Rules For Watering Indoor Plants, The ABC Of A Home Garden - 2

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Water in the life of indoor plants

The moisture content of the soil and air is of paramount importance in the life of plants in general, and indoor ones in particular. After all, our pets are entirely dependent on their owners, on how caring and proper care for them will be.

Studies have shown that 80–90% of plant tissue consists of water, thanks to which the cells retain their elasticity and firmness. Water dissolves in itself and carries nutrients necessary for life, allows metabolism, respiration, nutrition and photosynthesis. The loss of only 10% of the liquid is most often irreversible and dooms the plants to death. Indeed, water is the source of life on Earth, and not only for plants.

The roots of plants, equipped with the finest root hairs, work as pumps, pump out soil moisture and supply it to all organs and tissues through vessels of various sizes. Sufficient air humidity helps the aerial parts of plants to exist, preventing them from drying out. Some plant species (monstera, philodendrons, syngoniums, etc.) also have aerial roots that can absorb moisture from the air and additionally feed it to the plant organism.

The need for moisture in flowering plants is determined by biological characteristics associated with their place of origin and the season of the year (meaning the period of active growth and relative or complete rest). The frequency of watering and the amount of water also depend on the size of plants and utensils, their location in the house, air temperature, illumination, their individual moisture requirements in accordance with the biology of the genus and species. Such a number of factors that need to be considered when calculating watering makes it very difficult to draw up a clear watering schedule for each plant, especially in winter. But still, some general patterns can be found, and we will be guided by them in this difficult matter.

The general pattern for watering is as follows: the higher the air temperature, the smaller the dishes where the flower grows, the more porous (sand and gravel, with expanded clay and pebbles) the substrate, the more often the plants are watered

Still, the main factor is the plant itself, which needs to be closely monitored, and very soon you will understand at a glance exactly what your pet needs.

In order to create a good indoor garden, plants with similar requirements for growing conditions are combined by placing them nearby - this makes them easier to care for and creates natural plant communities, as it happens in nature. The distance between individual plant specimens should be sufficient for the air to flow around them, and the leaves do not touch each other, otherwise they are easily damaged and die off.

Species that grow under the scorching sun of tropical and subtropical regions of the Earth have protective devices to preserve precious moisture. They often have dense, tough, shiny leaves, such as we see in ficuses, palms, philodendrons. A large group of these ornamental plants tolerates the dry air of rooms with central heating quite easily. Of these, the most sustainable species are chosen for decorating homes and offices. It can be aglaonema, alocasia, amaryllis, aspidistra, aphelandra, begonia semperflorens, bilbergia, hibiscus, dracaena, figs, clivia, coffee tree, cryptantus, curculigo, laurel, muhlenbeckia, marica, mesembriantemum, monstera, platypusiphera palms, pepipherium and chassemereum, ivy, reo, sansevier, scindapsus, tradescantia, feijoa, ficus elastica, chlorophytum, hoya, cissus, shefflera and others. Such plants are able to spend several days without watering.

A special group is made up of desert plants: cacti of bizarre, often spherical shapes (allowing moisture to evaporate from a smaller surface with an equal volume), agave, aloe, crassula (crassula), milkweed, in a word, succulents - capable of accumulating water in their stems and leaves. This ability allows them to survive in nature without water for months. Lithops, filled with water after rain, practically do not differ from the surrounding desert stones. This genus can be called the record holder for survival: it is known that they are able to live without a drop of water for a whole year!

Succulents are easily recognizable externally: bluish color of juicy stems and leaves, often - a waxy coating on them, leaves reduced to spines (to evaporate less moisture). At home, they need a minimum amount of moisture compared to tropical plants, and excess moisture most often ruins them. Cacti and succulents are watered during the growth period after 6–10 days (depending on temperature); in winter - once every 15–20 days at room temperature, at low temperatures - do not water at all. Minimum watering required agave, aloe, aporocactus, aspidistra, astrophytum, bokarnea, cereus, ceropegia, chamecereus, cleistocactus, mila euphorbia, cycad, echeveria, echinocactus, echinocereus, ferocactus, hymnocalytum, hoypahydumia, miocactus, peiresquia, rebutia, sansevieria (sansevieria), sedum (sedum), yucca, etc.

Desert plants include representatives of the lily and amaryllis families. They have learned to cope with dry periods by hiding their bulbs deep underground. As soon as the rainy season arrives at the end of winter (July - August in the southern hemisphere), the clayey soil of the desert softens and in a matter of days is covered with a flowering carpet of many plants with large, bright flowers. These ephemeroids have time to grow, bloom and bear fruit in just two months. In October, there, in the African Karoo Desert, a scorching heat begins, the flowers dry up, and the plain becomes lifeless again. But at the same time, life is transferred underground and there it freezes until better times: a lump of succulent leaves and flower rudiments becomes covered with a dense skin and becomes a bulb, familiar to all of us. Bulbous plants are also found in northern places, they survive "in a dream" winter drought, and bloom in spring.

In the rooms, bulbous plants originating from the Karoo Desert are most often grown - amaryllis and krinum, as well as hippeastrum native to the subtropical and tropical forests of America. More precisely, numerous hybrids of amaryllis and hippeastrum. These species have their own, special irrigation regime due to a pronounced dormant period.

So, amaryllis blooms in our latitudes in autumn, as in its homeland (hybrid amaryllis blooms in February - March). From the bulb grows an arrow-peduncle filled inside (unlike a hippeastrum with a hollow arrow) up to 0.5 m high, topped with an umbrella of six to twelve medium-sized, up to 8 cm in diameter, flowers of various colors: red, pink, white and many varietal options. They resemble lily flowers in shape. Long, belt-like, dark green leaves appear with some delay. By the end of flowering, the leaves turn yellow and dry out. In summer, the bulbs are not watered at all, they are placed in a dark and cool place (about 10 ° C) for 2-3 months. In November, the bulbs are transplanted into fresh soil with the addition of AVA-N capsules (full long-acting fertilizer) or granules of the long-acting complex fertilizer AVA without nitrogen and chlorine. They begin to lightly water the plants with warm water in the edge of the pot, without touching the bulb, half protruding above the ground level, and put the plant in a bright and warm place, but at the same time cover the growing arrow with a dark paper cap so that it stretches more than the leaves. (This technique of covering the expelled peduncles with a dark cap is used when forcing many bulbous ones: hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, etc.) Thus, the time of flowering and rest depends on the desire of the grower, is regulated by watering and the temperature of the content, therefore, in recent years, blooming amaryllis, hippeastrum, krinum, eucharis can be found on sale almost at any time of the year.

Asparagus and chlorophytum tolerate drought quite well, since they have storage reservoirs in the form of small bulbous nubs on the roots. But you should not abuse this device: the leaves of asparagus may turn yellow and fall off, and the chlorophytum will weaken, and the tips of its leaves will dry out, or even the scale insect will attack.

Among the cacti, there are not only "hermits", but also epiphytic forest genera and species. They are well known to many: phyllocactus, which are now called epiphyllums, with long, belt-like, dark green stems, delicate skin and bunches of small spines at the edges of the stems. They are famous for large, multi-petal, funnel-shaped flowers of pink, scarlet, crimson, white and other colors in hybrid forms; bloom in spring and summer. Loved by many "Decembrists" (botanically they are called Zigokaktus and Schlumbergera) are composed of small flat segments connected to each other in a chain. They bloom in November and continue to bloom in winter, which extraordinarily diversifies home landscapes due to their elongated (up to 8 cm), narrow, graceful flowers of bright colors: from white to brick-red, pink-crimson and other shades. Ripsalidopsis similar to the "Decembrists" bloom in spring and early summer. Epiphytic cacti need a moist substrate and air, but spraying on flowers is not suitable for them.

The delicate, thin, velvety leaves of begonias, ferns and other species are irrefutable evidence that these plants are used to living under the cover of other species that are strong and resistant to the hot sun. They need constantly moist conditions of soil and air and do not tolerate a lack of moisture. These plants include maidenhair, azalea, brovallia, calathea, calceolaria, clerodendron, bellflower, crossandra, arrowroot, cyclamen, cyperus papyrus, darlingtonia, episode, exacum, dwarf ficus, fittonia, hemigraphis, nepentes, nephrolephea, ner, pilea, primroses, ruella, sarracenia, selaginella, scirpus, spathiphyllum, streptocarpusand other gesneriaceae. In the composition of the soil mixture for these species, the presence of peat is mandatory, which retains water well. But the water should not stand in the pan. The plant's response to waterlogging is very similar to that observed when a coma is overdried: wilting, drooping dull leaves, the appearance of brown spots, and tissue death.