- Whether you're a seasoned plant parent
or you're just beginning your plant fam,
there is always something new to learn.
Today, I'm going to show you six essential skills
you can use to take your house plant game to the next level.
I'm Plant Kween, plant parent extraordinaire.
Let's get dirty.
[upbeat music]
When a plant is sitting in the same soil for quite some time
whether it's a year or two years or three years,
that soil is gonna be depleted of its original nutrient.
No matter how much nutrients you're adding to that soil,
you may want to freshen up that soil mixture recipe.
First up, we have the ZZ plant.
And so this is one of my favorite kweens.
I have a few of these kweens, very hardy, very resilient,
really easy to care for.
And as you can see, she is in her nursery pot.
Nursery pots are meant to be temporary vessels
for our green girls as they move from the nursery
to the shelf of a plant shop
to the shelf in your living room, honey.
This is not really meant to be a permanent home
for this kween, this is really more so for transportation.
So as you are shopping for your green girls,
you wanna make sure that you are also shopping
for a new more permanent home for this kween.
And so typically when I'm shopping for new pots
for any green girl that I'm bringing into my space,
I make sure there's at least two inches larger
than the nursery pot, because we wanna give her
a little more extra room to grow, honey.
Now she's a bit snug in there
and so I'm going to try my best.
You wanna massage the nursery pot, loosen up that soil.
Now, one little thing
before I get into this particular kween to be mindful of
is that all plants experience a level of shock.
There's transplant shock and root shock.
Transplant shock is basically when there's a change
in temperature, atmosphere,
sunlight conditions, all those things
when you bring that kween into a new environment.
And so what I typically like to do is wait
at least a week or two before repotting her into a new home.
And when I see some new growth beginning to develop
that means that she's a bit more settled in her new space.
The second kind of shock is the shock that I'm getting ready
to put her through, is root shock.
And that's basically a change in soil
or a change in the roots environment.
So in order to spread out the transplant shock
and the root shock, I tried to wait
so that she can experience a transplant shock,
go through that moment and then repot her
so that I'm not putting too much shock on her at once.
'Cause honey, you don't know where this soil been, girl.
You wanna make sure you get rid of this old soil
and give yourself some new fresh nutritious soil
for your plant.
So what I'm gonna do first is that I'm going to create
a little foundational layer at the bottom of this planter.
What I'm gonna, oh, look at that. She is just ready to go.
I'm just gonna put some soil around,
but you do just wanna do a gentle push to make sure
she's a bit snug in her new little home.
You don't wanna like push it in too much
'cause then you'll like break some of her main root system.
And bam, there you have it.
She's looking all lush in her new little home.
I'm just gonna add a little bit more fir bark
to the top soil.
This just adds like a little bit of an ambiance,
a little bit of color.
I love a little monochromatic situation.
And then what I'm gonna do is just take this watering can,
I'm just gonna water her completely.
And the purpose of this is to allow that new soil
to settle around her roots.
Bam. Eventually, ah, there we go. Tears of joy.
Look at that, she's crying 'cause she's so happy.
A little messy, but as you can see,
that's one of the benefit of having terracotta pots
or pots with draining because all that extra water
is gonna fall out of this pot and then once it collects
in the tray, you can then put this to the side
and then, woo, toss this water out.
I really enjoy making my own soil mixture recipe
because it allows me to be a bit more intentional
in the care for my particular green girl.
So the base of any of my soil mixture recipes
is the potting mix itself.
It does not actually contain any top soil,
which is the soil that we are used to experiencing
in nature, in forest, in jungles, in parks.
So that's soil is actually too dense
and two compact for closed containers.
And so potting mix is specifically manufactured
for plants and closed containers.
This already has amazing components for our green girls
and can be used just as is.
But because I'm a little extra and I'm that plant parent,
I like to add a little pizzazz to the mix.
Now, while you can use gloves and all that stuff,
I like to get my hands dirty.
So we're gonna get rid of those things, okay?
We have fir bark and this is basically little wood chips
from the bark of fir trees and it allows
for little air pockets to form in the soil mixture.
So I tend to use three delicious, big handfuls of fir bark
in this mixture just to make sure
that I'm not overwatering my kweens.
Oh, I wish you could be here right now.
This smell of fir bark is just delicious.
And then I'm just gonna add a little handful
of the perlite, all right?
And so I'm just gonna [grunts]. Bam, there we go.
Perlite is basically mined volcanic glass when pressurized
comes out into these light little fluffy rocks.
Now, because I wanna make sure my green girls
have the nutrients they need to grow, thrive,
and serve those lush looks, what is she going to add?
She's going to add some amazing delicious compost.
All right, this is going to add a little bit
of extra nutrients to the soil.
Potting mix already has nutrients inside
and so this is adding a little bit of extra oomph
for our green girl.
And the reason that I enjoy natural compost as a fertilizer
is that there's less likely of a chance
that you are going to over fertilize your plants.
And when it comes to over fertilization,
that means that the roots are going to burn
and that's going to impact the health of our plant.
So I'm just gonna sprinkle some of that in there.
Ooh, amazing and beautiful.
Oh my God, feel like I'm in a kitchen, honey.
This soil mixture is actually a wonderful potting medium
for cacti and succulents.
There's a lot of aeration, the soil is well drained,
and it's not going stay wet for too long.
I really encourage you to dive into this journey.
It's a wonderful way for you to be intentional
with your green girls in their care.
Not only when it comes to watering and pruning
but also when it comes to that potting mix
and making sure that you're catering it to the green girl,
your plant parent behavior,
and the space that you're working with.
And then if you wanna add a little pizzazz or a little bit
of glitter or in this case, horticultural sand to the mix,
you can add that little bit of dash, all right,
to add a little desert chic to the moment, honey.
All right, Kweens, let's get into it.
What is propagation?
Propagation is the process of creating a whole new
other green girl with the existing plant fam
that you already have.
There are a number of different ways to propagate
our green girl, but there three particular methods
that I enjoy the most and that includes stem propagation,
leaf propagation, and offset/plantlet propagation, honey.
So first up to the stage, one of my personal faves,
we have the snake plant.
Now, when you look at the snake plant,
the first thing that you notice is that she is all leaves,
she is all bawdy, so that's gonna impact
how you're gonna propagate this particular kween.
So I enjoy propagating this kween through leaf propagation.
The first thing you're looking for is to identify
which leaf you want to propagate.
I enjoy this leaf because she's a bit of a show stopper
and I think she's going to grow
into a lovely new snake plant.
So I'm gonna choose this leaf to propagate.
- [Crew Member] Okay, so what's next?
- You just snip it. [laughs]
So honey, it's not that complicated.
Take those shears and get to snippin', okay?
Thank you for your contribution.
You could basically just stick this into water
but I found that there's a little trick that you can do
to increase the chances that there's gonna actually be
a pup or an offset that grows
from this cutting along with root.
So what you'll do is basically just a little angle
triangle cutting situation, bam, boop.
The goal is that a new snake plant leaf is going to grow
from this angle and create a whole new
other green girl situation.
So, I have a cute little mason jar.
I found that when the bottom of the cutting
touches the bottom of the vessel,
it just turns to mush and decreases the chances
that it's going to successfully root.
So we ain't here for none of that business
and I want this to be looking all lush.
What I'm gonna do, come on scotch tape.
So, I'm gonna take this scotch tape
because she's handy dandy when she needs to be.
I'm gonna roll it up into a little situation
and I'm just gonna stick it to the back of the plant, woop.
Oh, look at that, success, bam.
And about I would say maybe a month or two,
you'll begin to see some amazing lush little roots
begin to grow and if you're lucky, from the point
of this little triangle a new leaf may begin to grow.
And then darling, there you have it,
you have yourself a whole new other snake plant.
Now darling, before me I have the lush, the beautiful,
the viney heartleaf philodendron
and she is the perfect candidate for stem propagation.
Now, when it comes to stem propagation,
this is a wonderful method for green girls that have vines.
You are looking for plant nodes and plant nodes are a point
in the vine that can develop into a potential root system.
And as you can see, she's already begun to do so.
She is just looking gorgeous right here,
my goodness gracious.
Now with these particular roots,
I wouldn't put them directly into soil just yet.
I wanna place them in water,
have them mature a little bit more
and grow to about maybe four to five inches long.
This is about two and a half inches long.
So she's almost there, she just needs a little bit of oomph
to get her to that next level.
And typically what I'll do is that I'll cut maybe
like a half inch or an inch below the node
that I want to submerge in water.
Oh, look at that. [chuckles]
I'm gonna pour a little bit of this room temperature water
into this little mason jar.
Bam, the important thing in this case
are these roots right here.
She's probably not gonna grow roots
from the end of this cutting.
The important thing is to make sure that these roots
are the ones that are submerged.
And so darling, there we have it.
This is an easy process.
You should not be intimidated by this at all.
It's a fun little activity.
It's an opportunity to experiment with your green girls
and also test your parent skills, okay?
We have the infamous spider plant and isn't she gorgeous?
This is a different method of propagation.
This is offset/plantlet propagation.
Based on the anatomy of this particular plant,
she produces little pups
and each pup is a potential new plant.
There's two ways to do this.
You can either keep her still attached to the mother plant
while these roots are growing and basically just plant
that little plantlet into some moist soil.
This allows for the roots to continue to grow
and have an environment to grow while still being attached
to the mother plant.
Option two is basically just snip her from her mother plant.
You're gonna cut this part of the plant right here
and you're gonna snip it so that she can grow
into her own self, darling.
Now you have three little spider plants
that you can pot into soil.
It's okay if you get a little messy.
What's life without a little bit of a mess, you know?
And bam, look at that.
You have a whole new other green girl ready to grow
and serve those lush looks.
And so there you have darling,
three wonderful ways that you can green up the space
with the green girls you already have
and dive into a little plant parent experimentation, honey.
Now, when it comes to grooming our green girls,
that's basically us checking in with our kween
and making sure that they're good.
Pests are more attracted to unhealthy plants.
So pruning is actually a preventative measure
to ensure that your green girls are not infested
with the travesty that are pests, darling.
Let's welcome Miss heartleaf philodendron.
This is another variety of the heartleaf philodendron
and she is looking a little bit rough.
Oh, see, she was ready to let her go.
I didn't even need the shears,
she just let her go right there.
We all need to get rid of those yellow and leaves, honey,
'cause some things are only for a season, okay?
And so it's important that we are removing these leaves
because it's actually preventing any pests from latching
onto these decaying, browning, or yellowing leaves.
This leaf right here is beginning to brown,
it's beginning to yellow but she's not ready
to let go of her yet.
It's always a good test to see if she's ready to let go
of that leaf, just a gentle little tug moment right there.
And it is the perfect preventative measure
to ensure that your green girl does not become infested
with pests, honey.
Darling, there you have it, a few essential skills
to have your green girls serving lush looks.
Let me know what else you'd like to learn
in the comments below, honey.