Keeping Your Plants Pest-Free

Your favorite plant was fine last month and now it’s teeming with creepy crawlies? How did your plant get a pest infestation? A few ways: floating in the air through windows and doors, brought in when you’ve used poorly made potting soil blends and literally on the backs of other pests like pesky ants.

So that’s how they got there, but why did they chose THAT plant? Here’s the thing—pests digest sickly or stressed plants much better than they can healthy plants. Plants living in balance are less likely to attract the common invaders: mealie bugs, spider mites, thrips and scale.

So how do we keep our plants in balance? Here’s the process: We choose the right plant for our indoor lighting: sunny direct light, indirect low light, indirect medium light or indirect bright light. The plant uses light to make food. You can’t cheat on this requirement.

We feed them according to their nutritional requirements: the basic nutrients are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Seaweed tincture is gentle natural fertilizer that has all basic nutrients as well micronutrients and soil building properties. Hands down our favorite way to fertile indoor plants.

We maintain healthy soil by transplanting or repotting them in fresh quality soil that is the right blend for the plant type: succulent/cactus vs houseplant vs outdoor soil. The right soil is so important. Soils vary in how quickly they drain, how long they stay damp and how much carbon to organic material they contain. Specialty soils cost more, but they save you money in the long run.

Finally, and this is essential, we water as consistently as we can according to the plant’s needs not according to a day of the week. Plants are vascular things—water and nutrients are flowing inside of them. Keep your plants sufficiently hydrated, because they’re using water and carbon dioxide to make the sugars that fuel them. Wilt is a sign that the roots aren’t able to supply sufficient moisture to the stems and leaves and repeated wilts cause an injury to your plant.

Water and light are the foundation of happy plants. Good soil makes everything better. And proper fertilizing keeps everything growing smoothly. Pests happen, but following this routine keeps them at bay!