Overwater and underwater
You’ve brought home this living thing, and you’re suddenly doing your best to keep it alive. You’re watering it every couple of days, but the soil is still dry, so you water it again. Next time you check in on your plant, its leaves are turning yellow and dropping to the floor. You try moving it to a window, hoping that will help. A few days after that it gets cold and windy out, so you bring your plant inside for the night. The next morning your plant looks like a pile of dead twigs. What went wrong?
To put it simply: overwatering and underwatering can both kill plants just as easily as the other (even though they seem like complete opposites). Most houseplants need their soil to dry out completely between waterings; however some plants prefer constant moisture (like those found in rainforest environments). In general, if you aren’t sure if a plant needs more or less water, you can find out a lot of information about certain plants’ watering preferences online.
Avid, on the other hand, knows exactly what your plant wants and needs. Just fill up the reservoir with water and Avid will automatically water your plants based on their preferences. Avid will then notify you on our app when it’s time to top off the reservoir.
Too much light
Too much light: if you notice your house plants wilting, this may mean that there is too much light. The more light your plant receives, the more water it consumes. You can fix this by adjusting the amount of light your plant is getting or by adjusting your watering schedule to meet its needs. Plants need a balance of water and light for them to thrive.
Not enough light
While it is important to give each of your plants the proper amount of light, I don’t think anyone would deny that insufficient plant light can be a real pain in the ass. Light is the source off all your plants’ food. Without light it won’t produce enough sugars to live. We tend to take our plants for granted, and when they die due to a lack of sunlight, we’re quick to throw our hands up in the air and curse their existence.
Plants are pretty resilient. They can survive for long periods without water, for instance, and rarely need fertilizer or even much care overall. If you look after them right, they’ll reward you with plenty of beauty over time. While there are no hard-and-fast rules dictating how much sunlight they need each day, you can usually tell when a plant’s needs aren’t being met just by looking at it:
- Leaves will often turn yellow around the edges
- The plant will become sickly and begin dying back as soon as it loses its leaves
- It will eventually become stunted or unevenly shaped
Avid provides your plant with an optimized light intensity and spectrum so you don’t need to constantly move your plant back and forth from shade to light.
Too much or not enough fertilizer
Remember, fertilizer is meant for plants that need extra nutrients. Not every plant needs it and too much of it can be harmful. You only want to use a fertilizer that’s appropriate for your plant as many plants will require different amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium(along with a long list of other micronutrients).
There are many reasons why your houseplants could be dying, but browning leaf tips, yellow and brown spots, or overall yellowing leaves, among other problems, can be signs of nutrient burn(excess) or deficiencies. You also need to consider what part of the plant these signs are showing themselves on(older leaves, younger leaves, wide spread, etc.) to determine the real problem. It can all be extremely confusing.
Avid takes the guess work out of feeding your plants by using our grow recipes to give your plant the perfect amount of different nutrients when they need them at different stages of growth.
Pests
Pests are a common problem for houseplants. There are many varieties of pests that can be difficult to see and identify, but if you do see them on your plants, try not to use pesticides–they’re incredibly toxic. Below are just a few examples of pests you might find:
- Spider mites–tiny little bugs that attack weak or stressed plants, usually in the spring and fall when temperatures fluctuate. These are very common in homes and can be controlled by washing off the leaves with soapy water every few days until they go away. Don’t let them get out of control!
- Fungus gnats–these tiny mosquitoes mostly live in the soil, but can fly around your house too. To get rid of them, first use an organic insecticidal soap or neem oil to kill any adults or larvae (bugs in their immature form). Once all of these are gone, put some sticky traps next to your plants just in case they come back.
- Aphids- Aphids are small, 1/16- to 1/8-inch-long (2-4 mm), pear-shaped, soft-bodied insects. They can range in color from green, black, red, yellow, brown or gray. The best way to identify aphids is to check for two tail pipes (cornicles) found at the end of the abdomen. All aphids have cornicles, but some are smaller and less obvious. A natural way to get rid of them is to introduce Ladybugs who will eat the aphids. You can also wipe them off but you may miss some so just be sure to look the plant over thoroughly.
Avid is developing image recognition to help you identify these issues, along with disease, earlier on than you may be able to yourself so we can help provide recommendations on how to treat the issue and ensure a successful harvest.
Re-potting shock
In normal conditions, transplanting a plant is not a big deal, and it’s fine to do it at any time. But there are exceptions. For instance, if you’re moving from a large pot to a small one, or from your yard into its winter home in the house (for plants that die back every year), you’ll want to wait until the fall for either of those transitions. During this time of year, your plant might show signs of being ready for transplant: its roots will have outgrown the container size in which it was planted or it’s about to move into dormancy for the winter.
Although transplant shock isn’t deadly (at least not immediately), it can stress your plant and make it more susceptible to diseases and pests. You want to avoid stressing your plant as much as possible!
With Avid, theres no need to transplant. Avid is your plant’s home from seed to harvest.
Plants are delicate things, the best ones can be easily killed.
Plants need a lot of care to grow and survive in their new environments. You will have to water them on a regular basis, and make sure they are getting enough sunlight or the right type of artificial light. Once they get big enough, you will have to re-pot them so that they can continue to grow. They also require fertilizer, pest control and optimal temperatures. Without all of these things, your plants will wilt and die.
Avid takes out all the guess work for all these potential problems. By knowing exactly what you are growing, we can use one of our over 1,000 recipes to provide whatever it is you are growing with optimal conditions.