Have you ever heard of plants quarantine? I hope you did and know how important it is. I knew about it too but, the sad thing is, I didn’t take it as seriously as I should.
New Plants in the House
Once in a while, I like to go plant hunting and get lots of various plants from multiple places. The last time I did that, I got fourteen plants from four different stores. I’ve shared them all on this blog post.
Well, as a person aware of plants quarantine and already familiar with some nasty pests of plants, I did what I had to do.
Based on the stores I got the plants from, I separated them into four groups. They had to be separated like this for two weeks.
Plant Quarantine – what is that?
If you haven’t heard of the plant quarantine before, let me tell you what that is.
Plant quarantine is when you keep your new plants away from the old ones to avoid the spread of pests.
The chances are high that your new plant may have some kind of pests on them. Even if they can’t be seen at first. It’s because while at the store, plants can be held close to the ones with the pests. Also, people can touch one plant after another and spread the pests that way. So before getting the possible not very healthy plant next to the old healthy ones, it must be assured that they are pests-free.
Two weeks are enough for the pests to spread and to become visible. The sooner they can be seen, the sooner they can be taken care of. If you’re interested how to take care of pests, read this blog post.
Once it is clear that the new plants are healthy, or once they are healed, they can be moved next to the old plants.
My Sad Story
So, getting back to my last-plants-shopping story…
I put the new plants aside in separate groups, but they took a lot of space spread like that. After a week or a little bit later, but definitely sooner then after two weeks, I thought that’s enough. So I placed them next to the old plants.
The sad part is – some of them had pests.
Pests from one plant infested a couple more plants… And eventually, I had five poor fellows suffering from some nasty plant destroyers.
In the end, three of them survived and the other two… Well, they were no more. The pests destroyed them.
I’ve learned my lesson of the importance of the plant quarantine the sad way – by losing two of my plants.
Promise to myself – always, always wait for the two weeks before putting the new and old plants next to each other.
May the plants grow strong and healthy!