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When looking for a plant for indoor gardening, select only those plants that seem to be free of pests. Check underneath the foliage and the axils of leaves for any signs of insects or disease. For best results, always select plants that look sturdy, clean, and well-potted. Try to choose plants with healthy foliage. Avoid plants with yellow or chlorotic leaves, brown leaf margins, wilted foliage, spots or blotches, or spindly growth. In addition to this, avoid those with torn leaves and those plants that have been treated with "leaf shines," which add an unnatural polish to the leaves. Plants that have any new flower and leaf buds along with young growth are usually of better quality. Optimal light requirements are usually indicated on the tag with the plant. Make sure your interior can meet the requirement from natural sunlight. If not, artificial lighting may be needed as a supplement.
When moving plants for indoorgardening, remember the two seasons of the year that can cause damage: the hot summer and the cold winter months. In summer, try to avoid placing plants in a car with the windows shut, as temperatures will rise and destroy the plant in a very short period of time. Shade the plant from direct sun while it is in the car as the plant will be burned by the sun shining on it. Do this even if the air conditioner is on and it's comfortable in the car.
During winter, wrap plants thoroughly before leaving the garden shop to carry them to your car. A short run from the store to the car in very low temperatures can severely damage or even kill plants. Wrap plants thoroughly with newspaper or paper bags, place in the front of the car, and turn on the car heater. The boot of most cars is too cold to carry plants safely during the winter months.
If you plan to go away, make special arrangements so that plants will not be frozen or damaged by cold weather. Many foliage plants will be damaged if the temperature drops much below 50°F, so maintain as warm a temperature as is possible around the plants when moving them from one location to another. Never allow wind to blow across them from open car windows.
Research conducted in Florida in the late 1970s revealed an interesting phenomenon:
Tropical plants grown in full sun have leaves (so-called sun leaves) which are structurally different from the leaves of plants that are grown in shade (shade leaves). Sun leaves have fewer chloroplasts, and thus less chlorophyll. These chloroplasts are located deep inside the leaves and the leaves are thick, small, and usualally large in number. Shade leaves have a greater numbers of chloroplasts and therefore more chlorophyll, are thin, large, and fewer in number. When plants are grown in strong light, they develop sun leaves which are photosynthetically quite inefficient. If these same plants are placed in low light, they must either change their existing sun leaves into shade leaves or drop their sun leaves altogether and grow a new set of shade leaves which are photosynthetically more efficient!
To reduce this shock which occurs when a plant with sun leaves is placed in shade, one should gradually reduce the light levels it is exposed to. This process is called acclimatisation. The gardener should acclimatise plants when placing them outdoors in the summer by gradually increasing light intensities, and then reversing the process again before plants are brought indoors in the Autumn. For newly purchased plants grown in high-light conditions, one should acclimatise them by initially locating them in a high-light area of your home and gradually moving them to their permanent, darker location over a period of say, 4 to 8 weeks.
Happy indoor gardening! |