Plant Project : Things I Learned About Planting 1

Useful basic things I learned about planting :

1. Watering plants -

Each plants need different amount of water. 

Make sure you know how to understand some basic rules like : 

• yellow leaf means 'please give me more water' and brown leaf especially on the tips means 'too much water'. It's easy to kill a plant by over-watering it compared to under-watering. It's a learning process, really. And of course, there are other reasons for leaves to turn their colour eg : sunlight, soil, nutrients etc.
• Be aware of the first sign of dehydration like when the leaves start to wilt especially during the afternoon. That usually mean it needs water because it's too dry. If your plant is limp, that's usually because you over-watered it. 
• Use a container bigger than the plant's pot, pour some water in it and put the plant's pot in the container so the the plant can absorb the water from the root instead of watering them from above. Herbs like Rosemary don't usually tolerate with too much water so it's hard to understand the amount of water they actually need, having them absorb what's needed is much better than having them drowning in the damp soil. I seriously recommend watering herbs using this technique.
• Spray some water on the soil if using a container without proper drainage system especially terraniums *mostly for succulents, don't water them. Nanti becak.
• What you can do is check the soil. Put your finger in the soil a bit, if it's moist, it's not the time to water it yet.
• Learn about your plant. For example I just found out that Aloe Vera is from the family of succulent, so they don't really need so much water, like cactuses. Or orchids, they are very sensitive, they absorb water using their exposed root, they need such little amount of mist - and if you water them at night, they are prone to diseases, 2 of my orchids are currently limp and not going to survive. =.= Pegaga and keladi can survive water. Bonsai usually need water every morning, like mine, it is almost floating with roots exposed above the ground, so it needs daily watering. 
• Hm, a delicate process of understanding every plant's need. I am learning slowly and yes, I killed several plants by now because of over-watering.

2. Drainage Holes

• I know there are so many cute containers that you can use for your plant, but please bear in mind that plants really need proper drainage system to avoid excess water. This is one of the main reason why your plant die. 
• Damp soil = root rot = plant dies

3. Dried leaves

• Cut off any dried or wilted stems and pluck out dried leaves because they are mostly dead/almost dead and you can't really save them anyway. 
• Learn pruning, your plants need it.

4. Sunlight

• If you are living in an apartment, this is a bit hard, especially if there isn't much sunlight in your house. You can try your balcony and along your window, choose the sunniest spot for your plants. 
• Some of them probably won't mind staying indoor much, my dad calls them pet plants. Plants like pegaga and keladi are good example. Plants like rosemary and my chilli-tomato, need sunlight everyday.
• And, flower plants, well they really love sunlight.

5. Repotting

• Usually every time I buy new plant, I'll re-pot it in a proper planter. 
• You need to put some rocks above those holes and if you have time, learn about which soil type is good for your new plant *I haven't learn about soils yet. I bought some plastic net from Daiso (*RM5 for 20 pieces) at the gardening section. So I don't really have to find stones to put in the pot.
• Some plants will overgrown in their pot after awhile and desperately need new space, especially if there are more than 1 plant in the pot. Last week, I tried to repot my chili-tomato plant and found out that the whole pot is packed with their roots instead of soil. I separated them and trimmed some old roots and repot them separately with new soil. All learned from Google.

6. Seeds & Propagation

• Well, I love experimenting. Planting from seed is a tough process, sometimes ok-ok but weak,  and most of the time I failed.
• I've been collecting seeds out of curiosities, by this time I've tried planting several fruits that I ate : persimmon *which is a big tree I supposed, by the size of it's leaf now - I have 2, pomegranate - *4 survived & growing,  2 growing garlics and 8 new lemon's seed I just planted.
• And after learning on Pinterest, I'm trying to propagate several succulents from its fallen leaves, 3 stems of Rosemary, and 10 Aloe Vera babies from its mother. 
• I know it is much easier to buy a healthy baby plant instead, but I love the learning process and I love the fact that I can examine them growing daily. Ha.

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PS : If this is an article, I'll probably write in the simplest point-form lines. But this is my personal online planting journal, I love it's detailed descriptions of every tiny updates on my plants for any future reference. I'm imagining myself babbling about my plants, explaining every detailed updates that fascinate me. Hm :)