What is a baby houseplant and how do I acclimatise it to my home?

Babies are cute. Babies are cheap. My inbox is stuffed with adverts for babies. 

There is certainly something to be said for baby houseplants. As budgets get squeezed, spending under a fiver on that aroid that stole your heart seems like a good deal.  

But it's worth knowing what you're actually getting, because there's no one botanical term that covers all the plants sold as baby plants.

What they do have in common is that baby plants are starter plants (also sometimes known as plug plants) usually sold in a tiny pot, usually around 6cm in diameter. Some are a bunch of individual stem cuttings, like Sansevieria cylindrica or various Hoyas; others are a pot stuffed full of seedlings, such as parlour palm, areca palm or asparagus fern, and others a single seedling. Many of these single seedling baby plants are the product of tissue culture, particularly of the genus Alocasia and other aroids. 

Some people find they are easier to acclimatise to their conditions than more mature plants, but others the exact opposite.

Here's what to watch out for:

• Not all tissue cultured plants are the same - they will be genetically identical to the parent plant, so the quality of the baby plants will depend on the parent, and also the lab protocols followed as well as how they are treated by the seller.

• Some baby plants come with rootballs surrounded by net, mesh or even rubber bands: I always carefully cut them away and discard, to prevent root restriction. 

• Baby plants are certainly cheaper than larger specimens, but they are also more vulnerable: a tiny rootball dries out more quickly, and young leaves are easily damaged. 

• Think about the ultimate size of the plants you buy as babies: do you have room for 25 romping Hoyas or Philodendrons? 

• Avoid overpotting. Do not sit a tiny rootball in a mass of substrate, as this can encourage root rot: use a pot only slightly bigger than the rootball. 

• Watch out for baby snake plants: these are often a set of poorly rooted cuttings that will fail over time if too crowded in the pot.

• If you're buying babies with several seedlings in the same pot, think about thinning them out or separating them into different pots, as the weaker ones usually die anyway from over-competition. 
  

  This blogpost was taken from The Plant Ledger, my twice monthly email newsletter about the UK houseplant scene. Subscribe here and get my free in-depth guide to fungus gnats.