Check out all our blog posts on Indoor gardening.
Spider mites on dieffenbachia are tiny, and you’ll usually notice their damage long before you see the mites themselves. They suck sap from the leaf undersides and leave pale freckles that slowly turn a dull, dusty bronze. If you ignore them, a healthy dumb cane can look tired and washed out within a few weeks. … Read more >>
Your dieffenbachia weeps because of guttation. When the soil is very moist and the air is humid, the roots keep pushing water up into the plant faster than the leaves can release it as vapor. In short, it’s pushing extra water out through tiny pores at its leaf tips and edges, and an occasional droplet … Read more >>
How many inches does a plant grow in a week? The honest answer is that it depends on the plant, the season, and the care it gets. A sunflower in July and a snake plant in January live on totally different timelines. In this guide, I’ll walk you through typical weekly growth for common plants, … Read more >>
You can grow podocarpus from cuttings by taking 4- to 6-inch semi-hardwood stem tips in summer or early fall, dipping the cut ends in rooting hormone, and keeping them in a moist, airy mix under high humidity until roots form. Plan on a slow wait. Most cuttings need about 2 to 4 months to root, … Read more >>
Hydroponics lets you grow fresh lettuce, herbs and even tomatoes without soil, often faster than you could in a garden bed. If you want to start hydroponic gardening, you don’t need a greenhouse or a big budget. A sunny corner, a simple container and the right nutrients will get you going. In this guide, I’ll … Read more >>
Dieffenbachia, the big-leafed houseplant many people call dumb cane, does take up small amounts of chemical pollutants in lab tests. In a normal room, though, its effect on indoor air quality is too small for you to notice or measure. No, dieffenbachia isn’t a practical air purifier for your home: it absorbs traces of chemicals … Read more >>
Most dying houseplants are suffering from a care problem you can fix, and the most common one is soil that stays wet too long and rots the roots. Too little light, dry air, pests, and sudden moves come next, and they often stack on top of a watering mistake. The good news is that a … Read more >>
An oyster plant (Tradescantia spathacea) has stiff, upright leaves, so drooping leaves are a clear sign that something has disrupted its water supply. Oyster plant drooping almost always comes from soil that’s too dry or too wet, cold air below 50°F, or roots that were disturbed or crowded, and you fix it by correcting that … Read more >>
A Boston fern sheds a few tiny leaflets all the time, but a steady shower of them on the floor means the plant is stressed. When your Boston fern is losing leaves fast, the cause is almost always dry air, soil that dried out, or a sudden change like a move indoors, and the fix … Read more >>
A window box can do a lot more than look pretty. With the right setup, it can feed you fresh herbs and salad greens and keep flowers blooming from spring to frost, all from a few feet of space outside your window. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create a productive window … Read more >>