How to Keep your Greenhouse Plants Healthy
Gardening is easy for some. However, when it comes to indoor gardens and greenhouses, it’s a different story. Tending for your plants may not pose much of a challenge when you’re working with the earth. However, some are likely to panic when your greenhouse set-ups lead up to a nutrient deficiency. Fortunately, you can muster the process of fertilization to keep your plants in the best shape.
Greenhouse Gardens: Struggles and Solutions
Greenhouse gardening is a different approach, and it comes with a lot of challenges. We summarized the challenge into three main points: Soilless Planting, Nutrient Requirement and Year-round Care. Let’s discuss more on these.
1. Soilless Planting
Greenhouse gardeners mainly use organic matter mixes instead of soil. This is because a greenhouse is a micro-ecosystem, and any disturbance of the PH balance can disrupt its health. Instead of garden soil, peat, coconut coir, and bark mixes are used.
In this case, it is recommended that greenhouse gardeners pot up their mixes into smaller containers instead of going large initially. This helps stabilize the pH level of the medium and helps in the plant’s uptake of nutrients. This leads us to our next point.
2. Nutrient Requirement
Greenhouse plants develop a different kind of biology once they start to thrive in this environment. While outdoor plants can be virtually left on their own for days, greenhouse plants aren’t self-sufficient. Not only do they need to be maintained, but their gardeners also have to keep an eye on their nutrition.
Since these plants can procure nutrients from natural garden soil, you can utilize liquid fertilizers to supplement any immediate need for nutrients. This can either be in the form of synthetic all-purpose or targeted fertilizers.
Organic fertilizers are also beneficial in keeping your plants healthy and nourished. You can even buy pre-made organic mixes from gardening stores if you don’t have time to make your own mix. However, if you find the time of day, you can work on homemade fertilizers or compost teas.
3. Year-round TLC
This may not come off as a problem since gardening can be a therapeutic activity for people with green thumbs. However, the point stands that maintaining a greenhouse garden is a lot of work. A lot of thinking and brainstorming also goes into the process.
The greenhouse should have the ideal temperature and illumination to maintain its ecosystem, which can be difficult to maintain. This is why studying your plants’ needs during every season should be taken into account. This can be done through strategic fertilizing or supplemental lighting during the darker seasons.
Still unsure where to start? Watch the beginner’s guide to greenhouses below: