What is an indoor plant?
A houseplant is a plant grown indoors in places such as residences and offices, mainly for decorative purposes.
It requires a low amount of light and water to thrive, correct moisture, soil mixture, and humidity.
Studies have shown that they have physiological effects.
Soil
For preparing the indoor potting mix at home, first, you need garden soil. You can buy it from a nursery, or you can dig it up from any garden or field.
The second thing is cocopeat. It dried and compressed coconut fiber. To use it, you need to add a brick of cocopeat in 3 l water. After a minute, the water will soak.
The main job of cocopeat in the soil is to hold water. Now to prepare the potting mix, you need to mix just two things.
You can also add perlite to the soil. It helps in good drainage. For regular pot soil, you can skip it. It can be used for succulents.
You can visit this website- https://youtube.com/c/GardenUp to know in brief.
Light
Sunlight is the perfect balance of wavelengths necessary for plant growth and blooming. Too much light can eventually kill your plant.
The light intensity can produce increasingly severe damage to your plant.
Many plants prefer direct sunlight, for those placing a plant in a window might offer enough light.
But some houseplants will need supplementing from a grow light.
If you use a grow light, it's recommended that turning off the grow light at night. You should not leave rise light 24/7. Plants need a light-dark cycle to develop the property.
The most common signs of your plant are not getting enough light are the yellowing and dropping of leaves, stunted leaf growth, elongated stems, and dull green color.
If your plant is getting too much light, then its leaves will have signed tips, burned patches, or will be falling off.
Indoor plants with low-light requirements-
1. Lucky bamboo
2. Pothos
3. Heart-leaf philodendron
4. Silver pothos
5. Spider plants
6. Zz plant
7. Snake plant
8. Wax plant
9. Peace lily
10. Monstera etc.
Water
Most houseplants need to be watered every 1-3 weeks. You should monitor when they need it, rather than on a schedule.
You can gently stick your finger to see how dry it is.
For water needed plants, water when the surface is dry. For succulents and dried plants, water when most of the soil feels dry.
For tropical plants that thrive in humid environments, misting is excellent.
The frequency of watering will depend on the size and type of plant, pot, temperature, and growth rate.
Signs of under watering include leaf tips browing, leaves dropping, and wilting of the plant.
It is better to slightly underwater than to overwater with most plants because they can usually recover within a few hours after receiving water.
Low water houseplants are - Snake plant, Orchids, Spider plant, zz plant, Red Aglaonema.
Water lover indoor plants are - Philodendron, Lucky bamboo, Pothos, Dracaena.
Benefits of indoor plant
Multiple studies have proven that indoor plants keep you healthier and happier, offering both psychological and physical health benefits that include -
1. Improving your mood
2. Lowering stress and anxiety
3. Reducing fatigue
4. Improving office performance and focus
5. Boosting healing and pain tolerance
6. Improve air quality
Many houseplants absorb toxic substances such as formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene, which are found in artificial material known to 'off-gas' pollutants into the air.
In addition, a study was done at Virginia Tech Led Researchers to conclude that houseplants can reduce indoor dust by up to 20%.
NASA has done extensive studies of the role of houseplants.
NASA recommends having 15 -18 housepl5 for a 1,800 square-foot house. While not all of us have room for quite that many plants, even just a few can be effective.
Indoor plants improve air quality by releasing water vapor into the air, which increases humidity.
This can be an incredible benefit to those with respiratory issues, headaches, and allergies.
Plants also increase oxygen levels in the air by absorbing carbon-di-oxide and releasing oxygen during photosynthesis, which can improve our mood, energy, and mental focus.
So, make a solid connection to nature by bringing it into your immediate surroundings, and create yourself calmer, more content, and more focused. Thank you.
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