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  1. Home
  2. Garden

Six ways you're killing your houseplants

How to keep your houseplants happy. - by Livia Gamble
  • 24 Jul 2017
Six ways you're killing your houseplants
Giulia Bertelli/Unsplash

Houseplants: one minute they’re thriving and the next they’re hanging on by a thread. 

To help keep your plants in the land of the living, here are some common mistakes you could be making.

Not choosing the right potting soil

The aim of potting mix is to hold moisture and nutrients around the roots of your plant. At the same time, the roots need to be able to breathe. When choosing a potting mix for a container, make sure it’s soilless, light, fluffy and made up of peat moss, pine bark and perlite or vermiculite.

Succulents and air plants prefer a dryer mix of potting soil combined with gravel or sand.

Monstera
Getty Images

Not grooming your plants

Remove any dead flowers or leaves as soon as you notice them. Also, keep an eye out for any dust that has built up on the leaves and wipe clean with a damp sponge.

Overwatering them

Overwatering plants is a common way to kill a houseplant as it cuts off the air supply to the root. Overwatering can also lead to root rot. Ensure your pot has adequate drainage and as a rule: always check the moisture levels of the soil by sticking your finger in up to your knuckle. 

How often your plants need watering will depend on the type, size of the pot and environmental factors.

RELATED: This is the easiest houseplant to grow

Ivy
Getty Images

Not fertilising

Houseplants need nutrients. Purchase a balanced houseplant food and follow the instructions as over fertilising can also kill your plants.

Moving them around too much

Plants become accustomed to their surrounding, moving them means it will have to spend time adjusting to the light and temperature in its new spot.

Placing them in the wrong light

Read the label that comes with your plants and place them in light that suits their needs. That said, a plant will let you know if they aren’t happy. Too much light and the leaves could change colour.

RELATED: The 20 best air cleaning plants

  • Garden
  • Indoor Plants
Livia Gamble
Livia Gamble
Based in Sydney, Livia Gamble will not sleep until she has discovered every possible way to use bi-carb soda and vinegar. When she isn’t reporting on ways to improve your home and garden, she can be found knitting socks (by choice) and will never say no to pizza.

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