AVOID THESE MISTAKES - growing aroids indoors 

My biggest mistake by far... Not quarantining new plants. I have gone through the pest Olympics for my laziness 😭

I used to 'hover' over my plants CONSTANTLY and was slowly killing them with too much love. Now I 'neglect' them a little more.

Overwatering and using generic potting mix was my first mistake! Fungus gnats galore! Clear pots, chunky mix, and fertilizing has been the biggest game changer. Now onto buying good quality grow lights and moss poles. Thank you for all the hard work you are putting into your videos. By far has been the most help for me!

I've been keeping house plants for over 30 yrs. I hadn't bought a new plant in years but added more during the lockdown. And I've noticed that if I lost any plants it was due to not repotting a new plant within 3 months of getting new larger plants. I found alot of growers use net bags with cococoir to root babies, but they don't remove the bag when repotting or potting up. This bag traps moisture at the very base of the plant causing bacteria to form and cause root rot. So I learned... when I get a new plant remove the soil and net bag at the base of the plant right away. Then I pot the in various mediums and moss poles when needed (usually LECA or PON substrates).

I have around 65 plants spread throughout 8 rooms on 3 floors. Since I have forgotten which were or were not watered, I finally added all my plants onto a spreadsheet. I just pencil in when I watered, fertilize, thoroughly clean top/bottom of leaves, etc and it helps me track the trend of approximately how long between watering each plant can wait. I still watch for signs of drooping or other needs, but I typically allow my spreadsheet to be my indicator of when to 'check' on each plant. Some need to be checked every 3-4 days and others as seldom as 1-2 times a month. It has relieved me of so much stress and allows me to enjoy them more than worrying about them.

I remember that explanation of making sure your plant can "see the sky". It made a big impression on me as well, and I now use that advice while placing every plant in my apt.

It’s amazing how many people who love plants let them sit in the saucer filled with water, rather than emptying the saucer… of course you want to protect furniture, etc.… I deal with it by keeping a set of sponges that I use just for my plants… I let the sponges soak any excess water, and then take them out… really helps…

I think one thing you should have mentioned is that you don't need to change everything about your care all at once because then you don't know what worked and what didn't. Experiment and see how it effects the plants over time. Also don't buy plants that you are not willing to lose the money from until you are more experienced.

It's encouraging to see that someone like yourself who has amazing plants went through learning from mistakes. I'm seeing a huge difference from using your formula for a soil mixture. Thank you for taking time to make these videos and share your knowledge.

My sad mistake today: I put my sansiveria on the front porch to get some sun without checking the weather and without checking on it. It completely FRIED!! The leaves were so hot when I discovered it that they were too hot to touch!! I had to cut most of the leaves off.😭😭

I just made my own mix - equal parts orchid bark, perlite, and peat moss. I’m a lazy plant owner. I don’t want to water as frequently. 😆

Best plant channel on YOUTube. You’re a master at what you do. By sharing so humbly, you become the expert.

Very good explanation of soil needs for aroids! Especially the air pockets they love. I've had plants since I was 12. Won't say how many decades that's been lol!!! Today, people have the advantage of vast info here on RU-vid and the web. I learned from trial and error and am still learning. Love this hobby!

Just 1 of my mistakes was growing alocasia in too big of a pot and getting root rot.

I stalk my plants, armed with a coffee in my mug in the morning, and when I get home from work at night. 😂😂😂😂

Wisdom as always. I've been doing things your way for a month now and I'm seeing results already. Keep your methods coming Jan. Thank you. 😊🙏

Good advice! I went from 2 plants to 60 + in a dark studio (Oregon) apt since lock downs. I even killed a Pothos. A fiddle leaf fig was a poor choice. 27 grow bulbs in various pendants and medusa lamps later😂...they are all happy including Fiddy. The abundance of grow bulbs also keeps unwanted visitors from staying very long..😂😊.😎

I’m so glad you showed the jacklyn. I just grew one from corm.

I do over watering and over fertilized, your plants are absolutely perfectly healthy looking I would love to have mine looking like that, ty for sharing ❤️ 😊

Amazing and informative video, the first minute and six seconds are particularly great!

Pest eradication: yeah, you are so right. As I started, I eradicated spider mites, fungus gnats appear exceptionally rarely, but thrips - my nightmare. I have been spraying all my plants weekly, they are in good shape, growing well, but still I see minor thrips damage on leaves when I look at it through the sun (although I never see any living thrips anymore) even after months and months of weekly sprayings with different pesticides and watering with pesticides. It seems impossible to eradicate thrips completely. Growing the wrong plants: I´d also add that sometimes it´s just that particular plant - e.g. I have lemon lime maranta growing fast, big and blooming and beside it is red maranta and doesn´t do that great - althought light, watering, humidity, pon and everything is exactly the same. I saw this several times with the same specimen (even same age and size) living in two pots beside each other.

I'm so glad I found your Channel!! Love your energy, your accent and of course.. your gorgeous plants!!!😍🥰 I love how thorough you are and you're so organized with your videos. Short, simple and always on point! Thank you for taking the time to educate us.. xoxo💜🌺

The most impactful lesson for me learned this growing season was: let cuttings callus over before putting wax on them 😅 I rotted all my monstera chunks that were meant to be a little experiment, over the course of 3 to 10 days. And actually, this also remains the first and last time I ever got wax involved into plant propagation. Lol Love your videos, Jan! Thank you for keeping me enjoyable company while tending to my plants 🙏🤗

Thanks Jan! I love your videos, I will admit, I did the "wrap an existing plant around a moss-pole" thing :/. It's okay, only lost one vine (Monstera Adonsonaii) but it really wasn't doing well before so I'm hoping it will benefit (at least the new shoots) anyway! I built mine according to your earlier moss-pole videos and also swapped over to your recommended aeroid mix and it's really making a difference for my new plants and some older ones that weren't growing very well. Thank you again and great work on the videos and the plants! Love it!

I wish I found your channel earlier. Have been binge watching some of your past videos; I am slowly replacing my coco coir poles (no purpose I realize now) with the DIY moss poles for my Monstera, Philodendron & Syngonium. Can't wait to see the results over the next few months.

Very informative and helpful, like always. Thank you, Jan. Now that I’ve put many of my plants on moss poles, and I’m using your aroid mix, I am still in the “unsure and anxious”phase; I don’t feel confident that I can accurately tell if the mix is dry or not. The moss poles seem to dry out quite quickly, in a few days. Anyway… still learning how to care for my beautiful plants. Pests… 😩 It’s an ongoing battle. Thus far I have not lost the war! Thank you again for the great clip.

Cool channel! Great advice. Your findings are definitely consistent with my own experience learning through my own mistakes. I appreciate your expertise, looking forward to watching your archive.

Jan, your videos are so helpful and inspirational! You are a delight to watch and there's something very relaxing about your videos. I will be trying out my first ever moss pole with something similar to a grow vertical system later this week. I did a lot of research on the best pole but your plants speak for themselves and I was sold on a moss pole. When you're free- do please update us on the grow vertical system that you filled with coco chunks a few months ago. Would love to see the progress. All the best from India

Thanks for sharing this Jan it's a great list for people starting out. 100% my greatest mistake when I started my indoor plant journey was thinking that a bag of stuff marketed as indoor potting mix is the ideal medium to grow indoor plants in. It really is just a bag of disappointment with fungus gnats in it.

I always marvel at how chunky your mix is! I actually had to add some worm castings and stuff to mine to make it not dry out in one day! I wonder if it depends on our home environments. You mentioned how humid it is at yours. Here in Sweden with super short days and cold temperatures outside, things dry out like crazy because of the radiators. I have humidifiers, but they can only do so much. I now suspect it's about our different environments! Also I have some plants in clay pots and some in plastic. I just realise I will make the plastic pots mix way chunkier when I next repot them!

"All the plants in the world" lmao I can totally relate to that... Another great video for people wanting to keep their plants in ideal conditions, great job 👊

I'm a new HerbiFriend (ex-herbicide) and your videos are both informative and inspiring, thank you!! 🌱

Very, very, very informative, educational. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing! Info will help me as a new plant parent.

Great video. Ive been a plant parent for years as well and your video is very helpful.

The true get changer for me to avoid over / under watering was using pon ( semi hydro medium) in a self watering pot. Life is so so much simpler. But I also learned not all plants do will in pon. They prefer ordinary soil.

I’ve been growing plants for maybe 20 years and I still freak out when I see a thrip. They are the worst. I’m actually relieved if a plant has spider mites…they are easy peasy…a gaggle of thrips…nope! I wipe those suckers out immediately!

holy shit, I thought my plowmanii was big but yours is HUGE. Can't wait to see how big I can get mine to grow!

Excellent video with a ton of useful knowledge! Thank you for sharing! 😊

All great reminder, even for experienced growers!

Wait, your Plowmanii matured that much and put out that HUGE leaf in the last three months? That's incredible!

Thank you for this video! So helpful! I think I may have over packed my moss pole. Oh well you learn as you go I guess 😊

Great video !!! I'm shore we're all guilty of most of these at some point. Mine is the rush to pot up once I see roots. If anything, plants teach us patience!! Thanks for all the vids!! Plant love from Nova Scotia Canada!! 💚

I may be wrong, but I thought root rot was primarily a fungal issue. This is important as the treatment for bacterial and fungal pathogens are different.

I have made every single mistake on your list except moss poles...I am now putting my Glorios on a pole and kinda stressed out doing it. My 1 struggling plant currently is my Calathea Yellow Fusion...doesn't help living in Cape Town, South Africa where currently the air is dry and hot. Most of my plants are in an indoor greenhouse but I still struggle with certain plants. Thanks for an amazing channel and all your tips!!!

I think fighting pest are part of the whole experience! It's a new challenge and it keeps you interested in another angle of the plants. A don't love them but I feel so good when they don't kill my plants and are eradicated for that event. It part of the fun! 😋 Love your videos and explanations! Hello from Mexico city.

Thank you, i learn from you about plant growing and following your method to make my plant like yours. ^^. Honestly your youtube channel is helpful Thanks. sydneyguy From south korea.

Lightning is so important! I was killing a lot of air plants and wondering where I was going wrong, turns out air plants do like a lot of light

Great video! I have almost 100 plants now in my collection. My favourites are my Alocasias and Prayer plant family. I have 22 different types. I rinse my leaves every time i water my plants. If I have to water twice a week then i rinse their leaves twice. I also wipe down my leaves regularly. Every 2 weeks on average. This seems to help keep any pests to a minimum .

I would love to see what you could do with orchids in that chunky mix and with regular feedings. I have a lust for every plant and so therefore I have WAY too many to give them each the specialized care they need, but I admire your discipline immensely. You could put the orchids in the pot with the vines and it would give you a bit of bling there at the base.

this guide video is just fantastic! Thanks! XOXO from Berlin!

holy cannoli that Jacklyn is superb!

5:09 learned this the hard way 😩 lost a good amount of plants I had just bought but at least I learned that lesson then

Really interesting. Especially the last point! But where was gorgeous brad?!!!

Thanks Jan for sharing...

Wow you have many pricy plants sir ! I' m your new friend and i am also a plant lover ! Thats why i enjoy watching your video sir ..

i wished this video came up to my feed earlier! a things i learnt throughout my plant-parent journey, 1. airflow: should not tuck a plant at the corner of the kitchen near a wall, it's near death. leaves get yellow and all. i put them back next to my window, it's thriving and giving me new babies every now and then (i bought that plant for that kitchen tho... not that kitchen spot is filled with other stuffs haha) 2. bright indirect sun: i really thought it mean if the sun is not direct = indirect sun. i read somewhere where, we should look upwards from the plant's POV and see if we should see the sky, if yes, that goods and add on the sheer curtain, that would make "bright indirect sun" 3. moss poll: my very first plant was a monstera. have 0 knowledge and just let it grow wanting the "bushy" feel... itchy hands kept turning left and right and now it's all over the place 🤦🏻‍♂ having a baby monstera thai constellation now, i will make sure to give it a nice straight pole once it has settled down (just bought back few days ago, i'll let it be familiar with the environment first 4. overwatering: it's so true that the soil from nursery are all so compact and heavy. luckily i realise fast that my monstera isn't really growing (i'm from Malaysia, so it's summer year long). decided to repot and change to aroid soil. oh dear! the roots are starting to rot a little!

When Jan speaks about plants, I really listen carefully.

My biggest mistake was putting plants in pots that were too big. I wanted them to have enough room to grow, but it caused too much wetness the plants could not absorb… Thanks so much for these great videos! I’m learning a lot!

I pretty much agree with all you say, the one that I empathise with the most was the wrong/right plants for me: I live in the UK, my previous home was great for growing begonias rex, my new home is not so suitable, I spent a lot of money in the last 2 years by trying to grow begonias and I've decided I'm not going to force it anymore as I can grow other wonderful plants instead, just different colours and textures. Aroids are my thing here in my new home of 2 years now, including prayer plants - ctenathes, calatheas, maranthas..., sansevierias... and a whole rage of wonderful plants. Alocasias tend to go a bit yuck due to the low levels of light, so I'm trying this year with letting them hibernate a bit - this is a new experience for me. I have said in the past to people that say a particular plant is too hard to keep/care for: its not the plant, its either you or your home - but as no one likes to be blamed for something.... so I'm glad you spoke about this. For pest control I use Neem oil, there are plenty of recipies out there, I stopped buying chemicals. Thanks for a great vid, and loved your lush, large foliage 👍👍

Anyone else who thought it good to block the drainage hole with a rock? My plant addiction began with succulents when I was only twelve, my dad always had me do this when I was repotting. I have since lost so many plants to root rot and once I stopped blocking the hole my plants have been so much happier. My biggest tip is to use a mesh like what screen doors are made of and use a small pice of it in place of the rock to keep the soil in and let the water flow freely.

I'm a fairly new plant parent 😊 ive always love plants but never had the green thumb needed to keep the alive at the least 😅 I have a pothos that's been with me for a while now. Hes gone through neglect so many times and he's still there, growing and i even leaned to propagate it and his babies are doing really good. So hes given me the confidence to get more plants and now i have about 6 😊 I think my biggest mistake has been thinking that full sun plants could withstand south Texas scorching sun 😢 nothing survives here in Laredo with our hellish hot weather 😅 so now i always provide shade even to full sun plants 😊

Thank you for this video. Very informative. I subscribed to your channel!

You have such a nice cat. Mine would make it her mission to eat any leaf she could reach. I have to keep all my plants up on a shelf.

From Sydney too and a beginner! With the type of weather we have I really want to know how we navigate through the weather and still have a thriving collection of tropical plants!

Love it, your the man 👍 👍

I thought I was using a chunky potting mix, but I've realized it's probably not chunky enough so I'm going to decrease the amount of coco coir and add coco chips or more bark.

Great tips 👍

I find the very inconsistent weather in New England makes it more difficult to figure out watering needs. It can be humid for days on end then dry as heck for 4 days in a row. This winter has had more humidity that helped but finally got dry this past wk. So being able to pay attention to what needs to be watered is tough.

i really love your videos.

wow, I really love and appreciate you videos because you actually explain yourself extremely well!! Do you recommend to water Philos by immersion? I normally water all my plants that way

Using too big of a pot, most of my plants got root rot despite me loosening the soil all the time, the pots were way too large, the layer of soil I was told to put at the bottom of my pot compacted and stayed wet, while I was sticking my finger as deep as I could thinking the substrate was dry, I since then have started using much smaller pots and putting the plants in the pot wothout a bottom layer of soil, since I bottom water I don't see a problem yet for the roots to be at the bottom.

Cool Program.

I differently went to hard to fast, now I just grow alot of what I'm comfortable with.

Hi Sydney Plant Guy would you consider showing or doing a tour of your prop station or new young plant area? Thanks

I always repot my plants after a few months... the new store medium is usually just coco and that is great for moisture but terrible at home. plus some times the plants now have this wrapping around the base of the plant.. which can cause rot. I let them get comfy and then plan to get them out... I also see a lot of plants that are really many new cuttings with no roots on them or barely any roots and you think your good but the plants die quickly because your thinking its mature but it is not and needs a moist soil to focus on root growth.

thank you champ

Hey Jan! I made my poles 90cm and 6cm diameter with loosely stuffed moss pole (high quality moss as well), but I find that I still need to water them every two days. I water them thoroughly like you do with the fiji bottle upside down. They are all in a chunky aroid mix and the water drains to the bottom of the pot after about 20 minutes from watering from the top of the pole. My plants are still juvenile so I get that the top is drying out way faster because the plant is at the bottom. But IDK how I can keep this up, watering every two days. For context I am in the NJ, USA area so we get cold dry winters and hot dry summers. All my plants that are on a pole sit directly behind a 6 liter humidifier. I need HELP! LOL

I’ve come back to this video to update on the status of my homemade chunky soil mix. My aroids developed a severe nitrogen deficiency from the alkalinity of the soil. Peat moss is acidic, which I had no idea. And most plants prefer a soil on the acidic end in order to properly absorb nutrients. I tried a 30-10-10 fertilizer with sulphur to add some acidity to the substrate, but I eventually just gave my plants a new soil mix that was much more peat moss heavy. I probably should have given the fertilizer more time to do its thing, but I was too scared my plants would die before that. Any advice about fertilizing plants in this chunky soil was absent and needed to be mentioned. If you’re using a chunky soil mix like in this video, make sure you are adding a slightly acidic fertilizer regularly, or your plants will become stunted.

querido sydney no entiendo ingles sin embargo me encanta ver tus videos

Lots of love from india...

my biggest mistake was buying plants online from some facebook store called the jungle collective during the lockdown without first inspecting the plant. I was sent a plant which was suffering from some kind of bacterial or fungal blight, which i knew nothing about, and in my ignorance i would mist my new plants as they loved a bit of humidity, and in doing so unknowingly spread the blight to almost every single plant in my house (upwards of about 70 plants) i lost almost everything. since then i never buy plants from facebook and i have stopped misting all together, as it doesnt do much anyway, and it just spreads disease

Hi, im new to the channel. You should do a video on how many grow lights you have in one of the plant rooms that you're growing in. For example, the living room.

HEY! Great content, awesome videos! Question for you; I watched your Oxalis video and it left me with an obsession to obtain. Well yesterday I ascertained the extraordinarily rare specimen. I have two in 150cm pots. I want to keep them in a wide but short cylindrical planter for dining table centre piece. Can you advise on soil conditions/light/ federalising. How deep roots go etc?? Thank you!!!!

I think a big reason the mistakes in potting medium can be attributed to is the misconception that roots grow primarily vertically. Many diagrams of plants/trees even display this myth, like the roots are a mirror image of the stem growing towards the sky. The reality is that in nature the vast majority of root systems are in the top 6" or so in the soil; they need oxygen and organic matter, neither of which exist in deeper layers. Even plants in prairies, the most densely speciated plant systems in the world, keep their roots near the surface. When roots get that "rootbound" look when they curl around the inside of the pot, they are most definitely just looking for oxygen (unless the pot is mostly roots, then it's definitely rootbount lol).

I came across your channel when searching for an alternative for my variegated pothos which I saved from death from my parents home. I remember it always being there and I'm 50 something now. My father used to care for it but when he passed it got neglected & was almost dead when I bought it home. Repotted it and used the existing piece of tree bark (about 90cm tall) to support it but now it's flourishing and I'm wrapping it around and around. Wanted to see if I could find a way to train it taller rather than pruning but your mistake #10 has made me realise the nodes probably wouldn't attach to a moss pole. So is the best option to cut it right back and have it start again on the pole?

Well I'm from Europe xD I have to say, I have a very big Waro in my living room and it does perfectly well. Humidity varies from 45 to 75% during the year and temperatures from 13 to about 30°C. For lighting I don't actually have any besides it being behind a large window (west sided), so if its rainy they get a lot less light (specially now during winter, we just had a month of rain). Obviously this means it has a dormency period from October to March where it doesn't grow so I don't fertilize either. I also have grown some outdoors during spring to autumn and these parameters vary even more. For light they get direct 2/3 hours of the first sun in the morning and full bright shade after that. As for temperatures they can go from 15 to 40°C day/night and humidity from, well I have no idea honestly. But I do shower them 2/3 times a day during the hotter days so I believe it varies from 40 to 70/80%. I've had over 20 Warocqueanum now, pluss cuttings and I've only lost 1 (my first one, due to unexperience). So I'd say they are a very hardy plant, I've never had them over 80% humidity, and had them in tents, in living rooms and outdoors. None the less this isn't to go against what you said because 99% of them time I totally agree with everything you say and I really love your channel and started doing moss poles because of you ;D

Not familiar with the stones you use. I’m in Ontario Canada can we use any type of small stones? Also your pots are not as large as what I use should I use smaller pots? I’ve are 20 to 30 inches wide.

You absolutely can grow queen anthuriums in low humidity (50%) though, you just have to buy them small and get them used to your environment. Then they will put up big leave too! =)

What size moss pack do you buy that fits in 6 poles? Do you cut off excess wire that is no longer a square shape? (Half open)

Great video Jan. In your medium you use coco chips, can you tell me where you get these from and how do you buy them…ie in a compressed block or loosely. Thank you 🙏🙏

I have an open concept office / living room where all my plants are. I have celijg fans running on medium all the time and I have 4 humidifiers running to keep the humidity around 60-65%. I'm in Michigan so I have many grow lights too. Do you think a ceiling fan will provide enough air flow? Thank you! Love your channel and the info...And you plants are GORGEOUS!

1. learning thorough pest treatment 2. roots need airflow

Please advise the potting mix & ratio of each ingrediant that you make for money plants, pothos & monsteria.

Hallo Jan, mein größter Fehler am Anfang: zu große Töpfe. Dadurch hab ich das Gießen nicht in den Griff bekommen. Wollte auch mal nen richtig buschigen Pothos haben. Ca. 15 Stecklinge in einem 20 cm Topf. Nach einem halben Jahr kein einziges neues Blatt, aber der Pott mit Wurzeln zugewachsen!🤣 Ausserdem auf RU-vidr zu hören die sagen " Die Erde fast komplett austrocknen lassen"😀 Aber Fehler sind dafür da, gemacht zu werden!.

Me at 3:30 still distracted by the balls

I used to water almost daily 😅 was fun to just spray them all

Freaking out over leaf damage. When I first started I’d buy a plant and if a couple leafs turned yellow or weren’t perfect in any way I’d freak out and love it to death. Now I let the leafs drop I don’t worry about it unless it gets really bad then I inspect and come up a plan. I used to completely clean the roots and soak in pest/fungal sprays or whatever and it just ended up shocking and killing an already struggling plant. Now I typically just increase humidity and chill, sometimes checking the soil w/o disturbing the roots.

Oh my goodnesss 😍😍😍😍 oh there are plants too, would you look at that

Hey Jan great information drawn from your personal experience - thank you so much for being so willing to share it with us. Advice please. I bought a coco chip brick, soaked it in water etc. How dangerous is it to still be moist after 2-3 weeks or even longer? It is taking ages to dry out. I have it stored in a plastic container with the lid cracked open to let some air in once a day. I'm worried it may breed bacteria or viruses because it is still damp 😕