Easy Ways to Make House Plant Leaves Shiny

Why indoor plants of few people looks so shiny and beautiful? Green Friends, Indoor plants are not about how many plants we have – Indoor plants are about how healthy they look.

Of course, plants are already gorgeous. To help our plants look their healthier best, here are a few better, safer ways to enhance your plants’ beauty and health.

Market is getting flooded with commercial plant shine products which plants retailers use to beautify their plants .But please No !! Its not so difficult to keep indoor plants healthy. No need to spend money and make plants full of chemical deposits. Plants breathe through their leaves through little pores called stomata and many leaf shine products end up clogging these stomata with either oil or wax. Clogged pores are neither good for our skin, nor plants

Yes Green Friends, you are right, water spray is also fine sometimes. But depends – as hard water may keep stains and not enough to deter manifestation of pests

We need to take care at least fortnightly to clean up indoor plants. And there are easy options to keep indoor plants clean other than using just water.

Let us explore few organic ways to clean leaves in urban gardening specially indoor plants.

Why cleaning is necessary for indoor plants

Dust, hard water spots, residue of mosquito repellents, deodorants we use, kitchen fumes gets built up on leaves and block the sunlight/ indirect light.

Indoor pollution has become integral part of our lives. Cleaning leaves not only adds beauty but also keep the plant healthy as the pores remain open, respire and grow faster.

Clean leaves allows the plant breathe and grow faster with healthy shine. Also, the leaves of indoor plants need to respire and a heavy build-up of dust can hamper the process.

Why not only water? Hard water is high in minerals. Just like it can cause spots on your glassware, it can cause white spots on the leaves of your plants too.

How to Clean Houseplants

Our age-old moist cotton cloth

When there is only visible dust layer, our age old way of moisten soft cotton cloth is fine or you can use microfiber one.

Support each leaf with one hand gently from under and wipe down, away from the stem very carefully with the other hand. Don’t forget to get to the undersides too, which is where pests usually like to hide.

For delicate or very small leaves, try using a soft brush.

Take them for a bath

I take my smaller plants to wash basin. Plants like fern, agalaonema, calathea in small pots. You don’t need to blast water to make the soil mix out. Just let them do the rain dance. It also ups the humidity factor temporarily.

Run your hands through the foliage and hold the plant at various angles to make sure that the shower hits the undersides of the leaves too.

Don’t keep them in sunlight just after the bath. Let them dry up.

Spraying Water

Most popular way to cleanse plants for medium sized plants like areca palm, rubber plants, pothos etc . Spraying water cleans the dirt from leaves and also creates a temporary humid surrounding. You may consider micronutrient based organic sprays that makes your leaves shine with health.

Let the water evaporate and bring the planter inside as we are talking about indoor plants.

The All time favourite formula

There is ‘one for all’ formula which I use

• • 1/2 – 3/4 cup squeezed lemon
• • 2 Ltr of water (around 8 cups)
• • 5-10 drops non-toxic dish soap/ hand wash
• • Spray bottle, a soft cleaning cloth, and a large bowl

Take all in bowl, use a moisten cloth and wipe leaves. Also you may use spray bottle.

Be sure to clean both the top and bottom of the leaves, because it will also help to remove pests like spider mites.

Be sure to thoroughly rinse the plant of all soap.

Benefit of Lemon Juice :

Lemon juice dissolve mineral salts and remove dust particles too. The same reason we use lemon water to clean glasses. You may spray or wipe the leaves carefully. Make sure about the corners and back part of the leaves.

Use White Vinegar in place of lemon juice:

You may use white vinegar – start by mixing one teaspoon of vinegar with about 2 ltr of water. Then dip the cloth in your mix and apply to gently to your plants. An added bonus, the vinegar scent is great at repelling pests or your naughty pets.

Mixing vinegar with water is especially effective at getting rid of residue buildup on leaves. However, do not overdo it. Use vinegar in about 2 months. Lemon juice thing is safe in 15 days.

Lemon juice and vinegar act as an acid and dissolve mineral salts. Unlike vinegar & water, lemon juice and water won’t rid you of pests, but it’s the trick for dissolving mineral deposits from hard water drying on your leaves.

Using soap water to every corner of plants reduces possibility of sucking insects like mealybugs, scale, aphids and white flies that secrete sticky substance. Please through away the cloth after use if there is such cases in any of your plant as these pests spread like crazy to indoor plants in no time

Banana Peel ?

You may take a banana peel and using the softer inner part. Rub the surface of the leaves. The natural oils in the peel will shine the leaves. May use peels once a week or whenever plants are looking dull. This is especially handy for indoor plants with waxy leaves like Scheffleras, Calatheas, Crotons, and Ficus trees.

I personally donot like the idea much. Practically, the peels collected a lot of dust but also left behind little gummy dust balls on the leaves. Also I donot like the smell of banana. Green friends, revert me on this

Milk water/ Butter Milk spray

I am not a supporter of using food products as expensive as milk and buttermilk to use for plants when there are cheaper, effective and better version is available. Leave it to you

Indoor plants are lovely and definitely make your home insta- ready. But definitely spare sometime for cleanliness. Stay away from accumulated dust, make a cleanliness routine for indoor plants