10 Bad Habits That DESTROY Your Plant’s Health

Gravel In Pots

The first bad habit I often see people doing is a really common one and one that is really bad for your plant’s roots, and that is adding gravel or stones to the bottom of the pots. This habit is a bit of an old wives’ tale and is used to apparently help with water drainage in the soil.

But the problem here is that you’re essentially reducing the amount of soil that the plant can use in the pots, which will be unhealthy for the plant.

The only thing that will happen here is that the roots of the plant will want to grow into the gravel instead of the soil, which will lead to unhappy roots. Instead of adding gravel to your plant’s pots, put your plant in a plastic nursery pot with drainage holes so that excess water can escape from the pot.

Consistent Watering

Bad habit number two is watering all of your houseplants the same way and at the same time.

You may have a watering schedule that you’re sticking to for all of your plants, but this is the wrong way to water your plants.

You may assume that all houseplants have the same needs but this is so far from the truth. Tradescantias, philodendrons, ficus plants, and succulents, for example, all have different watering needs, and if you were to water them all at the same time and in the same way, you would have a selection of unhappy plants.

Instead, learn what the watering requirements are for each of your plants and check the moisture in the soil before watering.

Not Pruning

Bad habit number three is a really common mistake that people tend to make and that is not pruning your houseplants. Understandably, we’re a little bit tentative when it comes to cutting down our plants that we have spent a fair bit of money on, and lots of us don’t realize that pruning our plant will actually invigorate the plant and make it much healthier. Generally, if you cut the stem of a plant it will encourage the plant to send out two new shoots, making your plant bushier in the process.

You won’t kill the stem or the plant from making a cut. Pruning the stems of the plant keeps the plant looking fresh by encouraging lots of fresh growth, which is great for your plant.

Plant Research

The fourth bad habit is one that I’m often guilty of, and that is not researching the plants we have to make sure we understand what they want.

Not all plants are the same. Some plants require full sun to thrive, such as jade plants, and others only want indirect sunlight to be happy, such as Tradescantias. If you have a plant that you are unsure what it likes, then do some research online.

If you don’t know what the plant is called, then just take a picture and search for it online using Google Lens.

Sunlight

Placing your house plant in direct sunlight can kill the plant and it’s bad habit number five.You may assume that all plants need as much sunlight as possible to photosynthesize and store energy, but this is not true with houseplants.

Putting your plant in full sun can burn the leaves and turn the plant yellow. The houseplants you have in your home probably hail from the forest floor of tropical rainforests where they get dappled sun throughout the day as they are overshadowed by the larger trees around them. This means they never get prolonged exposure to direct sunlight, so when we put our tropical plants in direct sun on a south-facing window, for example, we tend to have very unhappy plants.

Instead, keep your plant out of direct sunlight. A couple of hours of direct sun a day seems to be fine but avoid prolonged periods in the sun.

Re-potting

Most people lead very busy lives, of course, and this means that a lot of us buy a plant, place it in our homes, and forget about it apart from watering it occasionally.

This neglect can mean that our plants get bigger and outgrow the pots that we brought them home in, which leads to a root-bound plant.

If a plant outgrows the pot it lives in, this can lead to a nutrient deficiency as there are too many roots in the soil in the pot. You will start to notice yellowing leaves on the plant and also the plant will seem thirstier than normal.

It’s a good idea to check the root ball of your plant at least once a year in the spring to check whether the plant needs potting up into a bigger pot.

So just gently lift the plant out of the pot and have a look at the roots. If they are circling around the pot, then it’s time for a repot into a bigger pot.

Over-fertilizing

Beginner plant enthusiasts are often very keen to look after their plants and they tend to fuss over them in the beginning. This can lead to my next bad habit and that is over-fertilizing your plants. Beginner plant owners may not understand how often they need to fertilize, and it’s quite common for some folks to fertilize them every time they water the plant.

This can be seriously detrimental to the plant and results in root burn.

Plants only need a certain amount of food, and if we go over that, then the roots will become damaged and your plant will develop yellow leaves. This can have long-term consequences for the plant, and it will take a while for the plant to recover.

If this sounds like a plant you have, then the best thing to do is to remove the soil from the plant, wash the roots thoroughly with fresh water, and repot it into some fresh soil. Don’t fertilize again for a few months and see how the plant gets on. Remember that most plants will do fine being under-fertilized. You could probably get away with only fertilizing your plants once a year in the growing season.

You just might not see super strong growth and vibrant foliage.

Misting

The next bad habit you need to avoid is misting your plants. There’s a common misconception out there that misting the leaves of your plant with a spray bottle increases the humidity of the plant which then makes it healthier, but sadly this is just not true.

Misting your plant creates more problems than it solves. But to sum up, if you spray the leaves of your plant, not only does it not increase the humidity around your plant, it also increases the risk of fungus and disease spreading on your plant, which is clearly not what we want. Misting your plant only serves to moisten the leaves of the plant, which then dries quickly, therefore not really providing any extra humidity for your plant.

If you want to increase the humidity of your plants, then you can group your plants together to kind of create a microenvironment with higher humidity, or you can invest in a humidifier that you can place next to your plants.

Moving The Plants

The next bad habit is something I’m trying to improve myself, and that is moving plants around the home too often.

I think we’re all guilty of moving our plants around the house until we find a spot that we are happy with and that complements the styling of our homes. Houseplants, though, are surprisingly fickle things, and they tend to like being left in their spot untouched. If we move them often, then they tend to get a little bit fussy and you may see some leaf drop.

This is particularly true if you’re moving plants in and out of high-light positions. This will stress the plant out.

This is one of the reasons why some plants just do not do well when we get them home from the shop.

The plant has become acclimatized to a spot in a shop, and then we disrupt that when we take them home, and sometimes they become very unhappy. So my advice here is to just pick a spot in your home and try your best to not move them too often.

Giving Up

Probably the most important bad habit we need to avoid when caring for our houseplants is giving up.

Everyone, including myself, makes mistakes when caring for our plants and we may see plant problems such as pests, yellowing leaves, or even plant death, but we shouldn’t let this deter us from having plants in our homes. When I first got into plants, I made lots of mistakes and lost a few plants along the way, but importantly, I learned from my mistakes and gained lots of good experience. I now think I’m a much better plant carer.

It can be tempting to give up and think plants are not for you, but this would be a sad mistake.

Having plants in your home is a wonderful thing, and I believe it really improves our well-being and happiness being surrounded by nature. Watering your houseplants is one of the most important things you can do to have a thriving plant in your home.