#7 - May 2017 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
POT PLANT CAREMay/June: Late autumn/early winter. Eastbourne has many olive trees but few olives are eaten. Olives ripen May/June. Harvest when they start turning black - earlier they’re unripe, later the birds get them. Use a plastic leaf rake and a sheet on the ground. Pickle in brine (internet recipe). Now’s a good time to think about house plants.
Good/bad pot plants: Garden centres like pot plants that die. Then you buy another. Disappoint them. Buy right and look after them. You want plants that’re easy to keep looking nice. Most good house plants are forest-floor plants. They like low light. The old favourites are best. It’s rare something exciting and new will look good in six months.
Water: Regular light watering is key. A pot-full of potting mix stores little water. Drought is lethal. Sitting in water is lethal. Pot plants need good light but too much direct sun uses more water than the pot holds.
Shoot care: Don’t move plants about. They adapt to a place and don’t like change. They don’t like draughts either. Keep them looking fresh. Remove dying leaves/flowers (scissors). Keep them shiny (dust free) by putting them out in overnight rain.
Leggy: Old plants get leggy (long bare stems, leaves at the top). (1) Cut off one third way up, to leave a bare stump. Most stumps will re-sprout to give you a new, low plant. (2) Put the old two-thirds top in a new pot with a plastic bag over it. The humid air stops the leaves drying while the buried one-third stem grows new roots. After 6-8 weeks gradually cut away the bag – this lets your new plant adjust to dry air. You now have two low plants in place of one leggy one. Double the odds of success.
Want a bushier plant? Growing shoot tips send hormones down, which stop side-branching. Cut off the tips and side branches sprout.
Pot-bound: Growing roots send hormones up, to stimulate shoot growth. After two years, roots fill a pot and stop growing - so the shoot stops growing too. Repot in a larger pot with fresh potting mix. Root growth restarts and shoot growth soon follows.
Bonsai: To keep a plant small, un-pot it, cut away 25% of roots (scissors) and 25% of ugly shoots. Tease out old potting mix from the roots. Repot with new potting mix. Root growth restarts and new shoots soon follow. ___________________________________