So you want to grow plants indoors?

Solar powered plant

For whatever reason you want to litter your house with live plants. Maybe it's because you heard of the medical benefits, perhaps it's because your house is too dry, or you may just want to look sophisticated. It doesn't matter, plants survive for years outside and now you want a few in your home too.

"But I kill every plant I touch!" you may think to yourself. Well, that's what were here to address you little black thumb you...

First off, the "why?"

The benefits of plants extend beyond simply looking great and proving you have an attention span of more than a few minutes.

*RECORD SCREECH* Before we continue, I would like (need) to mention (because people don't shut up about it) that almost nothing here will help in any way grow cannabis. It is an incredibly needy plant if you want to get anything, erm, useful... out of it.

*resume play* They remove toxins from the air, humidify your house, reduce the ambient temperature, reduce ambient noise levels, and actually induce a feeling of calm and aid in stress relief simply with their presence. The benefits go beyond what I can remember, but there's more. Obviously they produce oxygen as well. It may not be much, but a house loaded with plants has a measurably higher oxygen level than a house lacking them. Enough about why you may want them though, let's move on to the 'how'.

I could not find a better image depicting three states a plant may be in based on watering.

The most common killer of plants is over watering. Seriously, this is where most of you may stop reading anything useful to you.

All of these are Peace Lilies, they happen to be a relatively easy plant to grow but also, like most plants, susceptible to over watering.

On the left is a specimen that is wilted, floppy, generally pretty sad looking. When under watered, a plant will begin to bend at its thinnest points, generally where the leaf meets the stem. This is an obvious sign of under watering. DO NOT assume the soil is dry because the top is dry. The fact of the matter is that plants prefer dry rather than wet. They have gone a long time without humans to care for them, they will go without being watered for a bit.

On the right is a plant that has received TOO much water (this particular one appears to have been over watered for a while) The leaves are still droopy, the tips are dying off, it hasn't really put out much new foliage to fill in the center. If your pot is lacking drainage then water will collect at the bottom and essentially 'drown' the roots. Then again, you may see the top of the soil dry and go to water the plant. Before you do this, simply dig away a bit of soil, less than half an inch would do, to confirm that the soil is indeed dry. And I'm talking DRY. If it's moist, the plant still has accessible water.

Lighting

Not all plants were grown equal. Some prefer to be in the sunniest window in the house, others in a dark corner away from direct light. Generally speaking, the darker the leaf, the darker the plant likes. THIS IS NOT A RULE OF THUMB, just an observation of mine.

Obviously, every house plant needs light, some more than others. Some plants will 'burn' in a window but wilt in the corner. These plants generally enjoy the area in between, that 'rest of the room' that's not in the direct light, but still very bright.

All plants you buy in a retail store will come with a tag printed with general information. Height, lighting, fertilizer requirements (personally I have seen little difference between fertilizing and not, but I do pamper my plants). Anyway, what you're looking for with these tags is the lighting section.

"Full Sun"- Self explanatory. Put the damn thing in a sunward window and let her bake! (Succulents and cacti, herbs, most tropicals)

"Bright Light"- Somewhere that's very bright, but this doesn't always mean in direct sun. Do you have a white room with a lot of windows? Put it in the center. So long as the sun isn't constantly beating on the plant, it'll be fine.

"Part Sun"- These will do well in relatively bright or relatively dim areas so generally speaking this is the mid-ground. They'll do well in both 'bright light' and 'low light'

"Low Light"- These are the plants you put in the corner. Don't let the sun touch them for too long (half hour maybe, repeated exposure will burn the leaves or discolor them). They'll tolerate a bright room but not direct exposure to sunlight.

*Unlisted 'singularity' light exposure*- There isn't a listing for this, but these are the plants that are capable (but do not prefer) of surviving in a rather dark and unforgiving environment like a local bar. Few come to mind but off the top of my head I'd say the 'Cast Iron plant' or 'Acuba'.

Potting

You may think "Oh well I just get a nice big put to put this is and it'll be fine". Most situations you would be right, but some plants simply prefer to be contained a bit. Succulents grow thick and small when contained but grow faster than what's good for them in larger containers. Really, just get a pot that's slightly larger than the one the plant is currently in.

On the topic of plastic/ceramic really there is little difference between the two, at least for the plant anyway. Plastic is generally cheaper and ceramic will slowly leach excess water out of the sides which in most cases is a good thing.

This was my room 2 years ago. Every plant that was not capable of surviving outside was placed under a single workshop LED light strip I had and set it to a timer for 14 hours a day of light. This barely kept my collection alive, but it worked.

This was my setup last year for the winter. I spent a pretty penny on more LEDs and a hardware rack to mount them on. The shelves were roughly $40 and the 1ft LED light strips were $32 each (6 of them). This setup runs on 72 watts and produces little heat. The LEDs are rated at 4000 kelvin (all lights come with a Kelvin rating, it's essentially the shade of white they produce) and I chose 4000 because it contains both the red and blue spectrum but isn't TOO bright, allowing me to put all the plants I had, be them bright light or low light on the same rack.

LEDs are great for growing indoor plants, you really can't over expose or under expose a plant with LED lights.

Succulents/cacti: Bright light, little water, the perfect plant for "Oh crap I forgot to water it but I'm on the other side of the country" people. You can neglect them and they won't hate you for it. They're also incredibly easy to propagate, but we'll get into that in a bit.

The down side? If you over water them once and leave them wet, they're dead...

Spider Plant: You can hang it from the ceiling or put it on a pot on the floor/table. They'll take bright light, a rather dim room, neglectful watering, over watering. Really, this is a great beginner plant and on top of that, you can make HUNDREDS of them. Every year they sent out stiff shoots that branch off more tiny spider plants (hence the name, fear not) than you can cut off and plant.

Sansevieria: Ever wanted a plant that could literally grow out of its pot? These things will let you know when its time for a bigger pot because they'll break the one they're in. It takes a while, but they can and will do it. They will do great anywhere you put them and you can propagate them rather easily. They're quite an oddity as they grow straight up while twisting and they're quite stiff.

Jade plant: These things are your friend too. They'll take over watering as well as under watering, direct sun, bright light, moderate light. They'll eventually grow into something resembling a bonsai eventually. You can propagate these by individual leaves.

African Violets: They come in every shape and color and you can buy they ANYWHERE. They love that 'close to the window' position on an end table.

The down side, don't get water ON the leaves, at least not too much. Water will burn brown spots onto the leaves so you have to put the water directly on the soil.

Pothos: An easy to grow trailing plant. It'll grow and grow until it's handing several feet off of whatever surface it's sitting on. They'll take sun or shade and don't mind a drought.

WATCH OUT FOR POISONOUS PLANTS! They're likely not deadly to you, but you will get ill if you somehow get the sap (you'd have to be chewing the foliage to get enough) in your mouth. Beware of these plants with pets, because they can be deadly to your average cat/dog.

Off the top of my head: Diffenbachia, asparagus fern, cyclamen, euphorbia, oleander, philodendron. A quick google search reveals MUCH more so check the names before you put them in reach of children/animals.

Watch out for ferns! They're not bad, just incredibly finicky. They need moisture, but not too much. light, but not full sun, potting space, can't be too big though.

They look great for a while, but the first bit of neglect and they die.

Propagation

Some of these plants can be multiplied simply by cutting a piece off and burying it in moist soil. Eventually they'll grow or put out roots that grow a whole new plant. What you see here is our friend Sansevieria that has had a leaf removed and simply cut up.

You can tear a leaf off of an african violet and do the same, works with jade plants too. If a dracena ever gets too tall for you simply break it in half and plant the top. The top half will root and the bottom will out out new leaves.

This was one of my favorites, but remember what I said about finicky ferns? This happens to be a specialty Begonia, one that prefers higher humidity. I put it in a glass sphere and tried to pamper it. This was a losing battle. No matter how I treated it, it would not grow.

Get creative with the simple things! Anything that can contain soil is a potential pot. One of these was a cooking tray and the other was simply a vase. I layered rocks on the bottom for excess water to fall into (no drainage in the bottom of the glass), soil in the middle, and rocks on top for ascetics. Unfortunately what I put in there was a form of rock cress which needs full sun. Algae began to grow below everything and it looked like crap so I eventually disassembled them both.

Fake flowers! That's some form of euphorbia mixed with various succulents and topped with sand. These eventually outgrew the container and moved on to their own pots.

Anyway, that's all for now. Take this knowledge, go forth, and do what you will with it.

EDIT: I'm not one for front page edits, but I'm genuinely glad to see so many of you love your house plants and take interest in the subject! It may sound weird, but it's nice to know people share the same beliefs. I've received numerous personal conversations asking questions, feel free to throw any you may have at me and I'll try to answer them if I have an answer to give.