It is easy enough to find advice on buying a plant, there are articles on this topic in all books and sites about houseplants. However, the question is what to do with the plant at home when it has already been bought or donated. But how correctly you do it depends on how it will continue to grow and develop.
Therefore, let's start with the fact that you have already bought a plant, or you were presented with it and here it is at your home. You brought it and admire it for the first time. So, having enjoyed the beauty, change your gaze to a more practical one, and check the plant for pests. It is better to use a magnifying glass for this.
A healthy plant should not have:
- plaques and spots on leaves and stems;
- black dots;
- webs on the leaves or internodes of stems.
Even if nothing suspicious is found, it is still better to isolate the new plant from others for the first three weeks. During these three weeks, you can decide on the place where the pot with the plant will constantly stand, because sometimes having bought a large beautiful plant, for example, a large yucca, it becomes an integral part and decoration of the interior. During this time, you need to learn as much as possible about the new plant.
Unfortunately, many houseplant books are too expensive for a middle-class person, so not everyone can afford them. Then you can go for a little trick - go to the nearest store, where they sell literature on houseplants and look through it with an innocent look. Look through not one, but several books, read out what you can about your new plant. And it is not necessary to buy a book. If you don't tear up the pages, no one will be offended by you. Do not consider my advice for the lack of all decency, but sometimes you really cannot afford to buy good literature about plants, and you really want your pet to get the right conditions. Compare literary sources with materials on the same plant on sites about houseplants.
So you know what containment conditions your plant needs. Now try to recreate them as much as possible. I often came across the fact that, having read about different maintenance regimes, plant owners understand them too literally. For example, the book says that the plant is shade tolerant and is placed in the middle of the room or in a dark corner. And this is wrong.
- Firstly, much depends on the orientation of the windows to the side of the world or on whether there is shade with trees from the street. If the window is south and not shaded by neighboring buildings or trees, then the lighting in the middle of the room will be enough for plants that love partial shade. On windows of any other orientation, especially if there is a high-rise building nearby or there are trees, in the center of the room it will be dark for any plants.
- Secondly, many people forget, and in the literature they do not always write about it, that in winter plants will need additional artificial lighting or rearrangement closer to the window. If you purchased a plant from mid-autumn or winter, then even a shade-tolerant specimen will not need shade from direct sunlight. This is because the winter sun is almost not capable of causing burns, it is always so small that in the period from October to February, many plants simply bald before our eyes. Plants brought from a flower base or shop in a special risk group. I would say that lack of light is the main cause of unhealthy plants purchased in autumn or winter.
Another question that arises with the acquisition of a new plant is whether it needs to be transplanted, especially if it is purchased in the fall or winter. I always give the answer - it is necessary if this plant is brought from abroad (mainly from Holland, Thailand and other countries), if it is not flowering or if it is not a cactus. But you just need not to transplant, but to do transshipment - i.e. transplantation into a slightly larger pot with the preservation of an earthen coma, transshipment is less painful and does not stimulate the growth of the plant in winter. This should be done in autumn and winter. I'll explain why. The fact is that imported plants in most stores are sold in so-called transport pots - black or brown, at the bottom of which there are a lot of large holes. As a rule, the roots in them fill the entire space. During transshipment, you need to pay attention to the roots.
- First, you can immediately see if they are damaged and how they are developed.
- Secondly, it is sometimes necessary to determine species affiliation, for example, to distinguish cordylina from dracena.
In addition, almost all imported plants are planted in the same soil mixture, based on peat, to which sand is added, sometimes to loosen the foam crumb. And this, to put it mildly, is wrong. Now you can buy a ready-made soil mixture for almost any plant.
It is better not to ask to transplant a plant right in the store - it is not a fact that you will be transplanted carefully, transplant it at home yourself when it is three weeks old and has time to acclimatize. Remember that no store or crop center provides guarantees for the further well-being of plants. If something is wrong with the health of the purchased plant, it is unlikely that it will be accepted back from you and the money will not be returned. The plant, which will be transplanted in the store, will experience further stress, which will not have a beneficial effect on its health. Since the transshipment of a new plant is carried out after a certain time - from two to four weeks after purchase, you can determine by the state of the root system whether you have watered it correctly all this time. Carry out transshipment to a new pot before the next watering of the plant, then you will see whether the earth has time to dry from the previous watering. Maybe it is already too dry - then you need to water more often, maybe it is too raw - then less often.
Most shops keep plants in cooler, wetter conditions than at home. Therefore, do not put plants close to the heating system, and regularly spray (if this is permissible for this type of plant), since even plants that tolerate dry air tolerate some stress, getting from a humid climate into a dry and warmer room. Any plant must be accustomed to a new habitat gradually. Let the purchased plant stand for a couple of weeks on a pallet of water, in a bright place protected from direct sunlight.
If you have the slightest suspicion of the presence of pests or diseases on the plant, then apply preventive agents. Now there are a lot of different drugs that increase the natural immunity of plants to diseases and pests, increase metabolism and allow plants to more easily tolerate the effects of adverse factors (for example, a decrease in temperature, etc.). You can recommend drugs such as Epin, Gumat Sodium, Gumat Potassium, Narcissus, Immunocytophyte, Immunotocyte, etc. These drugs can be bought quite easily both in flower shops and in hardware stores or gardening centers.