How Plants Grow
Understanding how plants grow increases your enjoyment of indoor gardening because you are able to anticipate their needs and you do not have the sorry sight of your plants dying.
There is nothing more depressing than a plant which is not thriving.
In order to carry on their activities for continued healthy growth, plants make certain demands upon their surroundings.
Many plants can manage without assistance, but indoor plants are sufficiently sensitive to their care and surroundings for these to make a difference between plants which are (hopefully) not quite dead, to ones of beauty.
Understanding, even a little, about how your plant works can cut out a lot of trial and error and make you a more successful gardener.
Pruning becomes a lot easier when you know why you should cut a shoot off in one place rather than another It may come as a surprise, but the essential activities of a plant are very similar to our own, but may not be so recognizable.
We are aware of plants feeding, growing and reproducing, but respiration, excretion, sensitivity and movement are less apparent, though just as vital.
In order to perform these activities plants have needs similar to our own: food, water, light and air.
How Plants Feed A plant cannot search for food as animals do and is restricted to absorbing the necessary chemical substances from its immediate surroundings - the atmosphere and the soil.
Photosynthesis is the process by which a green plant builds up its own food from the carbon dioxide and water it absorbs.
Sunlight provides the energy for the plant to manufacture sugar, its food, in the leaves.
The sugar is then carried to active regions to be used, or to storage organs to be stored as starch.
If the plant needs the sugar immediately for activity, oxygen from the atmosphere is used to release the energy from it during respiration, just as we use oxygen to release energy from the food we have eaten.
Fortunately for us, the oxygen in the air is constantly replenished by plants during photosynthesis.
As plants help to keep the atmosphere in our homes healthy, trees serve the same purpose for the planet.
Why Plants Drink Another vital plant activity influenced by the gardener is the plant's ability to give off water to the atmosphere from the leaves by transpiration, in much the same way as animals sweat.
That is why it is imperative that the leaves are kept clean and dust free so that this activity can take place unhindered.
Transpiration has a cooling effect, as it does on our skin, and also controls the uptake of water and mineral salts by the roots.
High temperatures, a dry atmosphere or a draught will increase the rate of transpiration, so adequate water to the roots is essential to replace that lost through the leaves.
Excessive humidity or cold will slow down transpiration, however, so give less water in cold weather.
Learning about the little foibles of your different plants and catering successfully to their needs makes indoor gardening the fascinating hobby that it is.
There is nothing more depressing than a plant which is not thriving.
In order to carry on their activities for continued healthy growth, plants make certain demands upon their surroundings.
Many plants can manage without assistance, but indoor plants are sufficiently sensitive to their care and surroundings for these to make a difference between plants which are (hopefully) not quite dead, to ones of beauty.
Understanding, even a little, about how your plant works can cut out a lot of trial and error and make you a more successful gardener.
Pruning becomes a lot easier when you know why you should cut a shoot off in one place rather than another It may come as a surprise, but the essential activities of a plant are very similar to our own, but may not be so recognizable.
We are aware of plants feeding, growing and reproducing, but respiration, excretion, sensitivity and movement are less apparent, though just as vital.
In order to perform these activities plants have needs similar to our own: food, water, light and air.
How Plants Feed A plant cannot search for food as animals do and is restricted to absorbing the necessary chemical substances from its immediate surroundings - the atmosphere and the soil.
Photosynthesis is the process by which a green plant builds up its own food from the carbon dioxide and water it absorbs.
Sunlight provides the energy for the plant to manufacture sugar, its food, in the leaves.
The sugar is then carried to active regions to be used, or to storage organs to be stored as starch.
If the plant needs the sugar immediately for activity, oxygen from the atmosphere is used to release the energy from it during respiration, just as we use oxygen to release energy from the food we have eaten.
Fortunately for us, the oxygen in the air is constantly replenished by plants during photosynthesis.
As plants help to keep the atmosphere in our homes healthy, trees serve the same purpose for the planet.
Why Plants Drink Another vital plant activity influenced by the gardener is the plant's ability to give off water to the atmosphere from the leaves by transpiration, in much the same way as animals sweat.
That is why it is imperative that the leaves are kept clean and dust free so that this activity can take place unhindered.
Transpiration has a cooling effect, as it does on our skin, and also controls the uptake of water and mineral salts by the roots.
High temperatures, a dry atmosphere or a draught will increase the rate of transpiration, so adequate water to the roots is essential to replace that lost through the leaves.
Excessive humidity or cold will slow down transpiration, however, so give less water in cold weather.
Learning about the little foibles of your different plants and catering successfully to their needs makes indoor gardening the fascinating hobby that it is.
