Weekend Gardener: Spruce up your house plants
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – It’s a great time to take at look at your house plants to see if they need a little TLC.
“This guy like right here, you can see he’s not super happy,” said Jayla Fry with Texas A&M AgriLife, while holding up a potted plant. “This is probably a good candidate for bumping up into a larger pot.”
Fry said it shouldn’t be a super large container, just one step up.
“That way it kind of still has that snug feel, unless you’re going to plant with multiple plants, then you can go to something bigger,” she said. “But when you repot this, get a good potting mix. Then break the roots apart, and then make sure you cover it well, and then you can fertilize and keep it watered.”
Fry said you can also help your house plants get a little more light by taking them outside.
“But there’s some techniques in doing that. If you take them straight out and put them in a sunny location, they’re essentially going to sunburned,” said Fry. “So plants need to be acclimated, and most often your house plants probably don’t need full sunlight situation. Maybe a few hours of morning sun. But because they are used to those low light conditions, you may not want to put them in real, real bright light for long extended periods of time.”
She said it’s important to monitor the plant while you do this.
“Once they start to droop or if they get any sort of browning on the leaves, that’s when you’re going to want to get them in the shade,” she said. “Get them watered and just watch and take care of them. But don’t forget to fertilize and keep them watered.”
