Tips on Maintaining Indoor Green Walls

Lipstick plant (Aeschynanthus radicans)

When people give a visit to your office, you can see them in awe, dived into the beauty of indoor green walls. They discuss about it asking various questions and cheer your support towards greenery. All these praises are vital to your brand as visitors help spread the word with friends, peers and potential clients. So be sure to give a maintenance check to your green walls as it is maintaining your brand image.
Here are some tips on maintaining your indoor green walls

Automated Water Systems

Indoor vertical gardens can be watered by hand or contain a built-in irrigation system which waters automatically on a timer or with a moisture sensor. With automatically watered systems the amount of water to apply will vary with the soil, plant type, plant maturity, light intensity and temperature and exposure to air currents. In all cases be mindful that most interior plant deaths are caused by too much watering. The appropriate amount to irrigate is just enough, in regards to frequency and duration, to keep the plants in a healthy non-wilted condition throughout the watering period.

Hand Watered Systems

With hand watered systems choose the day of the week such as Thursday and attempt to go a full week without watering again. A weekly interval is easy to remember and easy to stick to. If you cannot go a week without needing to water again, then apply a little more water next time or shorten the watering interval perhaps once every five days. You will know it is time to water if the soil feels dry when you stick your fingers into the planter about halfway down or deeper or if the plant shows a slight wilting at the ends of the stems. Once finished watering all planters, allow the plants to drain out for about 10-15 minutes.

Know-how of using Fertilizers

Automatically watered systems should be equipped with an automatic fertilizer injector unit which applies liquid fertilizer each time the wall is watered. Granular fertilizers will not work with automatically watered indoor wall systems as the fertilizer requires water to run over it to activate. Hand watered systems may be fertilized using a slow release granular fertilizer or with water soluble fertilizer that is added to the irrigation water. The frequency of fertilization depends upon the plants. Hand watered systems maybe fertilized using a slowly released granular fertilizer or with a water valuable fertilizer that is added to the irrigation water. The frequency of fertilization depends upon the plants. During the spring and summer growing season plants typically require more frequent fertilization than in winter months. The appropriate frequency varies greatly by species.

Check for disease signs

Check the plants for signs of insects or disease. Clean out any dried out or browned leaves by pinching with your fingers or trimming with a pair of scissors. Using a clean cloth, remove dust build-up on leaves. If desired use a leaf shines spray which acts as a polish to keep the foliage looking glossy and to resist dust.
After completing your indoor wall maintenance sweep or vacuum any leaves or dust.

Record Maintenance Work

It is important to keep a record of maintenance events. After each maintenance visit, log moisture levels and whether the plants were watered. If fertilized, record which type of application rate, and note any concerns with insects and diseases and control measures implemented.

You should always keep in mind that maintaining a vertical garden is no mean feat! If you have a self watering system in place, you do not have to worry all that much. Alternatively, do consider taking the pots out into the open and do some gardening, snipping, cleaning and watering. Keep in mind not to overwater the plants and stick to plants that require same amount of light and water.