Gardening expert weighs in on five viral houseplant hacks
By Rachael Gavin|
S?earch "plant hacks" online and you're sure to find a long list of all sorts of tips and tricks claiming to boost your indoor plant's health and growth.
They range from bizarre to logical and are supposed to make caring for plants easier and less time consuming, but not all of them live up to the hype.
To find out which plant hacks are worth a try and which we should give a miss, 9Honey Living spoke to Trevor Cochrane, host of The Garden Gurus.
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And before we even get to the specific hacks, Cochrane warns we shouldn't be too surprised if we don't see much of a result.
"Generally mother nature has her own way of operating and you can't really trick the plants, you can optimise their growth, but you can't introduce tricks that will necessarily get better looking plants or better growth," he said.?
Here is Cochrane's verdict on five popular indoor plant hacks:
Using chopsticks to aerate your indoor plants
This hack involves poking a chopstick into the soil of your indoor plant to help provide more oxygen to the roots, and improve water flow through the soil.?
Watch TikToker @plantswithkrystal demonstrate the hack in the video above.
Sounds easy and harmless enough but Cochrane said "it doesn't make any difference" to the health of your plant.?
"Aeration of the soil is a good thing but as long as you're getting a professional potting mix, they're designed to allow a lot of air flow in the soil," he explained.?
Shaking ?houseplants to strengthen stems
According to some plant lovers, shaking your indoor plants will help strengthen them by creating a similar motion to how plants would move in the wind outside.
It's a bit quirky and doesn't sound like the best idea, especially if your plant's stems aren't strong to begin with.
And the verdict on this one is to give it a miss because "shaking them doesn't really do anything".
Instead Cochrane recommends another plant care task you can do that actually helps the plant by removing dust from the foliage.
"Taking them outside and giving them a wash does them the world of good because it just makes sure they can get all those dirt particles off and photosynthesise properly," he said.
A water bottle in the soil for slow watering
For this hack you'll need a plastic bottle ?with water in it and then all you do is turn it upside down and stick the top in the soil.
Doing this is claimed to provide a slow release of water to your plants, whether they're inside or out, which is great for over-waterers or if you're going away for a while.
Cochrane explained this hack does work, but doesn't need to be done in winter, which is a time when plants typically need less water.
READ MORE: ?Why your houseplants will never look as perfect as they do in a garden centre
"?It's only going to be very peak summer where you might think about that, and in this day and age you can pop into your local hardware store or garden centre and you can buy these little screw on products," he said.
"They're like spikes and you screw them onto the top of a drink bottle and fill it full of water and then turn them upside down, and they're designed to professionally allow a certain amount of water to drip so that each bottle will deliver five days or seven days of water depending on what the brand is."
Ice cubes on top of the soil for slow watering
?Anyone who has lived through an Aussie summer can probably guess that popping ice cubes on top of your houseplant soil isn't going to be a slow release of water.
Cochrane predicts the ice cubes would last 15 minutes before they melt and start trickling into the soil, so if you need to keep a steady flow of water in your plant try the bottle hack above.
READ MORE:? Why you should put your indoor plants out in the rain
But there is one place where ice cubes are effective, and it's for flowering peach, dwarf nectarine and dwarf apple trees in warmer climates because they need chill time.
"?Throwing a bit of ice on top of the soil for them is very good because it chills the soil and they need a certain number of cold hours and the more they get the better they are to produce really good flower and fruits, so that's certainly a trick for that.
Using coffee grounds, eggshells and banana peels as fertiliser
?Food waste is known to break down into good compost, but what about using the scraps themselves to help boost plant health?
Eggshells crushed and added to the top of the soil is supposed to add calcium to the soil. However, Cochrane said they're actually more useful as a slug and snail deterrent in your outdoor garden beds and pots.
?Coffee grounds can also deter pests, but unlike eggshells they can help improve the soil.
"They do enrich soils and they do have some nutrients in them that are very good, but most importantly they are adding carbon into the soil, which is highly absorbent so it's very good for the soil's health to add that in," he said.?
READ MORE: Gardener warns there's one plant you should never grow directly in your garden?
Banana peels are also pretty good for the soil because they have nutrients like potassium. For this hack, some people like to chop up the skins, put in a jug or container and cover with water. After they've been left to soak you can use the liquid to water your plants.
So the verdict is: some hacks work and some don't but for the most part there's no harm in giving them a try. You never know, some might just turn out to make your plant thrive.?
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