Have you ever get excited on your first plant and bring it home just to find out the plant withered and slowly dying the next day?
You try hard to to safe it, put it by the window, give them a sunbath, watering, reporting or even fertilise it. But the plant ended up dying.
And your first thought that you Kill your plant. Don't beat up yourself, its not your fault, nor the plants. It's your environment, the plant couldn't match up to your Microclimate.
If you do, Welcome to the Club. I have my shares on this, plants that died due to my indoor Microclimate.
What is Microclimate.
Notice your indoor or outdoor of the house may some part cold and some part hot?
Microclimate is a local set of atmosphere conditions that differ from surrounding areas.
1 ] You will notice an area with bodies of water ie : waterfall, fish pond, toilets, bathroom = which may cool the environment
this part of the area humidity is higher than other environment. Noticed why plants thrive more in this climate
2 ] Heavy Urban ie Apartments, Building - Brick , Concrete and Asphalt - Absorb the Sun energy, And Heat up the Ambient Air surrounding = Urban Heat Island. If you notice your house is surrounding with Urban heat, You should know that this kind of area low humidity and will suffer most Fussy plants and tropical plants.
<------- its how Urban Heat island Phenomenon Occurs.
So if you stay in the middle of the town, in an Commercial Apartment. You need to know what plants to bring home, plants that is hard to the core and able to adapt with this environment.
or where best to placed your plant.
Here in Malaysia, You need to understand our geography and each microclimate of each state is different. Why Selangor Land Of Pokok Getah/Paya Bakau, Kedah - Padi, Johor - Kelapa Sawit and so on.
Here in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor the city-core is generally warmer and drier than the countryside (Pahang,Perak,Kedah) and large open areas like Where i stay now Setia Alam, Shah Alam Selangor (New Development area many open areas) = Warmer and dryer.
3] Slope or Aspect of an Area
a) South Facing / Northern Hemisphere
b} North Facing/ Southern Hemisphere
both are exposed to more direct sunlight than the opposite, lead to warmer environment
Picture below show you how Heat effects on slope, and if your house or apartment is build in this environment.
Take for Example my House Our Apartment (East/South) is build on a Slope and my Unit is facing a dry hill and No Forested area or pond while my Neighbour(North/West) in the Front Unit facing a concave slope and swimming pool which result to different environmental variables - different microclimate.
My front neighbour too are in to plants after seeing my house filled with plants ( :) contagious hobby it is), but because of the different variables of microclimate, i witness one by one his plants is dying & withered . Fiddle fig started to loose its leaves one by one, his Ficus Elastica is not showing any good progress even after he take the plants outside to get some light/rain. Even after advised how to care. noticed his plants not growing well. But, i observe that His Calathea is doing way better than mine, while mine gets narcosis and dry tip due to dry air in my unit. This come to Conclusion
Different Microclimate = Different Plant Choices + Different Outcomes.
This same applied to some of my Instagram plants followers, why people in Penang/Kedah gets beautiful fast grow plants rather than where i am Selangor / Kuala Lumpur.... its all because of Microclimate.
So remember to understand your house environment, observe the variables of microclimate in your home/house, and make the right choice with plants that goes best with your microclimate. And also remember Malaysia ini Kpistiwa, we have Dry, heat, warm, wet, Cold weather all year round. No matter how Good the Plants Parents of Westerners in Instagram, Their Climate is way different than Ours. I hope this Post entries make you Plants parents and New plant parents thrive in having an indoor plants. feel free to ask me question, you can reach me here in my site or in Instagram acc. Link button on Home page.
Have a Good Day Ahead Beautiful People.
