A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Leaching houseplants

I decided to leach all the plants today (is that the correct term? Sounds funny) and got to wondering how often should you do this? We have hard water here and I try and collect rainwater but I don't always have rainwater available. My orchid pots had salt on the outside of the pots and so I cleaned the outside after giving them a nice soak in the sink. I also washed my rocks and pan the rocks and water sit in. I keep my orchids on top of the rocks out of the water. I also trim any dead stuff off the plants at this time.

I probably do mine about once every couple of months. For me it is also a good time to trim and get rid of dying leaves. I also churn up the soil if it is getting to looking hard and the plants really seem to get a growth spurt afterwards.

Thanks for replying! I am WAY behind on my leaching!! I think last time I did it was last spring. I am not babysitting today (I have my 15 mth old grandbaby 5 days a week and you just can't get too much done with her around!) and so I figured it would be a good day to get this done. I still lack my ficus and I will have to get my son to help me heft it out of the tub. In to the tub is no problem but once it has had a good soak you need superman to come and get it out!

My christmas cactus just floated out of the pot when I put it in the sink and I wonder if it needs a bit bigger pot, but I hate to repot it now. It is in the pot I got it in 3 yrs ago and I think repotting it at this stage will upset it and it won't bloom like it should. I could be wrong about that though!

I had to smile at your plant floating out of the pot. I have had that happen and know I have waited to long to water or take care of whatever plant it was.

I so know what you mean about not getting a lot done with little ones around, but they really get a kick out of watching the bath tub fill up when there are lots of plants inside of it.

I really need more house plants, right now I only have 2.

LOL, I had to run and do a head count...we have 74 right now. My hubby keeps saying that I have enough already! My grandbaby loves to play in water. Her favorite thing is to help gramma water plants outside. I think she gets herself wetter than anything else though!

Yep, Mikey is that way too. He is a couple of weeks shy of 2 right now and water is his best friend.

74 plants. WOW. How fun. I would be watering all of the time!

I find caring for house plants helps me to relax! The ones that require lots of attention are all in one spot (my orchids, african violets, palms. lilys and my flamingo plant) and some of them are outside right now and get watered every other day. I water my containers on my porch every day right now (we are actually a bit cooler now...last week was week 3 of 100+ temps). Most of my hanging plants have pots with a water reservoir (sp?) in the bottom and that makes those easier. Sunday I always check every plant to see if they need water and on the first of every month I water my cactuses, succulents, snake plant and anything that doesn't require much water. I also fertilize my orchids and african violets that day too. I guess I am probably ocd about taking care of my plants, but I really love them all and think they make nice decorations. I tell my husband we probably have the best air in town in our house LOL!! There is only one room in our house with no plants and that is our bathroom and I would love to have a huge fern in there but there is only a tiny window and it doesn't let in enough sunlight.

I bet a fern would still do well in there. I have seen them in some very dark bathrooms. I was just saying on another thread that ferns in bathrooms are a good mix. Rosemary grows great in bathrooms as well.

I have a perfect bathroom for plants but have yet to put any in there. Maybe that can be my middle of winter project.

Do you have jade growing inside? My grandmother had several very large jade plants in her lanai and they were just the neatest growing plants.

My jade is outside and my son bought it for me for mothers day. It is a minature one "Elephant plant" or "Small leaf Jade" and I have had it for quite some time (I think at least 4 or 5 yrs) and it didn't do much of anything at all. I put it outside this year and it has gone nuts. I would not believe it was the same plant!

Hmmm, I have had my eye on a fern on clearance at Walmart...maybe I should go and rescue it tommorow when I am in between drs visits and vet visits. I had a horrible experience today. While picking cucumbers a bug flew in my ear!!! I could feel it crawling around and tried to wash it out with water and that didn't work. My dr was too booked to see me today so tommorow I am off to see him and also the dentist for molds for a new TMJ splint. I lost my other one about 3 weeks ago and the dentist was on vacation for 3 weeks. I will be glad to get that back as I have horrible migranes and the splint really helps with them. Also my poor dog has a cyst on her ear that she has to have removed tommorow. The dogs are all dying of thirst as I took the water up (vets orders). I didn't figure it was fair for just one of them to be thirsty.

Well my grandmothers lanai was as close to outside as a room could get. She always had it opened up and it was more window than wall so no wonder they did so well.

You are going to have a heck of a day tomorrow. Hope the bug is gone. I get migraines once in a while and they are so debilitating, it is great that your splint helps with them.

You are a fair mom to make all the dogs go thirsty. Poor things. How many do you have?

I figure the bug is gone or dead. The dr said if it is dead it's little corpse needs out of my ear! It was a long weird day!

I have 3 dogs...one is still a puppy yet. He is 9 months and his "real" name is Divine Acres Sir Woodrow of Mooreland but we just call him "Woody"



This is Daisy (right) and August (left) at halloween. August is the one with the cyst

Great danes, right? and a sheltie?

My hubby would love you. He so badly wants us to get a dane. I could go for a sheltie though.

You are right on both counts! My hubby insisted great danes were wonderful house dogs. Took him 5 years to talk me into the first one we had and we are now on #5 &6. The only bad thing about danes is their very short life span. We bought 2 from bad breeders (unfortunately hind sight really is 20/20) and had to have 2 of them put to sleep at an early age. I love the sheltie too. Only thing bad about them is the barking. But she probably thinks she is a great dane too LOL. They have a much longer life span and are way more portable LOL.

I am waiting until Charlie is mobile before getting a dog but I am sure it will be a dane. Maybe for Christmas. I just don't know how I will handle a puppy that is bigger than all of the kids plus one who is barely walking. Maybe his birthday in May.

Our sheltie used to bark like crazy too at birds especially. But they are great dogs.

Hi ladies! Hope ya don't mind my jumping in here (beautiful dogs, btw!) I was wondering what exactly leaching is...I kind of get the jist of it - soaking in water - but why do you do that if you wanter routinely? I'm just not clear on what it's all about - and I don't own any houseplants (NONE!) so I guess that's a good excuse why I dont know what it is

Well my idea of it is to "rinse" the soil. Really soak the soil well and let the water drain through it. Sometimes watering just does not get all of the soil wet, especially if like me, you neglect your plants and they get dry. It gives all of the soil a chance to really get wet and get any bad build up out of the water. At least those are my reasons. right or wrong LOL

ohhh okay I getcha I had a bonsai once (that I killed pretty quickly) that I did that with...'back in the day' LOL! How sad - time for some houseplants!

Yep, I think you should go for it! Nite!

Yes, Those are very beautiful dogs, I have a retreiever/labrador. very energetic. Anyway- how do you guys get so many plants? did you buy them all or have you just gotten many starts? I have 7.
Gracias
~Celena

Thanks for the complements on my babies...hubby tells everyone they are the children that we claim LOL. They are problably way better behaved than our kids ever were!

I don't know how I got so many plants...I just started buying them and before you knew it my hubby noticed that "it looked like a jungle in the dining room". So now he seems to have a good eye for new plants! LOL...he doesn't like me to go unattended to any place that sells plants. But if they were clearance finds he says that is ok. I got several orchids for practically nothing. Maybe a bit more than a dollar. Once they quit blooming no one wants to pay all that money for them! They are pretty easy to coax back into bloom if you have the right conditions. I am trying to get my yard lined out (this is our 2nd summer here) and so I have been focusing on plants for outside and not looking at houseplants on the net or reading about them thinking that I need one of those LOL!!