So, what should you be doing with your houseplants this summer? Whether they are indoors or you moved them outside, plants are responding to the much longer days and brighter light by actively growing. The first thing you should do is feed your plants.
Why Feed Your Plants Now
During the winter, with short days and dimmer light, your houseplants are resting, not exactly dormant but not actively growing either. Currently, they are actively growing, so they require food. Remember that plants you’re growing for their foliage (like philodendron, ferns, rubber plants, Weeping figs, etc.) should be fed a fertilizer with even numbers (20-20-20 for ex.) or even a slightly higher first number (20-10-10). The first number in a fertilizer label indicates the percentage of nitrogen. It promotes foliage growth. The second number is phosphorus—it promotes root and bloom development. The third number is potassium. It supports overall plant vigor and disease resistance.
Exceptions to The Fertilizing Rules
For most plants we are growing for fruit (including vegetables) or flowers, you want to use a higher middle number (10-20-10, for example). There are exceptions, however. Although we grow orchids primarily for their flowers, the American Orchid Society recommends feeding them with a half-strength 20-20-20 fertilizer. For succulents and cacti, you can use even numbers like 20-20-20, or for cacti that bloom (like Christmas Cactus or other blooming orchids), you can use an African Violet food.
What Else Needs to be Done?
The second thing you should be doing now, besides fertilizing your houseplants, is to do any necessary pruning or shaping of your plant. You do not want to prune in the fall because you need to prune when plants are actively growing and can leaf out more, or get bushier.
The third thing you want to do in the spring or summer is any necessary repotting. Do not disturb a plant’s roots when they are getting ready for a winter’s nap. You want to repot when they are actively growing so their roots can grow into their new potting medium. Do remember that certain specialty plants like orchids, cacti, and citrus have specialty soil mixes. As a general rule of thumb, do not go up more than one pot size at a time—from a four-inch to a six-inch, from a ten-inch to a twelve-inch. etc. You can kill a plant by overpotting it.
Reward Yourself!
And if you want to snack on a veggie from your garden while you feed, repot, or prune your houseplants, go for it.