10 MUST-do's for your New Plants! | Plant Care 101

hi guys it's judy again welcome back to my youtube channel and thank you for watching today's video in today's video i'm going to be talking about 10 must do's for your brand new plants when you bring them home so let's go [Music] so i have talked about some things that you should look for in brand new plants when purchasing and if you want to watch that video i'm going to leave it linked up here and down below but now i want to talk about the next thing to do the next things to do with your new plants when you bring them home i've been selling a lot of brand new plants from my shop recently and these are tips that i repeat over and over and over to a lot of my customers and just general advice that i give to a lot of people so i thought it'd be great to make a video about it so the first thing that you should do when you bring your new plant babies home is check over the leaves now this is something that you should do when you're purchasing as well but this is something that you could also do when you bring it home so this is just another check over of the leaves remove any dead foliage that might be there any dead or damaged foliage it's just giving it a little bit of a groom over and and taking off any dead foliage means that you're taking off any potential hiding spots for pests to hide in or to regenerate in or to uh what's the word to repopulate in i don't think that's the right word i'm looking for but yeah take off any dead and damaged leaves so this is a red uh not real red velvet it is a green velvet syngonium wendell and ti i think the scientific name for it is if you want to be specific about that kind of thing so this is just one that i've brought in from the shop it was several different little 100 ml pots that weren't selling so what i did was i repotted them all into one large pot here and i think i'm just going to keep it for myself because it wasn't selling so i repotted this yesterday and i've just brought it inside so now what i'm going to do and i did this as well when i was repotting but what i'm gonna do is take off any dead and damaged leaves so i'm just gonna pick all of those off and like i said before that removes any space or any place for bacteria or pests or fungus or any kind or just anything to grow plus you're also grooming your plant you are making it look a lot more nice and aesthetic for your space it's crazy what removing any dead or damaged foliage will do for your plant it just gives it a little pick up gives it a little groom and just ensures that your plant is looking the absolute best that it can be so that's the first thing these aren't all like in order of importance it's just 10 things that you should do with your new plants when you bring them home so often as well with new plants we'll find that most of the dead or dying off leaves will be at the base of the plant because that's where the older leaves are and the newer leaves at the top are generally the ones that will look the prettiest so always check at the base or the bottom of the plant there might be some old foliage dying off at the base there just make sure that you pick those out okay number two is check the soil of your plant now i don't usually recommend repotting your plants straight away but there are some exceptions where i will say it's okay to repot your plant but do it in the most gentle and careful way possible and i'll talk about repotting later on as well so the second thing is to check the soil of your plant just have a look have a little poke through and have a look make sure that there aren't any fungus gnats in that soil often a lot of places where you'll go the people who keep their plant stock might over water their plants or even plants might come with fungus gnats from the grow house so often if you squeeze a pot like this you'll see little fungus gnats fly out if you do see that make sure that you pop your plant away from your other plants so that they don't spread the fungus nets to your other plants so just check through the soil have a look through make sure that there aren't any other insects crawling through there and this is something that you should be checking when you're buying it as well but yeah when you take it home sometimes you can be so excited at the nursery oh my gosh so many plants and you just buy them all without checking when you bring it home definitely check through your plant and make sure that there aren't any nasties in the soil also check the quality of the soil of the plant that you have maybe it needs repotting and i'll be talking about repotting your plant later on as well so yeah check the soil of your plant make sure it's okay make sure it's healthy while draining maybe it needs a little bit of a poke or an aeration sometimes soil can get really hard and compacted from sitting in a grow house or in a nursery for quite a while so just give it that little look over and make sure that everything is okay and as it should be number three the question is to water or not to water when you first get your plant if you buy plants from me from my shop here that i run from home more often than not you will get a plant that is sitting in a pot that is dry sometimes i'll water the day before i open but most often than not you'll get a plant that is sitting in a dry pot check through the new plant that you have purchased wherever you purchase it from and stick your finger in the soil if it's dry pop it in the shower and give it a really thorough water through if it's wet do not water your plant until it is dry it's a really basic rule whether it and it goes for existing plants that you already have or brand new plants that you have if the soil is dry give it a shower if it's wet let it dry out before you give it its first watering in your home often our first inclination for brand new plants and especially if you're just first starting to collect new plants often your first inclination is to give it a really good drink of water as soon as you get home regardless of whether or not the soil is dry i would just say hold off on that inclination i know it's you want to give your new your brand new plant some love but understand that over watering it can also kill your plant so just check the soil if it's wet let it dry if it's dry give it a good drink it's it's really basic rule of plant watering and this and the same goes for all plants and brand new plants that you've got okay another question that i get for brand new plants is do i need to fertilize this plant now for young plants like this often when they come from the grow houses or from the nursery or the supplier of the place that you brought it from will have some element of plant food within the substrate that they've planted there that they've planted their plants in so more often than not your plant is going to be okay left at least three or four months before you need to fertilize it especially if you're buying a plant that looks really beautiful and healthy chances are you probably don't need to fertilize it to play on the safe side i wouldn't recommend fertilizing your plant until you've had it for about three or four months and then when you do that use a either a slow release fertilizer that you can mix in through the soil or use a liquid fertilizer that is diluted down just follow the instructions on the back of the bottle of the liquid fertilizer that you choose to use often they will have instructions on how to use that fertilizer so when i get new plants i often hold back from fertilizing them because i don't know what kind of i don't know what kind of grow house or environment that they've come from i don't know what is actually already in the soil so i'll hold back from fertilizing for a few months until it's actually used to my space and i actually know the nature of the plant and i'll see if it's growing i'll see if it's slowed down growing and then once i've come to know the plant and understand the plant the needs and nature of it then i'll go ahead and give it some food okay number five spray the leaves down of your plant now this kind of goes hand in hand with watering and i harp on about this a lot but it's actually so important when you pop your plant in the shower to get watered use the shower head or just the shower coming down to wash the leaves of your plant this will knock off bugs this will knock off pests dust dirt anything on the leaves that will keep the leaves from absorbing light light is the plant's food and if the leaves are dirty it's not going to be able to absorb light very well so showering is one thing when i say spray the leaves down i'm talking about treating your plant growers are going to do their best to give you a nice healthy plant that does not have pests in them but there is no guarantee that you're not going to get a plant that doesn't have something maybe so it's up to you to give the plant the individual care that it needs so what i'm talking about here is grab a new plant for example this is a marble queen potos absolutely stunning variegation on the leaves isn't it beautiful so when i get a brand new plant i am going to give it a spray down of eco oil so i use a combination of eco oil and vitality plus now i've been using this for a very very long time my plants love it it keeps the leaves shiny and repels dust off the leaves and i use this for every time i water i give the plants a spray down regardless of whether or not they have pests it's just a pest management thing so when you shower your plants when you water them give them a spray down of some type of pest management thing i would recommend neem oil eco oil or a vitality plus and this is something that i do sell in my online store and in my physical store that i run here from my home i give them a really good spray down of vitality plus i've only just started using this in the last maybe six months and before that i was using eco oil and this works really great wonders as well but this has proven to be such an effective measure of eradicating spider mites thrips and fungus gnats it it works really really well so give your plants a good spray down of some type of pest management plan this is regardless of whether or not you see pests on your leaves it's just to give it a really good head start give it a really good chance at surviving and combating any pests that might be hiding or developing now i talk about pests whether you see them or not it's i say that because sometimes pests just come out of nowhere the other day i discovered that i had mealy bugs on one of my marantas and i don't know where it came from because i went through this whole process of of treating the plant taking it taking care of it spraying the leaves down and all that sometimes bugs just come out of nowhere and you just and it's just one of those realities no matter how much you take care of your plants and all that sometimes bugs just happen pests just happen it's a reality of having indoor plants and taking these measures with your brand new plants will ensure that you don't bring any other pests in with your existing collections okay the next tip is to isolate your brand new plant from your other plants now i know that it's really exciting to get a brand new plant and you just want to integrate it with your existing collection straight away and be like oh you'll be so pretty there you can sit there with your plant friends but i recommend putting your plant aside in a separate room or in a separate space from your other plants for at least a month or a few weeks at least so the life cycle of most pests is about two or three weeks so even though when you first get your plant you don't see any indication of pests on it there might be an egg or something in the plant that will hatch within those two or three weeks so it's really important to keep that plant aside from your other plants in case there is a pest in it that way it will present itself you can treat it without having to worry about that pest spreading to the leaves of your other plants i know it sounds lonely to isolate your plant we are all very familiar with the terms quarantine and isolation from the last two years that we have all gone through together but when it comes to plants it's a good thing it's it's a really i recommend isolating your plants for a few weeks at least okay number seven is acclimate your plant to the space now a lot of people have actually asked me what does that entail what does that mean it means when you have your brand new plant okay you you understand that this calathea for example it is tolerant of lower light it doesn't like bright direct light on its leaves it will go crispy up and dry it likes humidity it likes warmth all of these things think of the things that your plant needs and pop it in that space obviously in an isolated manner away from other plants pop it in that space and don't move it for at least a month two months and what this does for your plant is that it gives it a nice stable home to be in to live in to thrive and be like okay so this is my new home this is where i'm gonna grow and it will acclimate itself to that space the opposite of acclimating your plant to a space is putting it where you think it looks pretty right so you think oh you have a mental piece or you have a desk you have a nice uh whole table that you think a plant would look really great on so you just pop it in that space and you think um i don't really like it there i'm gonna pop it on my mental piece so you pop it there and then in another week you think oh i need a plant on my bedside table so you go and put it on the bedside table now what this does to the plant is that it stresses it out imagine if you had to move house frequently uh you had to move house maybe like once a month imagine if you had to do that how stressful that would be i know that's a lot more stressful for a human to move house than it is for a plant to move spaces but in a way it's kind of the same deal for a plant so give it a chance give it a chance to get used to its new home get used to its new surroundings and often as well when a plant is this young it needs even longer it needs a stable place to call home before you start moving it around your house also once you find a happy spot for a plant once you find that a plant is thriving and happy by a window for example or away from a window for example then leave it in that space you get to know what a plant likes and what a plant needs and once it's found that happy place do not move it or if you do want to move it put it in a space that you feel like the conditions are quite the same so that's what i mean when i talk about acclimating your plants okay now i'm going to talk about re-potting repot your plant if necessary now i have often received brand new plants from my suppliers and often they are very young plants like this one for example this is a very young plant it doesn't have any roots coming out the top it doesn't have any roots coming out the bottom and this plant this would have been grown from a cutting from a propagation which means that the roots haven't quite established they're not very mature and it hasn't quite filled up the pot yet which means you do not need to repot your plant that is the general condition that most plants especially plants this size will be in you do not need to repot it now when i say repot if necessary that's in the case of this calathea for example now when i talk about repotting it's not necessarily going up a pot size sometimes it might mean if the quality of the soil that it's planted in is a really bad quality soil now this grower in particular i've found that the soil that they put their plants in is more of a peat moss mix and it's not very nice so it's not even soil for example so if i were to repot this i would very gently take it out of the pot shake off a little bit of that peat moss and replace it with a nice chunky well draining soil mix and then pop it back into the same size pot repotting doesn't always mean going up a pot size it might mean changing out the soil it might mean adding a certain type of substrate to the soil that will allow for better drainage so have a look at the quality of your soil and that's what i mean when i say repot if necessary when you are repotting though same goes for it don't shock the plant with movement constant moving around when you're re-potting your plant don't like shake all the soil off the roots like disturb the roots disturb the roots of your plant as minimally as possible and that goes for any time that you're repotting as well i very gently take a plant out of the pot give it a bit of a shake to shake off any of the old soil and then repot it in some fresh soil sometimes as well you'll get bigger plants more mature plants from the grow houses that are quite root bound and that's another instance where i would repot if necessary you would go up a pot size but again that's another thing that you could probably leave until after it's been acclimated to your space you could you just try and minimize the amount of stress for the plant as much as possible in its new space another reason that you would want to repot your plant is if it has pests in the soil now first of all i wouldn't recommend buying a plant if you can see it has pests in the soil to begin with but if you've taken it home and you see it's got like fungus gnats or some type of eggs in the soil then that's another instance where i would recommend that you re-pot just understand that sometimes like i said before it doesn't necessarily mean going up a pot size number nine wait before you prune or take cuttings off your plant i know that it's quite exciting to get such a nice brand new lush plant and you immediately want to make brand new propagations or babies from your plant especially if it's something that's quite you know large or lush or has a lot of stems growing out if it's a more mature plant maybe it would be okay so for example you can buy plants that are this big and it's quite exciting to take cuttings from it but if it's something this like this small and it doesn't have a lot of growth on it just yet maybe wait before you take cuttings or prune your plant it's quite young again cutting your plant might shock it especially because it's had so many brand new things happening to it happening to it within a very short space of time so wait before you prune it or take cuttings it might be okay if you've got like a really big tree and you and it's going like every which way and you want to cut it back but i would recommend at least until after you've acclimated your plant whether it's like whether it's like one or two three four months just give it some time to acclimate before you prune it or take cuttings from your plant it's just a little recommendation it's not a it's not a must not do but it's definitely recommended that you let your plant just kind of chill for a minute number 10 and the last one is keep the temperature constant between like 15 to 25 degrees within your home so in my space here i try and keep it a constant like i don't let the temperature up it's summer at the moment i don't let the air con go any lower than 23 degrees and that's perfectly fine by me it's not too freezing cold in this space and it's still warm enough for the plants to enjoy a humid and warm space so when you get your brand new plant don't pop it in a really cold bathroom or a really cold laundry or in a really warm bedroom just try and keep it in the space where you're acclimating it in a nice constant you know between 15 to 24 25 degrees so it's just minimizing the amount of shock or stress that this plant is going through and that's basically the whole idea behind the avoiding to repot straight away avoiding to cut straight away um just trying to recreate a space where it's natively from or where it originated from like the grow house that has if you think about it big greenhouses have a lot of airflow they have warmth they have light humidity try and recreate that space for your brand new plant and chances are they're gonna absolutely love you so those are the 10 tips that i have for must do's or very highly strongly recommended things for you to do to your brand new plants when you have purchased them and brought them into your home oh and one more thing another must do when you buy your brand new plant is to enjoy it enjoy your plant love your plant i know that sometimes we stress out so much it's like i don't want to kill my plant what do i do i don't want to kill my plant but at the same time while it's important to equip ourselves with good information and good advice for our plants enjoy it as well try not to stress out too much about it plant care is actually quite easy the number one tip that i have for brand new plant parents is don't over water your plant i think that's the number one killer for most indoor plants and new plant parents and you know we're all gonna lose one early on in our journey one way or another i know i've lost several plants over watering early on in my plant collection journey but that's the thing it's it's about equipping ourselves with knowledge and the right information and just finding people who are happy to have a chat with you about it and if anyone comes to my shop and purchases plants from me i'm more than happy to have a chat with you and help you out with your brand new plant and give you some good information and part of that is youtube videos so if you ever send me a message and say hey i need advice and i send you a link to one of my youtube videos please don't feel offended that i've sent you just a video link because i repeat myself a lot a lot i get the same questions over and over and over and that's why i've created this video today and i just hope that you guys found it helpful so that's it for this video thank you guys so much for watching i hope you found it helpful and informational if you did please give the video a thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't i would love it if you guys would subscribe it would help me out so so much so thank you guys for watching that is it for this video i will see you in my next one bye excuse me i just choked on my own saliva or the supplier of the place that you brought it from fungusnap i really hope i turned my mic on yep it's on phew [Music] you

Channel: That Foliage Life

Views: 13,899

Keywords: that foliage life

Id: 16TPT4IaRhc

Length: 23min 17sec (1397 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022