8 Tips For Healthy Plants

Many plant ailments can be avoided with a few precautions.
Follow these eight tips to reduce the risk of disease in your garden.

1. Don’t forget to check the plants before buying

They’ll preferably be strong and disease-free with no parasites. Especially be aware of the presence of insidious larvae that cut the leaves of some perennials.
If necessary, don’t hesitate to unearth the plants and check the health of their roots.
Similarly, avoid weedy containers that can easily spread to the garden pests.

2. When planting, bring a lot of organic matter

While avoiding non-composted manure that can be harmful to some cabbage and bulbous plants, you’ll need to help your new plants with some compost. Prefer the mature variety, like potting soil and shredded mixes.

3. Clean the plants during their vegetation and late season

Also remove diseased fruits remaining on your trees.
If you notice the appearance of black spots on some of your flowers, you’ll need to remove the affected leaves. This greatly limits the spread of the disease.
Of course, don’t incorporate these byproducts back into your compost.

4. Take the time to regularly observe your plants

That way, you’ll spot even the slightest of attacks quickly. In fact, you may not even have to use too powerful or toxic products to easily come to the end of predators or diseases.

5. Tweak your usage of fertilizers

Don’t use too much, or poorly-chosen fertilizers, which can do more harm than good.
Prefer formulations containing elements preventing mineral deficiencies.
Be aware that a fertilizer, especially one with nitrogen excess, often causes a runaway vegetation and tender shoots (a delight for insects that love sap).

6. Make the right size at the right size

Follow the normal growth cycle of your plants when it comes to pruning them.
Don’t prune in late September or during the winter. If you do, you’ll create growths that won’t have time to harden before the harsh temperatures.

7. Water wisely

Especially during the summer, avoid keeping the foliage of your plants constantly wet. You risk favoring diseases.
Water your plants around them instead of on top of them.

8. Avoid monocultures

Variety is key when you have a garden. Never focus on a single type of plant, otherwise you risk promoting the rapid spread of diseases from one to the other.
Play on the benefits of a high biodiversity, which also promotes the development of friendly animals to your garden (birds, hedgehogs, etc.).