Whatâs the best way to clean my plant leaves?
5
A soft microfiber cloth or a little water đż with a gentle spray will remove the usual dust and stuff from around the house. If you have the đ°đžđČthere are special gloves or wipes you can buy. There are leaf shine products too but I stay away from wasting money on them plus many use wax and oil which clog little pores of the leaves. Neem oil used to get rid of certain pests has the added benefit of cleaning up leaves and has a shine. And it doesnât hurt most plants. Test a small area first to be sure your plant is okay with neem. I had a Calathea that hated it! Stay away from hacks like mayonnaise that also will clog the leaves. Hereâs some info from The Sill.
@AlwaysCentro
How to clean houseplant leaves: First, WashâŠ
The best way to completely clean off a plantâs leaves is to set it in the shower, in the sink, on outside and just rinse or hose it off. This is typically the best way to handle cleaning off larger plants with smaller leaves, like trailing pothos plants. Sure, you could clean off every individual leaf, but that would be time-consuming. A good shower will also flush the soil out, so make sure your pot has a drainage hole for this step.
If you canât wash out your plant because it doesnât have a drainage hole or itâs too large to move, you can heavily mist the leaves to imitate a shower. Make sure to protect the flooring around your plant so it doesnât get wet. Then, in the spring, repot your plant into fresh soil since you canât flush the soil.
Then Dust and polish!
For this post, I want to focus on the real dust-collecting plantsâplants with large, thick leaves. Itâs often not worth the hassle of lugging these plants to the shower to rinse them off. Instead, you can wipe down the leaves by hand. Even on bigger plants like my large rubber plant, it only takes a few minutes since the leaves are so large and easy to wipe.
To clean houseplant leaves on large plants like my rubber plant, snake plants, and monstera, I use a microfiber cloth. I have a bunch of reusable microfiber cloths I use for cleaning, napkins, and just general kitchen stuff. They are thick and hold up very well to washing. The microfiber is fantastic for cleaning dust off of large houseplant leaves because it polishes while you wipe.
To clean leaves, simply dampen a microfiber cloth. It shouldnât be soaking wet. Drench the cloth and then wring out all of the excess water. You can now wipe down each leaf individually, rinsing and wringing out the cloth as you go. This is importantâif you donât rinse the cloth, youâll just move the dust around. đ
Homemade leaf shine using neem oil for houseplants
Another thing I like to do is while dusting houseplant leaves is make a natural leaf shine spray by spritzing my damp microfiber cloth with some neem oil spray. What I love about neem oil spray is that itâs a natural solution for pest infestations like insects, mites, and fungus, too. It helps ward them off and prevent pests from settling in in the first place.
It also helps give your leaves a nice pick-me-up and some additional shine. Donât add too much, thoughâjust a few light spritzes to your cloth is enough. If you coat the leaves too thickly with anything, it can just attract more dust.
Is using a DIY leaf shine good for plants?
No đ While it might sound like a nice step to take after you clean all of that dust off of your leaves, you definitely want to avoid leaf shine products. Many over-the-counter leaf shine sprays use mineral oil to enhance the shine on your leaves.
And there are a ton of DIY leaf shine recipes online that suggest using MAYONNAISE to shine your leaves because of the oil in it. Please, for the love of all that is good, step away from the mayonnaise jar. Mayonnaise is for sandwiches and chicken salad. Not plants. I also feel like the smell might not be that great after a while, either. Mayonnaise doesnât age well outside of the fridge đ
No matter what leaf shine product you use, itâs doing the same bad thing: coating the leaves and potentially clogging the pores we talked about earlier. The stomataâthe stuff on your plantâs leaves that it uses to breathe. I donât know of a single person on earth who would want to be suffocated by mayonnaise. And if you know someone who would, please do not introduce me to them.
Even too much neem oil could be problematic, which is why I recommend only a few spritzes on your microfiber cloth to do an entire plant. A little goes a long way, I promise!
How to clean houseplant leaves: First, WashâŠ
The best way to completely clean off a plantâs leaves is to set it in the shower, in the sink, on outside and just rinse or hose it off. This is typically the best way to handle cleaning off larger plants with smaller leaves, like trailing pothos plants. Sure, you could clean off every individual leaf, but that would be time-consuming. A good shower will also flush the soil out, so make sure your pot has a drainage hole for this step.
If you canât wash out your plant because it doesnât have a drainage hole or itâs too large to move, you can heavily mist the leaves to imitate a shower. Make sure to protect the flooring around your plant so it doesnât get wet. Then, in the spring, repot your plant into fresh soil since you canât flush the soil.
Then Dust and polish!
For this post, I want to focus on the real dust-collecting plantsâplants with large, thick leaves. Itâs often not worth the hassle of lugging these plants to the shower to rinse them off. Instead, you can wipe down the leaves by hand. Even on bigger plants like my large rubber plant, it only takes a few minutes since the leaves are so large and easy to wipe.
To clean houseplant leaves on large plants like my rubber plant, snake plants, and monstera, I use a microfiber cloth. I have a bunch of reusable microfiber cloths I use for cleaning, napkins, and just general kitchen stuff. They are thick and hold up very well to washing. The microfiber is fantastic for cleaning dust off of large houseplant leaves because it polishes while you wipe.
To clean leaves, simply dampen a microfiber cloth. It shouldnât be soaking wet. Drench the cloth and then wring out all of the excess water. You can now wipe down each leaf individually, rinsing and wringing out the cloth as you go. This is importantâif you donât rinse the cloth, youâll just move the dust around. đ
Homemade leaf shine using neem oil for houseplants
Another thing I like to do is while dusting houseplant leaves is make a natural leaf shine spray by spritzing my damp microfiber cloth with some neem oil spray. What I love about neem oil spray is that itâs a natural solution for pest infestations like insects, mites, and fungus, too. It helps ward them off and prevent pests from settling in in the first place.
It also helps give your leaves a nice pick-me-up and some additional shine. Donât add too much, thoughâjust a few light spritzes to your cloth is enough. If you coat the leaves too thickly with anything, it can just attract more dust.
Is using a DIY leaf shine good for plants?
No đ While it might sound like a nice step to take after you clean all of that dust off of your leaves, you definitely want to avoid leaf shine products. Many over-the-counter leaf shine sprays use mineral oil to enhance the shine on your leaves.
And there are a ton of DIY leaf shine recipes online that suggest using MAYONNAISE to shine your leaves because of the oil in it. Please, for the love of all that is good, step away from the mayonnaise jar. Mayonnaise is for sandwiches and chicken salad. Not plants. I also feel like the smell might not be that great after a while, either. Mayonnaise doesnât age well outside of the fridge đ
No matter what leaf shine product you use, itâs doing the same bad thing: coating the leaves and potentially clogging the pores we talked about earlier. The stomataâthe stuff on your plantâs leaves that it uses to breathe. I donât know of a single person on earth who would want to be suffocated by mayonnaise. And if you know someone who would, please do not introduce me to them.
Even too much neem oil could be problematic, which is why I recommend only a few spritzes on your microfiber cloth to do an entire plant. A little goes a long way, I promise!