Herself's Houseplants

The New Mexico Master Gardeners organization has put together an excellent pdf booklet with tons of information on Houseplants care etc if you are looking for information on a plant I haven’t covered try here.

The Colorado State Extension office has an excellent reference on Managing Houseplant Pests

Most plants prefer slightly acidic water. Rain and snow water are more acidic than tap water which tends to be basic. If you put a tablespoon of vinegar in a gallon of water before watering your house plants this will make the water less basic. Apple cider vinegar is to be the preferred vinegar for this.

Some plants are sensitive to the chlorine in tap water. Most will not be bothered and do just fine with tap water. Lucky Bamboo is on of the plants that is very sensitive to chlorine and fluoride in tap water, use bottled or rain water for it.

If you let tap water sit overnight most of the gases trapped in the water will escape.

Water that has been run through a water softener can hurt house plants. Water is softened using salts to which many plants are sensitive. But again, most plants will be fine. Watch yours for yellowing leaves and brown edges especially near the tips if you suspect a problem.

Distilled water contains nothing good or bad for the plants. You’ll want to regularly fertilize your plants if you use distilled water.

* Do not fertilize carnivorous plants.

Cold water should not be used on tropical plants, especially not on African Violets.

And if your plants are getting too many salts from your tap water, the tips will turn brown.  Usually replanting in fresh soil fixes this.

When you water a plant, water heavy enough so that the water runs through and out the bottom of the planter, let it drain, then place it back in its drip pan.

You often see ‘fertilize weakly, weekly’. This is way too much fertilizer for house plants.

Fertilize your house plants when you repot them.

Fertilize your house plants once in the spring.

Fertilize them once if they are recuperating from a problem.

If the house plants are potted in dirt a bit of worm castings mixed in the soil is about the best fertilizer you can give a plant.

Most of the soil you buy for your plants already contains enough fertilizer to keep them going until the next repotting.

More information:
Are your plants getting all their nutrients?
Wired Magazine, Full of piss and vinegar ( just kidding — there’s no vinegar ).

Useful things: ( sources for worm castings )Gardens Alive!

NASA scientists have learned that plants on other planets may be yellow, red or green, but are not likely to be blue.

Plants on Earth absorb blue and red light but little green light. More red light reaches plants on Earth, and blue light is the easiest for plants to absorb. The colors of reflected light are the colors we see when we look at something.

On other planets different colors of light may be more likely to reach the ground and the plant life there.

Plants on other planets may be yellow or red

Here on earth plants commonly found in low light areas like jungle floors have purple undersides to their leaves. The coloring helps the plant to reflect red light back to other parts of the plant. The light hits the green part of the leaf. Then it goes through and hits the purple part of the leaf. The red light is reflected back up to the green section. These ones make the best low light house plants.