House Plants

If you're a house plant geek, then you won't want to miss this episode with Melody and Zoe. 

They're answering all your questions about how to care for house plants - From when to water, what soil you should use, do house plants really clean the air? And so much more.  

If your enjoying listening to our podcast, please consider leaving us a review. We'd love to hear your feedback. 

https://youtu.be/bQCObBXCRW4https://yardstopgardencenter.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome to the Yard Talk Garden Center podcast. I am Zoe and we are here today with Melody. And today we are gonna be talking all about houseplants. So Mel, let's jump right into the questions. Yeah. Um so from you, you have like a whole room. Yeah. Multiple, if not full of houseplants. So I feel like you would be the type of person that would know the right spot for the plant. Um, this question's kind of broad, but like I know it, I know it depends on each plant, but how would you choose the right plant for your home's lighting and space?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Okay, so we did a houseplant class, and I had certain sections of each one, and it depend like what the best thing for that plant was. So you have to really find out. If you have um a house that has a corner that's kind of darker than the others, you can search to find out which one would go better there, like a Z plant, a Z Z plant, or a pothos that don't need a whole lot of light. Right, everything needs light, but not extreme to the amount like a Hoya would need. And a Hoya could be in a window, right? As long as the sun's not hitting it, it's fine. So you just have to kind of know what kind of area you you have. If it look it's that it have to be so fancy. Right. If you look it up, they're gonna tell you like foot candles and it doesn't have to be that fancy. You find out which works there, and you would just leave it there. That's the place for it. But a Hoya would need more light than let's just say uh like an overhead light that's up a high and doesn't have like a shady corner. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

And what would you recommend for like um I know a lot of people put plants in their bathrooms, yeah. And some people don't have windows in their bathrooms. What would you recommend for someone in a situation like that?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

I have had a pothos in my bathroom that grew with no light, and I'm a stickler. You leave a room, you turn the light off. Right. Probably for four or five years. Wow. That's just almost surrapped or surrounded my bathroom. That's amazing. Yeah, it's been there forever. Little to no water, barely any light. That's a thing. It's still alive. That's great. Paphos are amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

It's an amazing plant. Yeah. Um, and I'm assuming the plant depends on the type of watering that it needs, but if if I had to guess, one that needs more sun gets more water. Absolutely. Right. So the ones that with less lighting equals less water type D.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

I well, if I wish it was that easy. And it's not uh ever watering's never on a schedule. Right. Please believe. I know there's 10,000 YouTubers, everybody says something different. There is no schedule to water a plant. It's literally the plant's choice. Like it's whenever it needs it. Exactly. Because if you've been on AC, how cold is your house? 100% humidity, all that matters, how much light it's getting, all of those variables matter. 100%. Yeah. And you gotta check them. You can't just go, oh, on Tuesday I water all my plants. Well, guess what? On Thursday, half of them's gonna be dead. Right. Because of all the variables in your house. And how hot you like to keep it, how cold you like to keep it, is there airflow in that room? Right. The lighting, all those things matter.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Interesting. Well, I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Because we have like that issue in the coffee shop. Yeah. Some plants need water and they just got watered, and some plants are overly soaked and they're good. When should someone use bottom watering versus top watering?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Okay, so truth be told, this is my secret. I am a lazy waterer. I am so lazy. There's 300 plants in one room. Right. It's a junk. So for me to water, it has to be fast and furious. So every plant I have that's not hanging has a tray. So I water every one until I see that it's coming out into the tray. Right. And then by the time I'm done, not everyone, please believe. Right. It's the ones that need it. And then by the time I'm done, I go back. Most important part about uh watering your plant and having it bottom water from a tray. Right. Emptying the tray. Right. Don't leave the tray. Oh my lord. Not only are you gonna have fungus gnats, you're gonna end up with like crazy root rot, hydrophobic plants because it's just not watered right. You can bottom water and bottom water only. Yeah. But I suggest at least every other time, water from the top.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So what's the difference? Like, what is beneficial to bottom watering versus just top watering?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Okay, so uh when you top water, not all of the soil can get wet. Right. And a lot of plants get hydrophobic where the water just runs straight through and you can see it, especially if you're outside. Yeah. So if you take your plant outside and you just hold it and you water and you see that the water just goes straight through really fast. It's pretty much hyper hydrophobic. So you're either gonna have to reap out it or you're gonna have to add soil. That's why you like to bottom water so it goes from the top and the bottom and it gets the whole thing wet.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Then I feel like bottom watering would be the one that made the most sense. It does because once it sucks all the water up.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

But it it depends because is it sucking all enough water up to get top to the pipe? Okay, that makes sense. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So you would want to bottom watering, I love. Yeah. Because you can water it enough and then let the bottom soak it in. I've only ever used bottom watering with succulents. Well, succulents is a good thing because you don't really want the tops of the leaves to be sitting in soil. Right. Like soggy soil. Right. Because I can rot them.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So what type of soil would you specifically recommend? Maybe something that we sell here at the yard stop.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Okay, so I use a a variety of stuff all together. Like I am end my soils. Okay. Succulent soil is what I start off with for all my houseplants.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I know it sounds crazy, but it's also not gonna let me overwater anything. So I use succulent soil, but I also add pearlite to it. And then I mend it with a little bit of potting soil, not a lot. So it's like a third, third, and a third. If that makes sense. Yeah. And then you just you go from there. I mean, I trust you, you have like 300 housebeds. Yeah, and they have I don't I don't really have to um repot my plants because it just keeps it fertilized and we're good. Nice. Yeah. How do you get rid of gnats or like the fungus gnats? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They're such a pain in the butt. Yeah, they are. They're so annoying. But the best part is they don't hurt they don't they don't harm your plant. Right. Okay. They just annoy the heck out of you. They're so annoying. Yeah, and I can guarantee you that you probably have them and don't even know. Right. But so the best part is to um the sticky, sticky little traps. Yeah. They even have them now where you don't have to hang that crazy sticky thing down from the ceiling. Yeah. Now you just plug a light in and it attracts them.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

So where do they come from though? Like why are they from the soil? That's what attracts them. Would you recommend like repotting or anything like that? Or is there nothing to do with it?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

No, I can tell you a quick fix to it. I mean, other than the flying ones, they're gonna die off. They only have like a three-day life cycle. Right. Maybe three to seven days. So, but a quick fix is, and it's gonna be crazy, but here you go. Um, you go to the Dollar Tree and you buy peroxide. You take your plant outside and you take that that thing of peroxide and you dump it through the soil until you see it come out through the bottom. And then you do it again in seven days. They live and they lay their eggs in the soil. Peroxide will kill that. Right? And not farming the plants. No, not at all. And also, peroxide is great for root rot. So if you think you might have that when the leaves are turning yellow and the soil, anything that you have with fungus gnats, you want to do it anyways. Right. Because it helps the roots not to rot.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Fungus gnats is a clear sign that you've got a little bit of soil that's too wet sitting around.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

That makes sense. Um, and I know you mentioned leaves. Speaking of leaves, um, why would someone's houseplants leaves turn brown or start, I guess, drooping a little bit? Drooping? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Well, a lot of plants will talk to you. A lot of plants will tell you, and when their leaves start to droop, it usually means okay, I'm thirsty. Okay. Now, the brown spots can be a lot of things. It can be a sign of pest, can be an underwatering issue where they got crispy, too much direct light on it. Something like that. There's so many reasons.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yellow is usually an overwatering. That's what I thought. So brown can be like underwatering pest, yellow can be uh But they can all it means multiple things.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

I wish I could just be like, oh, brown means you've underwatered phone. No, wouldn't it be cool if it was like that? Oh that'd be nice. Oh yeah. It's it's always a guess of what is going on with my plant. But the best part is there's a whole, you know, slew of answers. You just have to figure out which one works.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And would you recommend when a leaf is browning to trim it?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

I mean, yeah, it's gonna die. It's not gonna come back from brown. It's never gonna come back from brown or yellow. Once it's yellow or brown, it's done.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Really? I didn't know about the yellow.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Interesting. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Okay. So those are just something that you would recommend trimming off. You can.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

I mean, if you don't like the aesthetics of it, of course.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Right. Um, this is a good question, which I feel like I know the answer to, and the reason why I have plants in my house, but do houseplants really clean air? They do.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

But not to a percentage of what people think. They think they can go get one um Sanseveria, mother-in-law's tongue, snake plant, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, put it in your one room and it's gonna cleanse your air. Right. Not gonna happen. Right. You would have to have like 40 of those plants in one room. To fully clean it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

But it does, it helps. It does help.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

It's good in a nursery. I would say in a nursery, why not? Like in like a baby's room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Couldn't hurt. It's gonna be something better than nothing. Exactly. And they're good, they're wonderful, they're just amazing plants. Can't kill them. All plants are. No, yeah, mother's law tongue for sure. You can't. Right. I know people who have. But it took them a long time to do it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Um, and I know that we have multiple sections with house plants here. So we have some at the red roof. Do we have some in the shade house still?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

And then the coffee shop. Yep. Um, I mean, I know this is a broad question too, but I guess maybe just highlight some of your favorite plants that we do have here. Um, and kind of where we can find those.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Well, my favorite plants are the ones in the red roof. And uh, well, there's such an array. Right, that's what I was saying.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

It's a broad question.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah, because we have the orchids, we have antherium, we have pothals, we have philodendron, we have Hoya, we have I mean, cactus. There's so much.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

There's just such a variety. But the good news is we have a lot, we have a lot of things people are looking for.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Well, Mel, super nice having you here. Um, I feel like I learned a lot. I'm hoping that the viewers also learned a lot. Um, thanks so much for watching our podcast and stay tuned for our next one. Bye.