GENERAL PLANT CARE

We offer an extremely limited number of plants locally (currently only at Fort Smith Coffee Co Bakery location) as they are ready for new homes. This page is to give general information and advice on the most typical types of plants we propagate and sell.

All advice given here is just from my personal experience and may or may not work well for your plants. I don’t claim to be an expert of any sort.

tipS for all plants

• Most of the plants I have like to dry out a little between waterings. That’s because I killed the plants who seem to need to stay wet all the time… like ferns. Ferns hate me. But back to the point, I finger check almost all my plants to make sure at least the top 1-2 inches have dried out before watering again. This is a good base rule for watering that suits over half my plants, but you have to adjust it for plants that need more or less water. Like you might want to let the top 50% of the soil dry out for succulents but a pepperomia may not need the top inch to dry out completely between waterings.

• All of my plants prefer to have time to soak up their water for at least 10 minutes. I think this is important. I may only water around once a week usually but all of the plants have water trays so they have time to soak the water back up after it runs through the pot. Without that, they wouldn’t be as happy and would need to be watered more often.

• Almost all of my plants LOVE to go outside to our covered porch from late spring to early fall (at least in zone 7)! They love the warmer weather and the humidity, just watch out for the sun!

• Slow changes are important for your more fragile plants, like calatheas or alocasia but can even include some succulents. So it can be helpful to provide a similar temperature and light to what they are used to and make gradual changes.

• If you have less than ideal light, you will probably need less water. I’ve noticed that almost every time I’ve given a plant root rot, it was because I moved them to a darker area and wasn’t checking the dryness of the soil. So I didn’t notice that they needed a lot less water. I always think of something I saw once where a succulent could be locked in a dark box for a month and survive it but not if it was wet.

• When to pot up… I always repot right before putting a plant up for sale. So if we are talking about a plant you got from me, there is a good chance you won’t need to pot up for 6-12 months. A lot of plants do not like tons of extra room in their pots. So I typically don’t size up a pot until roots are coming out the bottom hole of the pot or until it’s needing water way too often (like every day in summer).

Alocasias are definitely not your easiest houseplant to start with! I love them so much but I’ve had more than a couple friends bring me theirs to save because they can be pretty finicky. I don’t claim to be an expert but I’m going to tell you what I think makes mine happy in our space vs other homes where they seem to struggle.

They like humidity and bright but indirect light. These two things aren’t always as easy to accomplish as you might initially think. My plants all stay clumped together with water trays under everyone (which helps increase humidity), but you could run a humidifier. As for light, people often place them in a sunny window and burn them up or in a corner where it’s too dark. Mine are in a north or east facing window or several feet back from a south or west facing window.

Direct sun, overwatering, underwatering, and pests are the usual killers of Alocasia. They are prone to spider mites and often come home from plant stores or grocery stores with them! Check my section for spider mites to see how I handle them. As for watering, letting the top 1-2 inches dry between waterings is a good rule for alocasias. Once a week is the average time between watering while the plants are indoors but that can vary depending on how much soil is in your pot, the season, etc. So checking to make sure the top 1 inch of soil has dried is the best judge for watering. When I see one of my alocasias with slightly drooping leaves, I know it’s time to water. If you do start to see your alocasia go downhill, don’t give up! I’ve often been able to repot my alocasia bulbs and they come back to life!

More on Alocasia pests, problems, and my solutions here…

If your curious about plant classification, I have seen some things that say monsteras are philodendrons, while others that say monstera is it’s own genus under the Monsteroideae subfamily. I’m not a scientist or botanist, I just take care of plants. So either way I’m lumping philodendron, epipremnum, and monstera care together because they have similar needs. Epipremnum are my pothos, which are some of the most forgiving plants in this category. I’ve found the hardest ones for me to take care of are the variegated monsteras, which are a lot more prone to root rot.

Most of these guys want bright indirect light and also benefit from humidity (although humidity doesn’t seem as important as it is for alocasias). Overwatering or underwatering will typically be your most common problems. My grandma has watered her huge tree philodendron once a week on Saturday for 50 years. So where as once a week may work for you (like it has my grandma), I still typically like to check the soil and look for a dry top inch. Sometimes I may need to water every few days or sometimes in the winter it may be 2 weeks between watering.

Arrowheads are some of my most favorites. I love the variety of colors you can get but I think they seem to grow faster and are easier than philodendrons. I haven’t ever given an arrowhead root rot and they don’t seem to be on the edge of death if you miss a day watering. I’ve even chopped one completely off that had brought home mealy bugs from the store and it came back better than ever! I just love them. I follow the same watering plan as with the others, meaning when the top inch is dry, and they also prefer bright indirect light.

Where as these guys are some of the most hardy, they can also be easy to kill! I’ve seen them die from just a harsh change like going from shade to direct sun or going from an average temperature in the 70s to outside in the 90s. Overall they prefer several hours of direct sun and minimal water. I almost never water a succulent more than once a week and can go 4-6 weeks in between watering in the winter. People typically kill them by overwatering them or underwatering them… usually because people love them to death (overwater) or think that not overwatering means literally never watering. I usually water based on the top 50% of the soil being dry or just knowing I haven’t watered them in 1-2 weeks (in summer). A lot of them will show signs of being thirsty by looking a little shriveled or less plump than usual. Having a really good draining soil helps keep them from getting overwatered too.