How to Take Care of Your Plants During Monsoons? With These 10 Simple Tips
As we gear up for the monsoon season, here are some helpful tips and hacks to keep your plants and garden safe from the incessant rain.
As we ready ourselves to welcome the monsoon season, it’s time to equip your plants to deal with it as well. This is the time when your green companions can thrive, albeit with some important things to keep in mind.
From horticulturist Pallavi Acharya, who nurtures a lush home garden in her government quarters in Korba, Chhattisgarh, to YouTube channels like Lazy Gardener and Garden Up, here are some helpful tips from experts across the internet to help your plants flourish:
1. Clean the underside
During the rain, plants will receive more water than required. Thus, it is important that excess water is drained from the pot. Check the drainage holes and ensure they are not blocked. The water might not be easily drained if the soil is too sick, and you might have to consider repotting.
2. Fill the pot completely
While potting, add two parts of soil and one part of cow dung filling the whole pot. This will prevent water from clogging on the top. If the pot is partly filled, make sure the drainage is open to let extra water out.
3. Use fungicide
Fungus attacks are common during monsoon. To avoid these, use fungicide once every 10-15 days.
Neem oil is one of the most effective organic fungicides available. Spray it over the leaves.
4. Prune and trim
Monsoon is the best time to replant sapling or cuttings. You can prune and cut from the original plants and plant elsewhere. You should be able to see new leaves and shoots within a week. Trimming plants also helps faster and healthier growth.
5. Avoid over watering
Due to less sunlight and more rainfall, the soil will always be wet during the rainy season. Don’t add extra water, as it can lead to the decaying of plants.
6. Shift the pots occasionally
To avoid excess water from collecting on the ground or in the pots, shift your pots around occasionally. Also remember to loosen the soil frequently.
7. Ensure sunlight
It is hard to get sunlight during the rainy season. At least twice or thrice a week, move the plants — especially succulents and cacti — to sunnier spots. Check the leaves and stems of the plant every day for decaying.
8. Avoid direct rainfall
Even though rainwater is good for plants, make sure it does not fall directly into the soil. This will cause soil erosion and removal of fertile topsoil. It is advisable to keep a sheet over the plants.
9. Clean the plates
If plates are kept under the pots, clean them regularly. Do not allow water to collect, as this can encourage breeding of mosquitoes and other insects.
10. Try repotting
Monsoon is the ideal season for repotting of plants. Small plants can be shifted to bigger pots. The transfer becomes easy as the soil is wet most of the time.
Extra tips from the gardeners:
- At an interval of 15 days, mix one teaspoon of bone meal, neemkhali, and cow dung, and add the mix to the pot.
- Keep a check on the drainage holes in your pot, which can close or get clogged due to excess water. As a result, the soil in these holes can harden, which can lead to the rotting of the roots.
- Give support to the plant during strong winds or a storm. Otherwise, the stem can break easily.
- Try growing new plants and replanting existing ones during this season.
Happy Gardening!
Sources:
8 Tips to Save Plants & Grow in Rainy Season/ Monsoon | Monsoon tips for Home Gardeners, uploaded by Lazy Gardener on YouTube.
5 Unique Flowering Plants for Indian Summers and Monsoons to Buy, uploaded by Garden Up on YouTube.
Edited by Divya Sethu
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