the channel!

Barrina Grow Lights White/Pink

Sansi Grow Bulb

Sprayer

Perlite

Maxsea

Mosquito bits

Humidity/Temp Meter

Light Timer

[teuth]

i like those people who post a plant problem on reddit and they obviously have thrips but then when you tell em, they get super defensive and deny it so hard lmao sometimes they even start the post with "i know it's not thrips, what is it" and it's fkin thrips every time

[ShadowsEcho]

So you don't quarantine new plants huh?

... I, too, like to live dangerously. 😎

[SanSteigen]

I know it's only a pothos, but I flinched a little when you ruthlessly chopped it.

[kat-jones-art]

Pricing patience is so so so important! Over the weekend I picked up a Pink Princess (2 growths with multiple leaves each) for $24.99. It was my first actual *holy fruck* moment.

[mamaj]

I had a fungus gnat investation, I used Dunks Bits. I bought pantyhose tied the correct amount on the bag, tied off the leg I had cut off with the bits in it and soaked in the watering can for the prescribed time, then watered my plants. The ingredient kills the larvae in the soil and it cleared up quickly. A water meter also helped me greatly with watering.

[hunterw]

to new plant people, my top recommendation is always practicing patience by taking time to really understand your recently purchased plants before buying any new ones.

quarantining, preliminarily pest-treating, and getting a handle on watering needs to make sure your plant isn’t declining within the first couple weeks of bringing it home will save you _so much_ hassle and stress in the long run.

[expertmax]

I collect philodendrons and I really like them because I have good experience keeping them alive! Soil is dry? Water, bingo!

[mhill]

Predatory bugs are great at dealing with pests. I used to be like “why would I add more bugs” but it’s such a good way to deal with them.

[aplantprocess]

Great advice.

I would add that it’s a good idea to stop buying or taking in plants before your space is overfilling because plants grow (or at least that’s the goal 😂).

[beckypackqualls]

This video should absolutely be a FIRST WATCH for newbies!! I certainly do wish I’d seen all this exact info in 2020, so- 3 + years ago.

[christmassnow]

I live in a relatively warm Mediterranean climate (which is good for exotic plants and unfortunately their pests as well...). My plants grow outside year-round although I dedicate protected areas based on the plant's needs. The plants comprise fruit trees, tropicals (mostly aroids) under the trees to fill the gaps, Hoyas and succulents. Few years ago, my Haworthias fell victims to scales which have reduced my collection from more than 50 Haworthias to just four. They were immuned to pesticides and starting over from cleaned cuttings did not help at all. That is how I switched to the tropical plants. However, after much observation, I noticed that cuttings I planted in small pots with mineral-based medium (no peat if possible), exposed to some direct sunlight grew tougher and that even allowed me to expand my collection once again. My Haworthia collection is growing and only the weakest plants don't make it. Now my garden features the Haworthias in the best lit areas along with my tropicals, fruit trees and all others.

[AntoninJezek]

Learning about systemics was a game changer. As long as your plant isn't outside, it shouldn't be a problem, and it takes care of most pest problems.

[SaskiaSketches]

Glad to report I knew/do the vast majority of these! Makes me feel better, I try so hard😭. My fussing has both saved and killed plants oops. I usually catch problems like pests very early and before they can get out of hand, but just the other week I noticed a small adansonii of mine wasn't doing well so I moved it around a bunch to find a better spot for it and repotted it, and it's sadly still deteriorating. Leaving it completely alone for now to see what happens! If worse comes to worst I'll chop and prop. The funny thing was that I remembered you saying something akin to this in other videos as it wasn't getting better and I had a moment of "Wait... I'm not helping, am I?" lol

[xenidus]

Instead of perspirate, the plant term is "evapotranspiration" so you can say transpirate instead.

[rebeccascotland]

Thanks for all of the info. I’m still new to houseplants, and making my fair share of mistakes. It’s unfortunate that I live about 100 yards from a Home Depot, because it means I have to resist the urge to constantly buy new plants. However, I’ve been making lots of mistakes with pothos cuttings, though, and I have to say, if I’m going to mess up cuttings, that’s the one to learn from. It’s a beautiful plant, but low cost and still has enough vines growing for me to chop and make mistakes on. I’m planning to learn enough from my pothos that I can risk experiments on other plants. (I have multiple other plants growing, but I’m not cutting them until I have more experience.)

[Rayra]

Fantastic video advice!

My two cents for the suggestion pool is to keep a box of Nitrile gloves when you have toxic plants.

In my "growing pains" haha I bought some Alocasia Borneo Giant trunk chunks and they later developed rot. In my panic and trying to clean the rot from one of the trunks, I started feeling sick. Thankfully it didn't get too bad but I definitely make sure to wear them now when handling stuff like that. When I have forgotten, it just takes the scent of an angry Alocasia to quickly remind me. 😂

Reassurance I have for someone just starting out is that it takes time to figure out what soil (or soilless) and amendments works for you and your environment.

Give yourself grace and don't give up when the failures happen. The successes will come. The plant community is awesome and the people generally are more than willing to help.

[MoDavison]

I've learned all this the hard way too 😅 Now everyone gets a 10 to 14 day quarantine, then an insectisidal soap bath and a new pot. Works well!

[bqgin]

I found out 2 week quarantine is too short, most problems start between 1st and 2nd MONTH. Idk maybe it's just my climate but I found the same with aquarium fish.

[elmerbaez]

I Love Your Videos!!! I need a basement so I can have a bigger collection. Thank You!!

[luisespinal]

I've had scale on a lot of cacti. I think a lot of people wouldn't know until it's far too gone. That said, the same thing happened to me the first time I found thrips - I kept wondering what all those tiny bugs were until plants in different rooms started dying at the same time. Probably half of my plants died but it's just an opportunity to start again...