Common Houseplant Problems

Is my plant over watered or underwatered? Are my plants getting enough light?

These questions are typically asked, and the answer is often hard to discern. Guest of the podcast Leslie Halleck likes to say "It depends." But this answer is more meaningful than you might think, which will be explained in today's episode of our new series, "Grow Better," featuring Leslie. As a certified horticulturist with extensive experience in plant care, Leslie is here to share her insights on the subject of overwatering and underwatering, offer valuable insights into the optimal light requirements for plants, and explore the common challenges plants encounter.

Overwatered vs. Underwatered Plants

Nailing the watering game with indoor plants can be tough. Overwatering can make your plants super unhappy, causing root suffocation and fungal diseases. Underwatering, on the other hand, can cause wilting and yellow leaves, because the plants roots dry up and die. So here are some tips to see if your plant is getting too much or too little water.

Signs of Overwatering

• Yellowing, dropping leaves: If your plant's leaves are looking yellow and falling off, it might be drowning due to overwatering! Too much water in the soil can suffocate the roots!

• Soft and mushy leaves: Overwatering leaves your plants with soft, mushy foliage that rots.

• Root suffocation and necrosis: Wet soil suffocates plant roots, which leads to necrosis (brown or black dead tissue), along with pathogens and nutrient problems.

Note: You can avoid overwatering by using a moisture meter.

Signs of Underwatering

• Yellowing and crispy leaves: Soil that's too dry and doesn't provide enough water will result in yellow dryer leaves, at times brittle and crispy

• Wilting and loss of rigidity: Underwatered plants may start to wilt and lose their rigidity as they become dehydrated.

Note: If your plant looks dry and brittle, check the roots to see if you need to repot it or adjust your watering schedule.

Understanding Light Requirements for Indoor Plants

Without light, we'd be stuck in the dark, as would our plants! Every plant has unique light preferences, so understanding light intensity, duration, distance from the source, and the light spectrum is key. Here’s what you need to know about low light and high light.

Importance of Light for Plant Growth

• Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is how plants make energy, which is necessary for growth.

• Light wavelengths: Different wavelengths of light have different effects on plant growth and development, with red and blue light being the most important.

Understanding Light Levels for Your Houseplants

• Plant responses to light: Keep an eye on your plants' reactions to light. If they're turning yellow or stretching towards the window, they may need more light. If they are trying brown, that might be sunburn (yes plants get that too!)

• Things that affect indoor light: The direction the window faces, how much shade there is, and how far the plant is from the light source can all affect light.

• What too little or too much light looks like on a plant: Slow growth, pale leaves, and stretching towards the light are some low light symptoms. Burnt leaves, wilting, and stunted growth are some high light symptoms.

Common Houseplant Problems and Solutions

Nutrient deficiencies, pest infestations, and diseases can affect indoor plants in addition to watering and light. Here are some tips for addressing these problems:

Nutrient Deficiencies

Nutrient deficiencies can show up in different ways. The usual suspects are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. If you spot things like yellow leaves, slow growth, and leaf curling, your plant might be missing some nutrients. Your plant can get back on track with some fertilizer or soil changes.

Variegated Plants and Color Changes

Plants with variegated leaves have leaves that change color or pattern depending on the light and other factors. If they aren't getting enough light, they might lose their cool color patterns and turn green. To get more intense colors, give the plant higher light levels.

Tips for Successful Plant Care

Keeping your plants happy involves getting your watering routine down, making sure they're getting enough light, and keeping a close eye on them. Here are some tips:

Proper Watering Routine

• Different plants like different amounts of water. So do a bit of homework to find out what your plant likes.

• A moisture meter can help you figure out when to water your plants and make sure the soil is just right—moist but not soggy.

• Things like temperature, humidity, and light levels can affect how much water your plant needs.

Adequate Lighting

• Research what kind of light your plant likes and try to provide that.

• Place your plant near a window where it gets the right amount of light, or use grow lights if your natural light isn't cutting it.

• Too much or too little light can stress your plants out, so avoid the extremes.

Regular Plant Check-ups and Care

• Trim off dead or damaged leaves to help your plant grow well (aka pruning).

• Monitor plants for signs of stress or pests

• Make sure your plants have the right temperature, humidity, and airflow to promote growth.

When to Let Go: Composting Sickly or Unmanageable Plants

Gardening is supposed to be a source of your joy, not stress. If a plant is severely diseased, infested with pests, or damaged beyond recovery, sometimes the best course of action is to compost it or “let it go.” This may be hard to accept for many plant parents due to "green guilt," but remember, the goal is healthy, thriving plants, not a collection of struggling ones.

At the end of the day, plant care requires continual learning and adapting. If you understand how your plants need water and light, and if you address any problems immediately, you can create a thriving garden. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and remember - every plant has its own unique set of needs!

You can listen to ALL the details from Leslie in this podcast episode HERE

Destructive Houseplant Pests and How to Get Rid of Them

As houseplant parents, most of us will inevitably encounter some type of pest infestation at some point. Seemingly overnight, our beautiful, thriving plants can become under attack by bugs we didn't even know existed! Pests can quickly damage and even kill our treasured plants if left unchecked. In Episode 2 of the Grow Better Series with Leslie on Maria Failla's "Growing Joy with Plants" Podcast, Leslie teaches you how to identify the most common houseplant pests and take action to get rid of them fast. Here are the highlights from the episode.

Why Plants Get Pests

There are a few key reasons even the best cared-for houseplants can become susceptible to pests:

Hitchhikers - Eggs or larvae can travel in on new plants, in soil, or on leaves. Carefully inspect new plants before bringing them home.

Stress - When plants are struggling from underwatering, overwatering, or improper lighting, they become more vulnerable to attack.

Environment - Certain temperatures, humidity levels, or stagnant air can create an ideal environment for bugs to multiply. Know which pests are attracted to which conditions.

How to get rid of fungus gnats in my plants  

How to identify fungus gnats

You’ll quickly notice the adults of this fly species by their erratic flying around plants! But the real culprits are the larvae in the soil, which feed on roots and cause stunted growth.

Signs to look for with a fungus gnat infestation: Adults flying around, overall decline in plant health

Getting rid of fungus gnats in houseplants:

• Use yellow sticky traps around plants to catch adults. This controls the population.

• Do a soil drench with a diluted hydrogen peroxide solution (1 part hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts water) to kill larvae.

• Allow soil to dry out more between waterings to deter larvae.

• Use BT or Mosquito Bits when you water your plants

How to get rid of spider mites

How to identify spider mites

These tiny arachnids look like moving dots to the naked eye. Left unchecked, they form colonies and lay webbing on plants, sucking nutrients via needle-like mouths. They thrive in hot, dry environments.

Signs to look for with a spider mite infestation: Webbing on stems, yellow stippling on leaves

Getting rid of them:

• Mist plants often (moisture deters spider mites)

• Apply insecticidal soap or horticultural oil, be sure it’s labeled for mites

• Reapply the insecticidal soap or horticultural oil every 7-10 days until all the mites are gone

How to get rid of scale on houseplants

How to identify scale on houseplants

Scale insects encase themselves in a waxy, armored coating that makes them very hard to get rid of. They attach themselves to stems, leaves, and branches to feed and leave sticky honeydew in their trail.

Signs to look for with a scale infestation: Honeydew and sooty mold on leaves, leaf drop, brown “scabs” on leaves (those are the bugs)

How to control scale

• Rub off scales with gloves and a cotton swab dipped in alcohol

• Use neem oil or horticultural oil to smother scales

• For severe infestations, apply a systemic insecticide that targets scale

How to get rid of mealybugs on houseplants

How to identify mealybugs

Mealybugs are soft-bodied pests that look like little cotton swabs crawling on stems and leaves. Maria called them “roly polys’. They produce a fuzzy white wax coating for protection. They thrive in greenhouse conditions.

Signs to look for with a mealybug infestation: White cottony tufts in leaf axils, yellowing/curling leaves, white little cotton like specs on your leaves

How to control mealybugs

• Remove bugs with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol

• Apply horticultural oils or insecticidal soaps

• Remove heavily infested leaves and dispose of properly

How to get rid of aphids

How to identify aphids

Aphids are soft-bodied insects that come in a variety of colors like green, yellow, black, or white. They feed in dense groups on stems and leaf undersides.

Signs to look for with an aphid infestation: Curled, stunted leaves, honeydew residue, swarms of the bugs on your plants - they are easy to spot

Getting rid of them:

• Blast plants with water to knock off adults

• Apply insecticidal soap to suffocate them

• Remove badly infested leaves and isolate plant

• Use neem oil or horticultural oils

How to get rid of thrips indoors

How to identify thrips:

Thrips are tiny, slender insects that love feeding on leaves. They move quickly and hide in tight spots.

Signs to look for with a thrip infestation: Discolored, curled leaves. Buds failing to open.

How to control thrips:

• Remove heavily damaged leaves

• Apply insecticidal soap or horticultural oil

• Use sticky traps to catch adults

• Try beneficial nematodes or predatory mites

• Some biopesticides are effective

How to get rid of whiteflies on plants

How to identify whiteflies

As their name suggests, these flying pests are small and white. They gather on leaf undersides and quickly reproduce.

Signs to look for with a whitefly infestation: Clouds of white flies flying around your plants when disturbed, honeydew, yellow stippling

How to control whiteflies

• Use yellow sticky traps for monitoring and trapping

• Knock adults off with a strong water spray

• Apply insecticidal soap or horticultural oil for suffocation

• Hang up yellow plastic sheets as traps

When to Throw Away a Plant

Don’t feel guilty if a plant is beyond saving. An infestation allowed to persist can quickly take over a collection. When damage is too extensive or a plant no longer brings you joy, it’s okay to compost it and start fresh.

Building a Plant First Aid Kit (next episode and blog post!)

To be proactive in managing pest outbreaks, Leslie recommends assembling a plant first aid kit. The must-have items include sticky traps for early pest detection, a magnifying glass for precise pest identification, commercial or homemade insecticidal soap, and horticultural oil for effective pest control.

With some knowledge of their signs, habits, and solutions, you can catch most infestations early and get rid of houseplant pests for good. Your plant babies will thank you!

Prepare yourself for any type of pest outbreak and listen to the full interview HERE.

The Love Language of Plants

Every plant has a good story...

Every plant has a good story, and all effective marketing involves good storytelling. So why don’t we tell more plant stories to our customers? The goal, when storytelling, is to make our customers feel something that inspires them to make a specific plant purchase. It’s our job to make them care. When it comes to marketing traditional holiday plants in fresh ways, there are simple storytelling strategies we can use to elevate perception of value and inspire action.

Get emotional

When crafting your marketing messages around holiday plants, it’s important to remember that it may not be the plant itself that means something to your customer - or the recipient of the gift plant - but the emotion the plant evokes or the memories it stirs. Whatever holidays you celebrate, or how you choose to celebrate them, there are core emotions we can agree on, at least as ideals, are generosity, togetherness, and love. It’s these emotions that we are all trying to evoke, either for ourselves or for those we buy for, when we decorate and gift holiday plants. Surround yourself, or those you care about, with

When we decorate with holiday plants, or gift them, we’re using a sort of love language. When we shift our perspective on plants in this way to focus on the emotional experience these plants offer, versus simply their form and function, we enhance their value.

Get literal

When it comes to the individual plant species, you can get literal about their stories as well. There are many stories and fun facts about our traditional holiday plants that can enrich your marketing and create emotional tethers to specific plants.

The name “rosemary” for example, is derived from the Latin name ros marinus, which means “dew of the sea”…it has nothing to do with either the names rose or Mary! The Greeks and Romans believed rosemary improved memory, and as such they would weave it into their hair to improve their minds. (I’m envisioning some great marketing photos of your staff with rosemary in their hair happening this holiday season!). Rosemary is also a token of remembrance for loved ones who have passed.

Poinsettias have a fascinating human story that dates to the 1300s in Mexico. In addition to having immense value to the Aztecs as a medicinal plant (this is historical, not a current recommendation), plants were also used to create intense red and purple textiles dyes. The Mexican legend of Pepita and the “flowers of the holy night” tethered the plants to Christmas culture.

Gifting an amaryllis? The folklore behind this beloved holiday bulb is all about love. As the story goes, a love-struck maiden named Amaryllis pierced her heart with an arrow, leaving drops of blood on the ground every day as she visited the handsome but cold and unreceptive Alteo. Finally, on her thirteenth visit a beautiful red flower bloomed along the path where Amaryllis’ blood droplets had fallen…warming Alteo’s heart and healing Amaryllis’. Awwwww.

These are just a taste of the fun folklore you can weave into your marketing for holiday plants that help flesh out the meaning of such seasonal gifts and décor.

Trend spotting

Health and wellbeing is at the very top of many of our priority lists right now. Being good to ourselves and those we love involves taking better care of ourselves regarding what we put in our bodies. This can be especially difficult to achieve during the holiday season. If you haven’t noticed, non-alcoholic aperitifs and wine alternatives are having a heyday, as are floral infused and decorated cocktails. I suspect fancy non-alcoholic cocktails are going to be quite popular during the upcoming holidays. This trend offers you a unique opportunity to expand marketing for holiday gift herbs and flowers into the healthy holidays lifestyle space.

Living the lifestyle

You’ve probably noticed I’ve repeated the word lifestyle. That’s really what the holidays come down to, isn’t it? When you’re telling the story of your plants to your customers, what you are really doing is reflecting to them the story of their lifestyle, or desired lifestyle, and how your plants fit into that vision. All with the intent of eliciting a specific range of emotional responses.

When you send out that e-newsletter about holiday gift plants, it shouldn’t be about listing off the plants you’ll have and why people should buy them. It should be a story about how holiday plants create a sense of love, togetherness, and well-being in the context of holiday gifting and entertaining. Include personal or staff memories that specific holiday plants evoke for you and them- perhaps a story about your grandmother’s Christmas cactus passed down to you. Include images and recipes for custom non-alcoholic cocktails enhanced with fresh herbs and flowers. Offer up plant folklore your customers can use to elevate their gift giving. Provide suggestions for related products (even ones you don’t sell) that make the perfect accompaniment to a holiday plant for family, friends, hosts, teachers and so on.

I don’t mean to sound crass here, but essentially what I’m saying is that there’s margin in the meaning. As you prepare for your holiday season marketing, don’t underestimate the value of tapping into your plant love language.

Originally published in Garden Center Magazine

How concerns about both inflation and sustainability impact consumer concerns

How can produce growers address their customers concerns?

How are consumers feeling about food these days? It’s certainly a mixed bag of emotions and market realities. Combine consumer concerns about inflation and compressed home budgets, an ongoing pandemic and increased focus on health and wellness and healthier eating, and you have a complicated recipe full of challenges and opportunities as a greenhouse produce grower.

While inflation has certainly been at the forefront of consumer concerns lately, and food prices being front and center, Americans are back to eating out at levels closer to pre-pandemic times; but they are also still cooking at home in a big way and are spending more on groceries. Some bigger grocery budgets are due to price increases but they are also a result of consumers buying more vegetables and fruits.

In fact, when you scan grocery sales data trends it appears that sales in all categories are up, except alcohol, which is down. Interestingly, all three grocery stores I frequent have significantly reduced their wine and beer inventory and store footprints over the last few months. The funny thing is all of them had doubled down on noticeably bigger wine sections pre-pandemic. Just when you think a bigger booze section might be in order, given what we’ve all been through the last couple of years, shoppers seem to be trying to find healthier ways to manage the stress.

While health and wellness are predominant drivers in consumer food choices right now, speed is also a big priority. Consumers want to spend less time on meal prep. We all want to eat more veggies, but we want them to be fast and easy to cook or serve.

Case in point; after attending a weekend’s worth of kid’s activities with my nieces and nephews this past weekend, I can recall at least five separate conversations I had with my sisters and other moms about how important it was they serve healthier means and get more veggies and fruits into their kid’s mouths, but that as working professionals they don’t have time to do the necessary kitchen prep at dinner time.

Healthier eating has certainly become a bigger priority that it was pre-pandemic, but everyone’s time and patience is overstretched. Parents are looking for healthy fresh, cooked, and frozen vegetable meal options that are ready to be popped in the microwave or oven for quick serving. They all also asserted that always keeping plenty of pre-prepped snacking veggies and fruits on hand is key to managing both their time and their kid’s diets – and their own sanity.

Maintaining sanity is, I think, what consumer choices these days are coming down to. It’s not just about eating what we know will be healthy. It’s about how eating certain foods makes us feel. Are we supporting our mental and emotional wellness with what we are eating, or will we make it tougher to cope with poor food choices? I wonder how much of this mindset of self-care has influenced recent decreases in grocery store alcohol sales.

Sustainability is also more important to today’s grocery shopper than ever before. We all want faster healthy food – but we also feel guilty about all the excess packaging that comes along with it. This is particularly present for me in any number of pre-prepped meal services that I’ve tried over the last few years. Having lots of fresh vegetables and protein prepped for me certainly enables me to eat healthier in less time. But there is so much packaging involved that I always feel compelled to stop delivery after a while.

In terms of crops in high demand, there’s plenty of room to expand production on leafy greens, herbs, Cole crops, and berries; not to mention tiny tomatoes and peppers for snacking. Now, berries still present challenges for greenhouse and CEA growers that we must remedy with better innovative technology. To manage good berry production whilst maintaining flavor and shelf-life growers also need to reduce the miles between production facilities and their consumers. Growing more local is necessary.

Ultimately, I think the most important message for produce growers right now is that grocery shoppers are trying to find ways to be kinder to themselves through their relationship with food. Higher prices and supply chain issues aside, closer emotional connections between food and wellness represent big opportunities for produce growers. We want shortcuts when it comes to our food and how we eat it; we just want them to be healthy and we don’t want to feel guilty about taking them!

Fertilize Your Plants and Garden with MILK?

Learn why milk may or may NOT be the answer to your plant and garden woes!

Wondering if all those apps and blogs telling you milk is the next miracle plant and garden fertilizer? Well, let me fill you in on the realities of milk as a "fertilizer" in this week's "What the Halleck" Wednesday!

Can I grow tomatoes indoors?

How do I light my indoor tiny tomatoes?

Wish you could grow tomatoes indoors?

You can! One of the most successful ways is to go micro...by growing miniature tomato cultivars, like Micro Tom (there are lots of others these days!). Micro tomatoes are perfect for indoor gardeners who have limited space don't want to use HID grow lighting (the BIG ones).

Growing a single miniature tomato plant with a 20-30W LED spotlight is totally doable and the perfect beginner project. Tiny tomatoes are usually around 50-60 days to maturity from seedling stage.

If you want to get specific about the light metrics:

• Tomato seedlings will need a DLI of about 15 Mol/m2/D for the first 2-3 weeks with a PPFD of about 200-300 umol/m2/day.
  • As soon as you see germination occurring turn on your grow light! You don’t want your seedling to stretch due to lack of light. Germination should occur anywhere from 7-10 days, give or take depending on home temperature. Warmer temperatures will speed germination
  • Place your 20W LED grow lamp 12 inches above your seedling pot and run your lamp for 12 hours
  • This will give your seedling a PPFD of approximately 200-300 umol/m2/s
• Then bump to a DLI of around 20 Mol/m2/day with a PPFD of about 400-600 umol/m2/day for vegetative growth phase, for the next 3-4 weeks.
  • Place your grow light about 8-9 inches above your plants and rune the lamp 13-14 hours
  • This will give your seedling a PPFD of approximately 400-600 umol/m2/s
• Then shift to a DLI 25-30 Mol/m2/day with a PPFD of around 600-900 umol/m2/day for the flowering and fruiting phase, which is usually around another 3-4 weeks.
  • Place your grow light about 6-8 inches above your plants and run the lamp for 14 hours.
  • This will give your seedling a PPFD of approximately 600-900 umol/m2/s
    

The duration of each of these lightings stages will depend on the cultivar you're growing, and how many days it takes for that cultivar to reach maturity.

Shifting the intensity of the light (PPFD) can be achieved by raising your lamp (decreases the PPFD) or lowering your lamp (increases the PPFD), and your DLl (Daily Light Integral, how much total light the canopy of your plants receives each day) is influenced by how long you leave your grow lamp on. Running your lamp longer increases DLI, while running your lamp fewer hours decreases your DLI. Note that my recommendations are generalized and your growing conditions and the lamp your using will vary.

Take care to be mindful about the heat generated by your grow lamp. Sometimes the desired PPFD requires a lamp to be placed too close to a plant or seedling that could be sensitive to the amount of heat generated by your grow lamp. So, you'll have to play around a bit with your lamp distance and monitor how your plants respond...favorably, or not!

These are typically determinate tomatoes, so once they fruit and you harvest, you should grow another plant! Consider seeding succession crops a couple of weeks apart so that you always have tiny tomatoes at your fingertips!

If you're looking for a tutorial on growing tiny tomatoes indoors from seed to harvest, read "How to Grow and Harvest Tiny Tomatoes Indoors".

To learn more about how to grow micro tomatoes indoors read "10 Steps: Grow Tiny Tomatoes Indoors from Seed to Harvest"

MILK FERTILIZER

Does milk really work as a fertilizer for plants and gardens?

Oh boy, I’ve seen this one pop up a lot lately, especially on social media ads for particularly terrible plant “care” apps and I’m like #WhatTheHalleck

I’ve also seen a ton of blog posts, mostly from natural or organic gardening sites purporting the “amazing” benefits of adding milk to your houseplants and garden plants. Always be sure to review scientific literature before you take these recommendations as valid. There was some faulty and statistics in earlier 2000’s on mild fertilizer, and some follow up research that showed no meaningful benefits. You can do your googling.

Plant peeps, please do not bother wasting perfectly good and expensive milk on your plants and garden.

1. Milk is not a “fertilizer”. Not by my definition. You expect a “fertilizer” to provide visible meaningful improvements in plant greening, growth, flowering, fruit production, correct? Well, dumping any undecomposed organic matter onto your plants isn’t going to give you that ROI. Any possible benefits are pretty meager at best. Milk is about 0.5% nitrogen, and 90% of milk is water. And no raw milk isn’t any better than pasteurized milk in this regard, as heat treatment actually breaks down milk molecules.
   
   
2. Yes, milk is organic matter. ANY organic matter you put into your garden or into potted plants can eventually break down (by heat/microbes) into the individual nutrients and compounds uptakable by plants. Adding fresh organic matter to your potted plants usually just results in a bunch of mold, fungus gnats, roaches, you name it.
   
   
3. Milk is WAY more expensive that buying more available nitrogen/other macros in the form of composted manure (or any other actual fertilizer). Like hundreds of dollars per kg of nitrogen, versus a few bucks per kg of nitrogen for the latter.
   
   
4. There is some research that milk can suppress powdery mildew…50–70% as effective at preventing pm, and about 40-50% as effective at reducing harvest loss as chem applications…but that’s from one study. But are you really going to waste milk on plant leaves when you could use some basic horticultural soap?
   
   
5. Got spoiled milk? Absolutely, don’t waste it. You can dump that in OUTDOOR soil or into the compost pile. Just like any other kitchen scraps, food waste, banana peels, etc. put it in the compost.

Itty Bitty Pygmy Sundew Plants

TINY PLANT UNBOXING? You asked for it!

Ok, I’m giving you a behind the scenes on an unboxing of my pygmy sundew order I received yesterday from California Carnivores (this is NOT sponsored in any way, just another in a long series of public admissions of my plant buying addiction). The original vertical video is on my Instagram Channel.

Pygmy sundews (Drosera spp.) are one of my very favorite ITTY BITTIEST plants that are great in a sunny window or lighted grow shelf. And YES they are most happy outdoors so you can also keep them outside on your balcony or patio. I walk you through the 6 species I received in this order plus a few fun care tidbits and how you can nerd out even more on carnivorous plants. You can find more info on these tiny gems in my book “Tiny Plants”. And if you’re interested in the info on morphology or propagules like gemmae, you should join my Botany for Gardeners online course through the UCLA Extension Horticulture & Gardening Program! The first spring section is full, but we’ve got a waiting list started to open a new section. Class starts April 3rd, 2023.