For many plants, rubbing the leaves to make them shiny is one of the main aspects of their care. This is especially true of those flowers in which the main beauty lies precisely in the large, fleshy, rich green, dense leaves. For example, orchid, rubbery ficus, monstera, Schefflera, yucca, philodendron.
You need to wipe plant leaves for several reasons:
- In order not to interfere with the process of photosynthesis. After all, dust and dirt, lying in a thin layer on the leaves, prevent the penetration of sunlight. As a result, photosynthesis slows down, and this negatively affects both the viability of the plant and its decorative effect.
- In order not to interfere with air exchange, because the dust clogs the “pores” on the leaves of the plant. And this is fraught with the spread of diseases and microbes.
- Elementary to maintain the beauty, making leave shiny and decorativeness of the plant.
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5 Ways to make indoor plant leaves shiny, healthy and beauty
The easiest option is to wipe the plant leaves with plain clean warm water. Thus, we will clean them of dirt, the leaves will have a natural shine. To prolong it, and at the same time to improve the health of the plants, I recommend wiping the leaves periodically with one of the following compounds.
Purchased drugs
The stores sell special formulations for wiping flower leaves.
There are options for specific plants (for example, for an orchid), but there are also universal preparations. Here’s what I tried to use:
Tonic for wiping the leaves attached the composition at the bottom
A huge plus of this tonic is its natural composition. It cleans the surface and feeds the plants at the same time. After all, succinic acid increases the immunity of plants, stimulates the growth of greenery (including new shoots), strengthens the leaves, and accelerates the regeneration of damaged tissues. It is simple to use: you just need to spray all the greens with a tonic.
After use, the leaves really became as if fresher, denser, more elastic, and saturated. I used the tonic every 2 weeks.
Although … with the same success, you can use a homemade solution of succinic acid (1 tablet per 1 liter of water), it will come out even cheaper.
There is also an aerosol agent called “Shine”, it is intended specifically to give shine, there are no useful nutritional ingredients in it.
Water and milk to make indoor plant leaves shiny
The advantage of this composition is that milk creates a protective film on the leaves of plants. As a result, spider mites, fungi and infections will not be so scary to the plant. Dilute milk with water 1: 1 and wipe the leaves.
Alcohol and glycerin
Alcohol perfectly cleans the leaves of dirt, especially from the white streaks that remain after spraying with hard water or a warm shower. Glycerin helps to restore plants in case of stress or some kind of damage, and is an additional source of energy. For 0.5 liters of warm water, we take 2 tbsp of alcohol and 1 tbsp of glycerin.
Non-alcoholic beer
A popular folk recipe is a solution of non-alcoholic beer and water in equal proportions. Beer is really a good polish, the leaves after processing will shine, while not sticky, checked! Beer also contains yeast, which is a natural growth stimulant. Of course, root yeast feeding is more effective than foliar feeding, but still it will not hurt. The only thing: I recommend opening the beer and letting it stand so that the gases come out and the beer is slightly weathered.
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Citric acid
Another simple folk recipe is citric acid solution. For 1 glass of water, you need a quarter teaspoon of powder. Dissolve in water and wipe the leaves. Lemon perfectly cleans the stomata of leaves and gives shine to green plates. The main thing is not to increase the dosage of acid, not to use the solution more than once a month and not to expose the plant immediately after treatment in the sun, so as not to burn the leaves.
