Here’s all the stuff that I like to use for my houseplants – everything from moisture metres to books. They’re affiliate links, so I earn a small commission if you buy anything when you click through.
Moisture Metre
Moisture metres have a deserved reputation for not being particularly accurate, but they’re great for beginners.
They work pretty well in dense, store-bought soil, but they’re not great for chunky, homemade mixes.
I love mine, and still use it every time I water. It works well in my preferred terrarium soil and LECA mix.
Hygrometer
Hygrometers are a great investment if you’re thinking about getting a lot of tropical houseplants.
They measure the humidity (and temperature) of a room so you can decide whether or not you need to invest in a humidifier.
Pressure Sprayer
I love my pressure sprayer SO MUCH. It’s great for watering, fertilising, and even spraying for pests.
It’s also great for ensuring the soil is consistently moist, which is really useful for switching propagations from water to soil
Fertiliser
The General Hydroponics Flora Series is my favourite fertiliser.
Sure it’s a bit of a pain mixing the three bottles into water, but combined with using the sprayer above, it really makes me feel like a botanical ghostbuster, which makes the whole experience of fertilsing my plants more enjoyable.
Houseplant potting mix options
The top row of products can all be used on their own as complete potting mixes. However, you might find that these hold a little too much water. You can use the middle row of products to add aeration.
You can buy as many or as few products as you like. I switch up my potting mix all the time, but I’m currently using ABG mix (which is terrarium soil) and leca, pretty much half and half.
With the third row of products, you can really taoil your own mix. For example, a pretty standard aroid mix is coir, orchid bark, perlite, charcoal and worm castings, the rations being 3:3:3:1:1.
Miracle-gro
Fox Farms
ABG Mix
All of these houseplant potting mixes are great options if you don’t want to make your own. You can add orchid bark, LECA or perlite if they hold too much water.
You can go up to 1:1 with the ingredients, or just add a little of the ingrdients below to add more airflow.
LECA
Perlite
Orchid bark
With these next three products, you have all you need to make homemade potting mix.
Coco coir
Charcoal
Worm castings
Pest eradication
Neem oil
Castile soap
Mosquito bits
Systemic pesticides
Humidifier
I don’t need a humidifier in my home, but if you do, the Levoit ones are the ones I see commonly recommended by houseplant YouTubers. In fact, I can’t actually think of any other brands.
Make sure you check your ambient humidity before investing in a humidifier – you may not need one at all. My house is 65% humidity pretty much year-round.
Vacuum cleaner
If you have a lot of houseplants, it miht be a sensible idea to invest in a separate vacuum cleaner, since soil and water can quickly clog them up. Shop vacs are a great option because they’re great value and they can pick up water.
Grow Lights
Here are the three main shape options. When selecting grow lights, what you need varies a lot depending on the conditions in your home. Cheaper lights with a USB connection are ideal for supplementing natural light, but if you’re providing 100% of your plant’s light with grow lights, you may need something a little stronger.
Goose-neck lights
Shelf lights
Hanging lights
Grow bulbs
Grow bulbs are another option – you can screw them into existing lamps. Make sure the bulbs are no more than a foot or so away from the plant, or they won’t have the desired effect.