Preventing plant issues

Before growing indoors, consider the following to prevent common growing challenges. The information on this page is courtesy of Little Green Thumbs

Prevention is the first step in avoiding unwanted issues.

There are a few simple tricks to greatly improve your chances at a trouble-free crop:

  • Before starting your indoor garden, inspect all plants you may already have in your home and discard any that are diseased.
  • Inspect your plants daily, including the underside of the leaves occasionally, checking for potential problems.
  • Buy or make your own sticky traps immediately upon planting.
  • Keep air flowing through the leaf canopy by using your oscillating fan.
  • Don’t handle plants when they are wet.
  • Ensure your pots are clean and sterilized each year before use.
  • Keep your plant stress levels low – this means maintaining adequate soil moisture, consistent light intensity and sufficient fertilization. When plants are grown under stressful conditions (such as low light and excess water), soil-borne pathogens are more likely to develop.
little-green-thumbs-indoor-growing-sticky-traps.jpgBe ruthless!

If you see a plant with any sign of infection or insect infestation on it, remove the infected plant part and dispose of it. Be ruthless! If the infection has taken over the entire plant, remove the whole plant if you can. See the “Troubleshooting” section for more tips to handle problems.