How can a beginner take care of flowers to ensure they thrive?
Main content introduction: This article provides insights into how beginners can successfully grow green plants and flowers. Below, the editor offers detailed explanations.
Beginner plant enthusiasts often find it very difficult to care for flowers, frequently ending up killing or severely damaging the plants, let alone getting them to bloom. Therefore, many beginner plant enthusiasts refer to themselves as plant killers. In reality, keeping flowers alive isn't that hard. Here's a summary of common mistakes made by beginner plant enthusiasts during the process of caring for flowers, hoping it will be of some help to you.
1. -- Don't choose a pot based solely on its appearance --
Beginners usually purchase ready-made potted plants from the flower market and then select a nice pot to plant them in, watering them every day, believing that this will keep the potted plants healthy and continuously blooming. However, they're making a mistake right from the start.
Pots are very important for plant growth, and pots made of different materials and with different structures have significantly different breathability and water permeability. For example, ceramic pots with colored glaze on the surface look nice but have poor breathability and only have a drainage hole at the bottom, making them unsuitable for direct planting of plants. Especially for beginners with limited potted plant care experience, using such pots with poor breathability and water permeability will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of care.
When choosing a pot, I recommend using red clay pots, which have good breathability and water permeability, although they are more expensive. For a more affordable option, consider a plastic pot with multiple drainage holes at the bottom, such as a gallon pot or a green mountain pot.
2. -- Soil mix determines the difficulty of care --
Many beginner plant enthusiasts don't know what kind of soil to use for potted plants and may even dig up garden soil from green belts or vegetable gardens to plant in. However, potted plants are different from ground plants; due to limited growth space and high watering frequency, non-breathable soil easily cakes and积水, making it difficult to care for.
Most flowers can be planted using a general-purpose nutrient-rich soil. However, be cautious not to buy very cheap nutrient-rich soil, as poor-quality soil often appears loose and breathable but actually has poor breathability and won't support plant growth.
3. -- Correct potting and transplanting helps plants adapt quickly --
Many beginner plant enthusiasts say they are afraid to repot plants because the plants die after repotting. If you've encountered this situation, it's definitely because the repotting method is incorrect.
Repotting during the plant's growing period usually requires transferring the plant with its original soil to a new pot without breaking the soil ball. If the roots are tangled, you can gently loosen the outer part of the soil ball before planting and adding new soil.
Also, when repotting, it's very important to ensure that the bottom fertilizer does not come into contact with the plant's roots, and liquid fertilizer should not be applied within a week after repotting, as this can easily cause problems.
4. -- Water is the source of life but should not be excessive --
The main reason most plant enthusiasts' potted plants wither is due to excessive watering. Although plants need water to grow, too much water can cause the plant's roots to be in moist soil for extended periods without enough oxygen for absorption, leading to root rot.
The method of watering is simple to explain: water thoroughly when the soil is dry, but many plant enthusiasts don't grasp the technique and often can't achieve thorough watering. Here's the simplest method to determine watering: the pot-lifting method.
Before each watering, lift the pot to feel its weight. If the pot feels heavy, don't water it. When the pot feels light, it's time to water. The pot-lifting method is only suitable for lightweight and small pots. For larger and heavier pots, other methods must be used to determine watering times. More methods for determining watering times are introduced in the book "How to Successfully Care for Flowers from Scratch," which you can refer to.
5. -- Correct fertilizing prevents yellow leaves --
Fertilizing is a problem that many beginner plant enthusiasts struggle with. Potted plants turn yellow or wither after fertilizing, which is usually because the fertilizer is too strong. Fertilizing potted plants requires frequent application of thin fertilizers. Therefore, it's essential to read the instructions before fertilizing, as different brands of water-soluble fertilizers have different concentrations. The concentration stated in the instructions is a reference base concentration. Healthy plants that are not too small can be fertilized at the concentration stated in the instructions, while seedlings or weak plants should be diluted more, and stronger, larger plants can be fertilized slightly more concentrated.
For example, for seedlings or weak plants, "Flower多多" can be diluted 1500-2000 times, while for strong, large plants, it can be diluted 500-800 times.
The above shares the complete content of how beginners can take care of flowers to ensure they thrive, for your comprehensive understanding and reference!