Orchids Plant Care

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5 Tips For Better Watering

In this post, I’ve come up with a list of 5 tips for better watering.

Five Tips For Better Watering

Companionable Containers - Position plants with similar watering needs together whenever you can. You will be less likely to skip over plants that need frequent watering, and the mess that sometimes results from giving plants a thorough soaking can be limited to one area of your house.
Overhead Irrigation - To water plants in hard-to-reach hanging planters, use a bulb-type turkey baster or a special watering bottle with an extra-long neck, which you can usually find at a garden center. If you’re bothered by drips on floors or furniture, use string, hooks, and an aluminum roasting pan to create a drain tray to hang under the planter for a little while after watering. Or buy some inexpensive shower caps to temporarily enclose the bottoms of freshly watered hanging baskets.
Helpful Headspace - When potting up indoor plants, always leave at least 3/4 inch of space between the top edge of the container and the top of the soil. This space works like a reservoir when you’re watering, giving water a place to sit until it can soak in. It also helps prevent spills of soil or water.
Hide A Water Supply - If you have only one or two plants in a room that’s far from your kitchen (or wherever you keep your watering can or bottle), hide a bottle of water behind the pots so it will always be there, ready to offer a few sips.
Clean Out Drainage Trays - Many plants benefit from sitting on a bed of damp pebbles, which increases humidity while catching excess water that drains from the pots. As this water evaporates, salts are often left behind on the pebbles. This becomes a problem when plants take up water from the trays, which may be heavily laced with salts. To avoid problems, empty and thoroughly rinse drainage trays, and the pebbles within them, about once a month.

May 2, 2007 comment TrackBack-URI