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Succulents have been great house plants since long and have gained the spotlight recently. Everyone wants to have these cute little ones but little do everyone knows about their care and maintenance. Most of the people treat them just as other plants and end up killing them. So today let us try to have an over-look on how to care for these plants.
Firstly, what are these succulents?
Succulents
are those plants which store water in their leaves and hence, have a thick and
juicy leaves. These are very low maintenance plants and don’t require too much
attention to grow. They are slow growers and resistant to most pest and diseases.
From aloe to haworthia, sedums to echeveria, bunny ears to astrophytum there
are tonnes of succulents that are both simple and easily available to exotic. Though
the names look so complex they are pretty easy to grow, if the following points
are kept in mind.
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How to care for succulents?
- Succulents
and cacti are majorly sun loving plants and does great in a bright spot. Though
there are some succulents that does pretty
well in low light conditions, when kept in a bright spot atleast once in a
month or two does their best. So here is a pro tip to grow succulents indoor.
Make 2-3 different batches of all the succulents you have and keep each batch
in a different light condition. For eg., one batch in bedroom with low light,
other batch in a living room or on a window sill another batch in a balcony which
is very bright or gets direct light. Keeping succulents in very low light can
cause more inter-nodal space (space between two nodes or simply leaves) and
keeping them in too much light can burn their leaves.
- Succulents, as already mentioned store water in their leaves and hence doesn’t require lot of frequent watering like other plants. Its better to hold watering for a day or two even when the top layer of the soil looks dry, since there will still be enough moisture at the bottom. Too much moisture and humidity can rot your succulents and eventually kill them.
- Succulents are xerophytic plants and hence, love very loose soil. While preparing potting mix for succulents make sure to incorporate more soil loosening media like sand, perlite, coco-peat and vermiculite. These media keeps the soil airy and well-drained for the roots breathe. Very hard soils can make it hard for the roots to breathe and hence, can cause diseases of root.
- Succulents do not like a lot of humidity, hence during humid weathers keep them indoors. And do not mist them and use humidifiers for maintaining them.
- Succulents tend
to grow better in smaller spaces than large spaces hence, use smaller
containers and shift to a bigger one only when they have outgrown (roots
showing out from bottom).
- While
making a succulent garden make sure to use similar ones together avoid choosing
plants requiring different conditions.
- Though succulents are resistant to majority of the pests, certain sucking pests do cause damage. So keep a look out for any sucking pests near your succulents and soap solution spray can do great in getting rid of them.
- To fertilize use very mild fertilizers since over fertilizing or strong fertilizers can burn them. You can simply add tea extract once a month or two, this is a great way to fertilize your succulents without having to buy anything extra.
[ To make fertilizer out of tea leaves use leftover, used or new tea leaves or tea bag, rinse thoroughly and dry and use this directly by adding to the soil or add this to hot or warm water to get the extract, let it cool and use this liquid to fertilize.]
Keeping these points in consideration anyone can become a great succulent moms and dads.
Take care
Grow plants
XoXo
