Care Tips For Ferns | Houseplant Tips & Tricks

Hello friends! Welcome to Houseplant Tips and Tricks. My name is Nick and today I'm going to give you some tips on caring for ferns. This series is sponsored by repotme.com. Get all of your indoor gardening supplies delivered to your door from one place. Repotme.com has practically anything you need for your orchids, succulents, and houseplants, including handmade potting mixes, planters, fertilizers, and much more. Ferns are kind of a new love for me. Actually that's not true at all. I have loved ferns for years, but I've only had the capability of being able to care for ferns in the last year or so. When I first got started with indoor gardening, I would bring home those lovely, luscious, frilly ferns like a Boston Fern or a Maidenhair Fern or a Button Fern, which I guess my first tip right off the bat is to not buy those ferns. It's to go for more hardy ferns like the two that I have right here. This is a Japanese Holly Fern and this is an Austral Gem Fern. And even though these give you more of that frilly, luscious appearance similar to a standard Boston Fern, these leaves are much thicker and they are much more resilient houseplants. So I guess right off the bat, my number one tip for you is to just choose a hardy fern. Don't pick the ferns that are frilly and super thin. What would happen for me at least is I would bring those ferns home and I would forget to water them for like a day and I would come back like a day later and the leaves would all be just like pale brown and crispy and there was no recovering from that point. Of course, you can regrow a fern. They usually have some pretty resilient root systems. Their leaves are just rather fragile. So if you do get to that point with a frilly fern, if you've already brought one home, it's worth cutting it all the way back to the soil and seeing if it will regrow if it hasn't been too long on the drought side. Some of those ferns, they're just very, very fragile. So like I said, tip number one, just choose a hardy fern and nip that headache in the bud. And the number one issue I feel like people normally have with ferns is the watering. They are very thirsty houseplants. Like I said, you can go one day forgetting to water some of these ferns and they will just be dead. But I kind of think the underlying problem that a lot of people are having with their ferns, which kind of coincides with the watering, is the lighting. These are marketed as low light houseplants and they require more than that. I think these, most of the ferns that I grow in my home are going to flourish most in like the bright indirect light settings. They can handle a tiny bit of direct sunlight, but I would not put these in a south-facing window because they would crisp up or anywhere where they would be receiving lengthy amounts of direct sunlight. I think that's going to be bad news, but more light than you would expect. Like in the vicinity of any window, maybe within just like six feet of any bright window, I think that's where you're going to have more luck. But often, I think people, myself included, back when I was first getting started, I would bring home a fern and it just looked so good and I would just put it somewhere obsolete like a shelf or maybe like the back corner of a plant display or just involved in a plant display where maybe I'm not going to be paying as much attention to it. So I guess another tip I also have for you today is to put your ferns somewhere where you're going to be able to pay attention to them and you're not going to forget about them because even these ferns right here, if I was to forget about them for just a couple days too long, even though they're much more forgiving than those finer ferns, there is still absolutely a threshold with all ferns. These are the plants you're probably going to be watering the most often in your home. I do have a couple of watering tips that I have learned for ferns over the years. And of course, I'm going to share them with you today. First and foremost is to just use a more water-retentive soil. I use the Houseplant and Tropical Classic Mix from repotme.com. This is a coconut coir based mixture as opposed to a peat moss based mixture, which is what most of the bags of pre-made mix that are going to be available at your big box stores are going to be. And it's a known fact that coconut coir is better at retaining moisture than peat moss, which usually becomes hydrophobic and is going to not hold onto moisture as well or just have the water just run through it versus coconut coir, which does a much better job at retaining that moisture. So I use this mix straight from the bag for my ferns, particularly this fern right here. It's planted in there. This one is still inside its plastic nursery planter. We will get into that in a little bit. I often recommend amending your soils with perlite or pumice or anything that's going to increase the drainage of your soil. But when you're working with ferns, I don't think you have to do that. The more moisture, the better. So soil right from the bag is going to be perfectly fine. And you can use code Nick to save 10% on any of the potting mixes available on repotme.com. And if you click through any of the links that I have linked below, I will receive a small commission. So thank you so much. But along with using a moisture-retentive soil, it's smart to use a planter that's going to retain moisture as well. So I have this one inside this semi-glazed, I want to call it semi-glazed, it's not completely glazed, but it's not unglazed, planter right here. However, I would recommend using a glazed ceramic or a plastic planter or anything that's going to hold on to moisture in comparison to unglazed ceramic or terracotta that's going to suck moisture out of the soil. So in order to hold on to as much moisture as possible, I recommend wholeheartedly using a glazed ceramic planter, specifically avoiding terracotta when it comes to ferns. I would use unglazed ceramic over terracotta because terracotta will suck the moisture out of your hands if you're holding on to it too long. So just something to be wary of. But another tip that I've kind of been workshopping, I guess, I've been kind of experimenting with it. You can see with this fern here, I still have it in its plastic nursery planter. I have it placed inside this cash bow. And actually in the base of this cash bow, as you're going to see as I lift it up because it's getting attached to it, is a bunch of leca or hydroton. This is a potting medium that's most often used with hydroponics. I have a bag of it right here. It's also available from repotting.com and will be links below. They are basically just these cocoa puff like pebbles that hold on to moisture really well. And the roots are going to grab onto these are really good, lightweight potting material. So the way that I'm utilizing this with my fern here is I have this fern inside a cash bow. And like I said, I have a decent handful of leca pebbles sitting inside the base of this cash bow. So I go ahead and I water my plant normally. And instead of dumping out the water that accumulates in the base, I just let the water sit down there. So then the hydroton sucks up the water. And as this plant starts to dry out, there is a little bit extra moisture hanging out in the base of the planter, which has then allowed the roots to work their way down into the leca pebbles, which is why there is this mass of roots and leca pebbles that have accumulated inside the base of my planter. And now there's only just a small handful of leca pebbles that are free. The point of this is to buy me time. Essentially, I am just keeping my fern well watered for a longer period of time. This method could really come in handy for those frilly ferns like the maiden hair ferns I was mentioning that can die on a day's notice if you forget to water them. So this can buy you some time there. You, of course, just have to keep up with it and keep watering your fern as you normally would and keep some water in the base of the plant. I would also recommend using a glazed ceramic planter. I'm using a glazed ceramic planter here. If you use an unglazed, the water could seep through the unglazed and could not only just disappear, but possibly damage the surface that you have underneath. So just use your brain a little bit there. And another reason why I'm just so head over heels for ferns is that there is just so many ways that you can display them. One of my favorite ways to grow and display ferns in my home is on a mount. So in a previous episode of Houseplant Tips and Tricks, I had mounted this rabbit's foot fern to this wood slat mount, which is also available on repotme.com and will be linked below with some sphagnum moss. I have a bag of it right here, also available from repotme.com, some New Zealand sphagnum moss. But this just allows me to grow my ferns in a way that almost comes off as like an art piece. So this is my staghorn fern right here. This is probably the most common mounted fern. You're often going to see these available already mounted on a piece of wood at houseplant stores. I think like even like grocery stores and like Trader Joe's have been selling them as of lately. At least that's what I've been seeing on TikTok already mounted. But this is a piece of wood and a fern that I literally got from the trash. A houseplant store was throwing out their staghorn ferns. I think they got like a little crush. This one just has really filled out itself and has grown excellently. And you can see how not only the leaves have been growing exponentially, but the shield as well, which is a very interesting part of the anatomy that some ferns have, particularly the ferns that are more closely related to this staghorn and grow in a similar manner are the ones that are going to show off this shield appendage, which will at first come in green, as you can see on this side of the plant. And over time, it will age like a fine wine and turn brown. And you are going to keep it on there. It might be tempting to peel it away because it can appear kind of dead, but it's just part of the plant and how it's going to attach itself onto a tree in nature, but onto the moss and the board in my home. And these are extremely easy to take care of. In fact, I'd say I have more luck with these because I'm not going to forget about these. These are up my wall. These are literally like living pieces of art. In fact, it's exactly what they are. That's exactly what I would classify them as. So I'm not going to forget about them. They're going to be the first plants I notice that need a watering when it's time. And it's super easy to know when it's time to water them because I will just simply reach up and touch them on the wall. And I just touch the moss from front or behind or however. And if it's dry, I know it's time to go ahead and water it. To water this, you can throw it in the sink and throw in the shower, the tub, whatever you have as a basin for water. And you will just douse the whole thing, leaves, appendages that are on the plant and most importantly, the moss. That's going to be the part where the plant is going to be sucking up the moisture from anyway. But I just like to go ahead and get the whole thing wet. I will let the wood dry as much as I feel comfortable with before I go ahead and put it back up on my wall. And that is how I take care of it. I'm probably watering these like once a week, I'd say, which is very on par with how I'm caring for these ferns as well. So even though they are sitting in the sphagnum moss, at least in my area of where I live in the world, the moss is going to be watered at a similar rate. However, as the year goes on and the heat kicks on or the humidity falls in the atmosphere, then you might be watering this a little bit more often or maybe less often, just depending on the weather. I will say, though, I think the main thing that is often overlooked when it comes to mounted ferns or mounted plants in general is to make sure you hang them on the wall somewhere where they're going to receive appropriate light. I hang all my ferns somewhere where they're going to be like within like six feet of a window. In my new home, I have these right off of the skylight in my kitchen, which is some bright light, kind of a new situation for me, but it's been working so far so good. Just don't put them anywhere deep in your home. I know it can be tempting to fill up a blank space on your wall, but if it's not receiving any sunlight, you're just going to have a dead plant on your wall. So that's just not going to be ideal in the end or what you're looking for, I would guess. But I think that's going to do it for today's video on the care tips I have for ferns. I really want to give some more ferns a go. I really have been having a place in my heart for ferns. I, of course, just need the room for them. And I do not really have any extra room for more plants at the moment. So I'm going to enjoy the ferns that I have, which is perfectly good enough at the moment as long as I continue to care for them correctly and allow them to flourish, which I think I finally have down. It only took me like five or six years. So thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you also for RepotMe.com for sponsoring today's video and this houseplant tips and tricks series. I will leave any of the products that I mentioned in today's video linked below. And don't forget, if you click through those links that I will get a small commission and you can also use code Nick to save 10 percent on any potting mixtures. So thank you again for joining me. If you don't already, you can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Philly Foliage. Subscribe to my Patreon for even more houseplant content. And I will see you guys in my next video. Have a great day.