If you bring plants into your home for the first time, it’s not unusual to quarantine or separate them. Why is this the preferred option for many plant owners? A quarantine period of 40 days is recommended for new houseplants, to reduce the risk of spreading disease or pests to other plants nearby. An interior space bursting with vibrant blooms should be the end result.
What Is Quarantine?
The term quarantine refers to the process of separating a plant from other plants for a short time. This is done by devoted gardeners to prevent disease from spreading. The purpose of quarantines is to limit the spread of diseases, pests and unwanted plants, such as weeds. If you separate plants for a period of time when you get them, you are more likely to spot early signs of pests, weeds, and diseases, which allows you to take action before potentially exposing your other plants to the same diseases.
When To Quarantine Houseplants?
It is necessary to keep separate plants in a number of circumstances in order to promote their growth. The following are some of them:
- When you bring a new plant home from the nursery.
- The act of bringing houseplants inside after they have been outdoors during warm weather.
- If your houseplants are being attacked by insects or diseases.
By quarantining your plants, you can reduce the amount of work you’ll have to do in the future as it reduces the amount of weeding that needs to be done.
In the case of brand new plants, diseased plants, or infected plants, it is necessary to isolate them. You should separate new plants as soon as possible when you bring them home. This is the simplest and most effective way to do so. It’s understandable if you want to add a new plant right away so you can inject both color and energy into your interior space, but it’s important to follow the quarantine rule of 40 days.
Neither new plants nor new seeds are guaranteed to be pest-free, disease-free or weed-free. If you don’t separate your plants, the new plants may introduce a disease that harms the other plants. Several diseases of plants are capable of surviving for decades, so others will have to contend with them every year for the rest of their lives. When a potted plant develops a problem, quarantining it is easy, although putting established plants in quarantine is more difficult.
How To Quarantine A Houseplant?
In order to prevent pests and diseases from spreading, you should take a few preventative measures before separating plants. Some of these include:
- Observe closely the entire plant for any signs of insects or diseases, including the underside of the leaves, the axils, the soil, and the stems.
- You can use insecticidal soap or soapy water to squirt a light coating of insecticidal soap on your plant.
- Check the plant for diseases, pests, and anything unusual after you remove it from the pot.
- Fill the chosen vessel with sterilized soil and pot up the plant again. At this point, it’s recommended that you separate your plants by moving new ones into a separate room for a period of about 40 days.
- It is important to select a room that doesn’t have any plants. In this way, diseases and pests will be reduced to a minimum.
- It is not necessarily possible, but putting houseplants in plastic bags will help separate them.
- If you want to avoid cooking your plants, make sure your plastic bag is transparent and out of direct sunlight. There’s no need to worry; your plants will not ‘run out of air’ in a sealed plastic bag, since they’re able to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide during the day, and do the opposite in the evening.
- Unless the plant is being isolated inside the plastic bag, it is rare that it needs to be watered, since plants that are sealed inside a bag do not transpire or lose moisture.
Post-Quarantine Measures
As described previously, as soon as the quarantine period ends, inspect your houseplants again. Keeping your house clean by following this procedure will greatly reduce the occurrence of pests such as spider mites, mealybugs, thrips, scale fungus gnats, and other pests. By maintaining good hygiene, you will also be able to prevent diseases such as powdery mildew.
When you have a pest problem, the last thing you want to do is use more harmful pest control methods. You can first try using insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils, which are safer over time. Even systemic houseplant insecticides can be used to control pests such as scale and aphids while being harmless to the plants. Using Gnatrol is the best way to control fungus gnats.
Alternatives To Quarantine
For some of us, it is simply not possible (or feasible) to separate plants and to add a new plant to the front or backyard before some period has passed. As a result, you will be able to reduce the likelihood of problems if you choose an alternative. The following are some of the alternatives:
- Before bringing home any plants, ensure that they are in good condition.
- Reducing the number of new plants in the soil gradually.
- Make sure all surfaces are clean.
- Plants should be sprayed lightly with soapy water.
- Any additional water should be shook off.
- The plant should be repotted in clean soil.
- Water as necessary.
Despite the fact that most of these approaches should help to reduce the risk of diseases and pests, they are not guaranteed to be effective. Even these basic approaches, however, can help improve the health of your plants, because even some action is better than none at all.
To sum it up…
The question of whether plants really need to be separated is often raised. The real answer is that it depends on you. Consider several factors when deciding if you should quarantine your new plants or not as you prepare to do so. A pest attacking plants can produce a staggering number of offspring within a short period of time. One aphid, for instance, can multiply into more than 600 billion aphids in just one season. It is a quick and easy way to ensure your plants lose most of their health. Make the decision as to whether a period of caution is an investment worth a lifetime of reactionary treatment.