As day’s become longer and sunlight become more plentiful, especially as March arrives, you’ll begin to see your houseplants perk up a little. By April, they’ll sprouting new growth and ready to start their growing season! Here are our recommendations to give them a good nutritional boost and keep them happy and healthy for the year ahead.
Feed me, Seymour!
Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fish/Seaweed Blend Fertilizer gives your houseplants, including edibles, a nice dose of natural nutrients to maintain their overall health. Once a month, mix 1 tablespoon of Neptune’s Harvest per gallon of water when watering your plants to make flowers and foliage more plentiful, colorful, fragrant, and long-lasting.
We also recommend repotting any houseplants that have become root bound. Gently lift the plant our of its container, and replant it in a new, larger container.
Insect Control
As new growth starts to emerge in the spring, so too will little buggers. Systemic Houseplant Insect Control is an odorless, systemic insecticide that kills aphids, whiteflies, miners, scales, spider mites and other insects. Apply granules to soil around the base of the plant, mix into top soil, and then water. The chemical leaches into the roots, absorbing into the plant, making it inhospitable to insects.
Stress Care
Superthrive is a great medicine and fertilizer for when plants are stressed by drought, transplantation, propagation, drought or hard pruning. It is a reliable, nontoxic, and soothing treatment that acts as a root reviver and growth stimulator. Use it once weekly for four weeks, and your plants should recuperate quickly. Superthrive is great for indoor and outdoor plants, including Christmas trees and edibles.
Fungus Treatment
Neem Oil belongs in every gardener’s plant medicine cabinet because it can be used as both a miticide and fungicide. It works on arthropod pests that often eat vegetables, including tomato hornworms, corn earworm, aphids, and whiteflies. Use it to kill mites, crawler-stage scale, caterpillars, and mealybugs as well. Since Neem Oil kills insects at all stages of development (adult, larvae, and egg), you can use it as a dormant-season application, or as a foliar spray on both indoor and outdoor plants.
Neem oil also controls common fungi and mildew issues. Organic and biodegradable Neem oil insecticide does not create a “dead zone” around treated plants and it does not harm pets, wildlife, or earth worms.
If you can’t find any Neem Oil in stores right now, you can make your own. Garlic, chili powder, dish soap, baking soda, and even Murphy’s Oil Soap can be used as insecticides in the garden. Just use them sparingly, and test a few leaves out before spraying all your plants down with it.
So, keep your plants nice and healthy to enjoy them for years to come!