15 Mistakes Not to Make: How to Keep Your Houseplants Alive!

[Music] hey guys thanks for coming back I really appreciate it my name is Amanda from plant arena and today I'm gonna talk about like the most common house plant mistakes that we make usually from the beginning and sometimes all the way through the whole process I know I make mistakes I make them a lot and the worst part is I make them over and over again so I just I gotta learn and I learn from my mistakes but sometimes we do sometimes we don't today's video is about house plant mistakes and how not to make them hopefully in the future so let's start with the most common mistake is its deals with watering like under watering or over watering and and I've said this many many times and I'll continue to say it you're always better off under watering your plants - ferns and things like that like and also carnivorous plants so but in the case of this Croton this is a Picasso's paintbrush and it's fairly dry as most of my plants end up becoming fairly dry because it just they get lost in here and I'm trying to get my son to help me and he's starting to he's starting to pick it up he's picking up the pace so that's good anyway so this guy is really dry and you know but I like to tent I tend to like to let my plants get super dry but I'm gonna just water it's thoroughly and you know and I talk about this a lot but thoroughly means turning the plant around making sure the water gets through and especially when it's very dry you have to wait a little bit you have to wait until the water starts percolating through give it a second don't be in such a mad rush to get it done especially if your forgot to water it so this is a case of being slightly under watered not underwater underwater and I'm just giving it its tale of a little bit of liquid love here so that's good so I think the common problem is that you might think because your plant looks a little peak it sometimes or you think you need to be on a watering schedule you don't you really don't you need to just pay attention and let it get partially dry sometimes completely dry and don't wait like a week the minute you see it's dry that's when you water it so the second mistake people make is putting the plant in an area that doesn't have the proper light so just do a little tiny bit of research look at the tags look at the care cards whatever information comes with your plant read it I suggest reading it and then move the plant around until you find the right spot so if a plant needs like a hoya for instance like this guy if it needs a lot of light which it does you need to put it closer to the window and not in in direct light but the point is that's a big killer and you'll see a lot of plants looking really sad because they're not getting the right amount of light so that's the number two common mistake with houseplants is just putting a plant where you feel like putting it because it looks good there that's not always the place it should be let's talk about temperature if your house maintains an average temperature between like 60 to 75 most of your plants are going to be fine but sometimes you'll leave for a while and turn the heat to 50 you have to be careful if certain plants don't like it that cold some plants do most of the house plants you have probably can handle temperatures down to 50 anything lower you're running the risk of injuring your plants so if your plants are near a window and you have a drafty window try to move it back from that window or from drafty doors or from heat registers because hot air forced hot hot air it was a hard time saying that can be like bad for plants so just consider how much temperature range your plants are in the temperature range your plants are in and try to adjust it so it's pretty consistent what happens if a plant it gets too hot like we're talking if you have a plant right in front of a window and it's baking you live in Arizona or something like that or someplace that gets really hot there's a lot of other hot places or I just can't think you really have to be careful because your plant can just just fall down and collapse from heat exhaustion you know you've been there maybe I've been there and a plant can like we can they just can't handle it they lose all of their water their trip they transpire all the water and it's a flat on the ground so that's not good for them either so extreme temperatures are not good let's talk about humidity because you know most of us have probably an average humidity of like 40 in our homes maybe less depends on your climate but we want to increase the humidity for these plants most tropical plants are going to benefit from having higher humidity in your home so like for instance I have an area in my living room that's pretty dry it's by a heat register and I have this cast iron plant here which is um dripping all over me I don't know why oh I know why because my son watered it and didn't empty out the pot so that's what happens you got to stay on top of it so this cast iron plant is supposed to be like indestructible look what I'm doing to it so these tips are browning out and I know why it's because it's right by the heat register and honestly I don't know what to tell you because my heat registers are near the windows that was a design flaw but I have to have it there so I'm gonna sacrifice some Brown tips and you know I don't really believe that these are indestructible because this had many more leaves when I first got it and it's like have it has lost some leaves you can see one two three four five six seven seven so pay attention to your plants I'm sorry I'm not paying that much attention to you but you need to live there for now until I find another spot because if this room is getting crowded I bring all my plants into this room when I feel like they need help but it's literally like an infirmary at this point because winter can be a little tough you have to stay on top of it and shift these plants around heat registers are not good so anyway so if you want to increase your humidity get a humidifier that is the best way to increase your humidity or have cups of water or bowls of water or vaz is foldable filled with water around your plants because it'll evaporate into the air and I was speaking to somebody I think on Instagram last night and they said that they've been boiling water for five days and their clay Thea's are just like loving life so water in the air is good for these guys to try to provide it as best as possible let's talk about air circulation you don't think about that when we think about getting houseplants because this is don't it's not a subject that comes up a lot but without good air circulation you can introduce a lot of issues to your plants like bacteria and fungus and even pests so you can get a little fan or a larger pan and just try to just fan it around the room and get that air moving it's a really good thing for the plants it's good for you and it's just it's healthy just stagnant air is terrible for anything so just make sure that you get some air movement around your plants because they're gonna like it they're gonna really like it so this next mistake kind of happens without you even noticing it so you'll get a nice plant this is a clay Theo or nada it's actually doing pretty well it's it is living in the plants to do so it's getting its humidity it needs and it's getting the attention when I find it but the problem is I did this I need a little Bowl or something to hold on one second okay sorry about that so this clay Thea I didn't notice until I was watering it the other day that um it doesn't have a lot of soil I don't know where the soil went I mean it should be up to here and this thing has now just fell deep into the pot it's sinking into the hole and there's not a lot of soil here so unfortunately at this point the roots have developed in the bottom and I'm just gonna have to put some soil on the bottom of this pot and just raise it up a little bit so it has more soil to grow because there's not much here there's half there's half of what it should be and the other thing that happens that you'll lose like the top surface of your soil on your plants when you water a lot if you water like a crazy person you just literally take a host to it what its gonna do it's gonna dislodge the soil and you're gonna lose soil every time you water so you go to want to replenish the soil anything that you have taken away from so look you gotta look at your plants if you look at your plants they're gonna be okay don't judge me I have a lot of plants to look at and I really try but sometimes it just gets away from you so if this goes in the pile I keep making a pile of things I have to do when I do these videos add soil to your plans when they when the soil leaves the pot somehow it mysteriously goes this is this is something that I unfortunately have a few examples of and but I'm just gonna talk about one version of it so a mistake is planting a plant that you have and into a pot that you just have and you don't think about the relationship so the relationship is important with indoor plants and the pot you put them in because some really want a porous pot a pot that breathes that won't lets the water stay in the pot and others like to be more moist moister they like moisture and so this peperomia I'm telling you is somehow doing very well but it's in a it's in a Glade well did I paint it or glaze it I think this is painted but the point is the water doesn't leave so I and there's no drainage hole in here I'm gonna get to that in a second with a drainage hole but this isn't the perfect pot for this plant there's a lot of peas there but it isn't and it's miraculously it's doing well I water it sparingly like I'd go in and just continue to never let it really sink to the bottom and if I do that I kind of pour it out I'll talk about that about that next so match the right pot with the right plant that's a big advantage if you can do that and a big mistake is putting the wrong plant in there on top that's a big one the big in okay so that leads me to the next one hold on okay so I have this Marant ax right and it's in this pot it has no drainage hole whatsoever right and made in Portugal so it's a pretty pot but this plant has been in it maybe for a couple of years I got this from my business partners house so I'm not throwing her under the bus I'm just saying she popped it in here and you know she put any soil I'm gonna lift it up and see sorry but it's in here and you know what it's fine I can't believe it's fine we've lost a few leaves on here but that's to be expected especially with Morant as you often have yellowing leaves but I water this and then I dump the water out and it's kind of a pain because you saw that soil it's loose and I lose some soil so I'm gonna have to put more soil in here I'm gonna repot it into a pot that has drainage hole or I'm gonna just drill a drainage hole in the bottom of this but the thing is if you don't want a drainage hole and you want to put this on a table that's another reason to keep it like this anyway I'm just saying pots without drainage holes are an issue in general and you can have a quick decline because if you don't dump the water out this will be sitting in a swamp and it's not gonna live very long you'll say believe me if you try it you just keep watering it especially if you are over watering it in a pot that has no drainage hole it's kind of like the kiss of death you don't want to do that to our plants but I just water I'm just rambling I'm sorry but I just water a little bit and I dumped it when I have a pot with no drainage holes and this is maybe one of the last three or four plants that I have in a container with no drainage because as you can tell it's hard to keep up let's talk about dirty leaves having dirty leaves there's no excuse there's no excuse because we need to keep our plants clean we keep ourselves clean so this ficus Loretta I just showed this in the last video but it's still here look at this brand-new beautiful shiny leaf and there's a leaf that doesn't look good it has some kind of rust on it I'm not gonna freak out about it at all I'm not because um I'm gonna keep the other leaves clean and that one's gonna eventually fall out I'm gonna keep you nice and clean you'll wash it with a rag or something with some water you can use a neem oil solution you can use like a horticultural oil you just want to keep it dirty free dirt free it's gonna really help them out it's a big mistake just to think your plants clean themselves they don't have rain there's no rain inside your house right there's just you and they're relying on you so you got to keep that in mind oh here's a tragedy okay it's not a tragedy if you were pot repot your plants too often because you get like excited about a new pot that comes into your house or you think you I don't know if for some reason it needs to be in a different pot you need to rip on it try to just step back and not do it cuz it's it I'm just gonna show you an example this oil corn osa compacta was repotted a few many two times it just was it's doing well because I'm paying attention to it it's finally in this pot it was separated it was put together it was divided you know it's been through the wringer the plant wringer and you know it's doing okay but especially with Hoyas and plants that have like sensitive root systems you don't want to touch them for a while you want them to maybe stay in a pot for as long as you can I know I touched on this in the last video but it definitely aids in the decline of your plan if you are re pot happy don't be repot happy kinda just accept the plant for what it is for now this is a good segue into what we do with roots right when we're transplanting a big problem is people sometimes take off too many roots off of certain plants plants like the clay Thea like I showed you I'll just bring it out again get is right here have not very extensive root systems they're very fragile and very kind of very light roots you don't want to be messing with them don't rip them apart if the soil is not bad don't take the soil away just put the plant in a bigger pot and put some soil around it you don't need to mess the roots up but like I showed you in the last video the here I'll get it I think it's made behind me is this gonna I'm just like repeating myself a lot but with this guy that has a big root system it's going to show you again just in case you missed it this you'll be ok if you cut you can even just divide this whole plant in half the problem is with skins abscess and pothos they they kind of really react badly after you cut the roots and you have to keep the water the soil well watered because they're kind of go through a little bit of a shock so if you're if you want to keep it the way it is just loosen the soil and loosen the roots around the soil I'm saying just loosen the roots trying to break them as much as possible and just put it in a bigger pot but don't be tempted to just cut every single root that you see and think it's okay because some plants really need to have their root systems intact like Callay Thea's I'd even say ferns or this are similar what else do we have around here that's this obvious like storm anthe stuff like that begonias I think begonias too over pruning can damage your plants and I was said in the last video it's good at a healthy to prune your plant it is it's actually important to prune them to fill them out to let them live in your space and fit in your space but if you take too much foliage off like you take more than three-quarters of the foliage off it's going to be a problem for your plan to recover in most cases some plants like it but some plants are just gonna really suffer for a long time now eventually pull it you know push out foliage but just if you want to shape a plant don't take more than half I would say I mean I would take a quarter at a time but I would say don't take more than half did I just say this in the last video I don't even remember I'm like losing my mind I'm losing my mind I'm trying to organize my thoughts in video form Matt so here's a mistake people make in the fall is that they'll bring their plant and I do it I love doing it I bring my plants outside for the summer but then when do you bring it in what time because some days seem like okay it's 60 degrees 65 degrees and you can push it you can leave your plants out until it's like a high 50s if you want that scares me but you want to bring them in before the temperature gets too you know 60 I would say 6 55 60 get them and get them in and the other problem is that you put them out too early so if it's you know basically the nights need to be above 50 degrees Fahrenheit in order for your plans to be outside and the other thing that people do and the same kind of up in the same category here is that they want to take their plants out to wash them and to rinse them off in the Sun and then they leave their plants in the Sun for like 3 or 4 hours after washing them yeah that's a problem because those plants will again will get sunburned they will suffer and scorch and it's almost impossible to recover from that so those leaves will end up falling off and then hopefully they'll grow back but you just should do everything like that in the shade because that Sun is brutal in the summer on these plants and they're not used to it so they're just they're gonna get hurt be careful like that this is something I've been thinking about you not all plants have the same needs and I think we grouped them together sometimes and we first just start collecting plants or you can get one or two that like my peperomia obtuse if olya is going to have the same needs as my aloe case you know capri up that's not true so again it's always back to researching and just having little you know little tags like little sticky note things on your pots just to remind you until it becomes second nature but don't group all plant house plants as just one general care because that's gonna be disastrous for some of them the ones that are getting that care are gonna be happy the other ones are gonna be like what about me you didn't read about me I need your help so yeah let's just separate it and just you know understand what each plant needs it's not terrible amount of work because it's just a little less water a little more light a little less light a little less fertilizer you'll get it after a while but you know having a log or a notebook board little sticky notes helps a lot because sometimes it's over whelming to think that you have to know everything about all the plants you just pretty much can't remember at all maybe you can I can't I go through times where I can't remember the name of the plant I look at it and just like I know I know you um I actually do that to my son I'm like what's your name again and I only have one I have one kid okay I just make up a name at that point he just point oh okay let's talk about pests let's talk about pests because it's not like you've made a mistake the mistake that you made is not noticing there was a pest there and the mealy bugs will show up you will have Athens I don't have a fence I haven't it if it's yet I that means I'm not I just jinxed myself by saying that so yeah okay Athens that's out in the air now and thrips and what other bad bugs are there anyway I can't think I can't think straight but if you notice them pick up a plant pick up your plant look at the foliage every time you water it and hit it hard when you see it like get it get it out of the plant collection move it into isolation take it to the shower and start probing because that's the only thing that's gonna stop it a mistake you know and I'm just I'm not putting people down they do this because I do it too sometimes but I but I've stopped is I'm gonna start with a healthy plant I'm not gonna try to rescue a plant that is like on its last leaf because I don't have the time and honestly it's such a uphill battle that I I just don't want to do it so if you really just want to enjoy plant and not stress out about them start with a healthy plant start with a plant that's it it's like looks good it looks good to start and it's healthy in the soil is good and it's been fertilized and you know the whole thing the whole thing just be healthy like you take vitamins right you take care of yourself you do good things for yourself you don't eat a lot of candy same with these guys don't have don't give your plants cavities just start with a good one that's kind of it really I think like those are I don't know how many I said but enough mistakes that people make when they kind of either first start with house plans or get overwhelmed with house plants because yeah it just happens and you're gonna continue making mistakes you're never as a society we're not gonna stop making mistakes it would be a very interesting different world if we learned from our mistakes just think about that for a while but that's it that's all I wanted to say I hope you guys have a fabulous weekend I hope you get out there and do some fun stuff enjoy your life it goes by fast really fast as you get older so just think about like the people that love you spend time with them sometimes your plants will just wait right they're gonna be there for you and just try not to obsess about this kind of stuff because you know it's not that important it is this is a beautiful hobby and you know I just feel like I feel really really thankful to be a part of it I really do and you guys have been so amazing and I don't know I just feel I feel blessed and fortunate to be able to have a way to talk to people in the plant world I never had before I mean I was a landscape architect and I and I and I did a lot of work on projects and with people I'm working with it was different though because it was like it was working and we're trying to problem-solve and get the project's done in time and deal with clients and make them happy which is great I was happy to have that but this is really different for me this I feel like I'm talking to my friends that are sitting across the table that I can't hear but I imagine what you're thinking it's like it's fun it really is fun to be surrounded by plants and amazing people like you guys so just that's I really really feel extremely fortunate so thank you very much have a great weekend and thanks for listening to me ramble twice a week cousin maybe it might be three times a week coming up I don't know we got to get this greenhouse thing going we wanted to start shooting from the greenhouse and showing you guys what's going on at plan Arena comm behind the scenes because it's fun like watching these plants grow is the most amazing thing for me to be part of so I'm done talking I'm like I didn't even think I had anything to say but I do so apparently it's my family doesn't listen to me they kind of drown me out like are you talking to yourself in there like yes I am bye guys take care you guys it's a little added bonus tour first I'm gonna show you this crazy coke Okoye pot thing I made just because I have a giant roll of it I thought you know I'm trying to make a pot out of it so I just cut it up in whatever and folded it in and put some twine around it but it's kind of cool I mean it's like biodegradable and it doesn't degrade that fast because they know they have them in the hanging baskets and I've had so they don't they're still holding the soil so I figured let me just put it make a little pot but you have to definitely put this in a tray because it definitely leaks water when your water yeah and then I want to show you this Atossa that I just discovered when I was checking it inside the house before it had this weird fungus on it like I just I thought it was a insect but then here I'll show you I have a I have a leaf over here I'm going to show you this leaf I thought this was like mealybugs or something but it's just kind of a weird gross fungus you see it and maybe you guys know what it is but it's definitely not mealybugs nothing moves it has no form or shape it seems like a fungal problem so I removed I ever moved these leaves the plant garbage what else do I have going on over here Oh which is kind of cool is that this monstera is actually still growing Marie you or you leaf still growing still wants to grow although it's mid-november it is you don't have to grow anymore you can stop you can rest take it easy okay rest for the winter it's gonna be fine and the Pylea peppermint whities he's doing okay I mean it's do you know if some of the leaves are a little bit yellow this happens this time of year and it's pushing out new growth still on the top which is interesting someone's gonna leave that alone probably have to take it down to a water it what else has been going on over in the plant studio garage so this finally does very good a monstera deliciosa finally stopped growing I thought maybe maybe maybe I get one more leaf out of it but nope it's done for the season you did a great great job pushed out like five new leaves so still might cut you cut oh let's look here so as you know I cut up a whale fin and I'm trying this this is my second attempt because the first one I let's I let it dry out but it's just gonna take a long time for these guys to put out some roots I have it on a heat mat so maybe that's doing some good I don't know about these guys don't look so hot I don't know I don't know and here's the rabbit foot fern come on grow grow and here's the base of data of the wealth in so we'll see what happens this takes a long time I take your recommendations and what I don't have anything yet but I'm putting this tray on top of it to keep the humidity and I know it's not perfect but it's all I have right now look there's a ladybug come on do your job eat the bad mealy bugs that you're supposed to be eating and I think you'll like those kind of mealy bugs but look see sleep you're sleeping on the job okay so here look here's the glory awesome that was planted upside down and look it is so happy that it's free it's look at that just look how perfect these new leaves are before they open up it just I mean come on give nature a hand give her a big applause not so much over here though with these monster arrest and Lena's that are just I cut up and they're not happy I cut them up at this look at that little well thing with a little baby inside the baby it's pretty and pretty cool this is the only one that did well because I had more you know leaf surface area so it's doing okay oh I just noticed something so this tie constellation that leaf has spent it's alright you know what do you need to I think it's just really focusing on creating a root system so I'm not gonna get too upset about it anyway that's enough I just wanted to give you guys a little briefing yeah look look here we go the ladybug this is where the ladybugs mate drink drink drink so you can meet I don't know drink so you can just keep my garage protected from insects that's it guys have a great weekend [Music]

Channel: PLANTERINA

Views: 1,146,253

Rating: 4.9312925 out of 5

Keywords: houseplants, house plants, indoor plants, how not to kill houseplants, how to keep houseplants alive, plant care, plants, indoor plant care, low light plants, interior plants, unique houseplants, low maintenance houseplants, indoor plants for beginners, easiest houseplants to keep alive

Id: -ZkXzA9JlAU

Length: 30min 45sec (1845 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Bidensalba86]

She's dope, love watching her. Summer Rayne Oakes is pretty good too, gives more of a sciencey touch to her vids.

[u/takemeintotown]

Planterina videos give me so much comfort.

[u/Chocolatestarfish247]

My girlfriend watches her like everyday. I wonder if she didn't make videos, Would we still have 52 plants in our room? Hmmmm

[u/cvette68sr]

I watch her too! I like Harli G as well.

[u/littlepeonypie]

Same! I love her videos they are so interesting and helpful

[u/jayjay362]

she's one of the two reasons I got into plants the other reason was reddit and this sub ♡ :)

[u/MorallyConfused]

I learned all my stuff from her, love her

[u/RedLigerStones]

Thank you for sharing this!

[u/jetiscool9]

She is my god.