Shea Simmons
Whether you’re an expert at indoor plant care or a novice, everyone can admit things can get complicated when it comes to maintenance. We all forget a step or two, but there’s one, in particular, you might be prone to forgetting.
You’ve likely heard of aerating your lawn, but turns out, you also need to aerate your indoor plants, too.
If you’ve got a plant and the soil feels tight, aerating could be just the thing you need. When your soil is compacted, water will often seem as though it’s running straight through to your drainage holes, and your poor plant’s roots aren’t getting any water. Indoor plants, specifically, need aeration as they don’t have worms and other insects doing so naturally.
To fix this, Darryl Cheng, author of The New Plant Parent recommends using a wooden dowel to poke holes in your soil and break up hose hardened clumps. All you have to do is insert the dowel in several different places throughout your pot until you feel the soil is loosened. Then, water as normal.
As for how often you should aerate, Cheng said each plant is different. You’ll need to approach each one’s soil individually, but it certainly shouldn’t be done each time you water. Instead, look for signs that the soil isn’t absorbing water and feel for any particular hardening.
Aeration isn’t the only step you might be missing, though. You should also be cleaning your plants. For those who have yet to take the step into plant parenthood, check out these reasons why you should add some greenery to your home.
[Via The Spruce]
