How To Fertilize With Tea Bags

Start by collecting your old tea bags and storing them in a dry place. To help the tea bags dry faster, arrange them on a flat surface, such as a paper towel-lined plate or tray, making sure they don’t touch. You can speed up the drying process even further by placing them in the sun, near an open window or fan, or by warming them in the oven or microwave for a few minutes (see instructions below).

Once the tea bags are dry, cut off the tops so you can transfer the leaves into the soil. If you have a lot of plants to feed, consider dumping the tea leaves into a large bowl for easier access. Next, aerate the soil around your plant by scraping the top layer with a fork or gardening tool. For smaller plants, you can poke a few holes into the dirt with a chopstick or pencil. Finally, add a pinch of tea leaves to the soil, and use your hands or a tool to gently mix them into that top layer until everything is well blended.

If you have biodegradable tea bags and need to fertilize a large shrub or tree, there’s no need to empty them — just bury a handful of whole bags right into the dirt near the drip line (i.e., the outermost edge of the plant’s branches).

Plants That Love Tea Leaves

Since tea will make your soil more acidic, it’s important to use this hack only with plants that prefer a low pH. For indoor plants, this includes ferns and caladiums, as well as flowering varieties, such as fuchsias and camellias. If you’re taking your tea bags to the garden, consider adding them near the base of acid-loving shrubs like azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and gardenias, and trees such as dogwood and Japanese maple.

That’s right — a single plastic bag can actually create a microclimate that lets plants live their best lives, similar to a makeshift greenhouse.

Greenhouse on a Budget

Many of the houseplant varieties we know and love originate in tropical environments. Unless you live somewhere warm and humid year-round, there’s a good chance your plant babies aren’t getting enough moisture. While they appreciate their weekly watering, absorbing moisture from the air is another key way for them to nourish themselves. Humidity is essential because it opens up the leaf pores, allowing plants to better absorb the carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis and, ultimately, grow more. Plus, high humidity helps keep concerns such as wilting or brown edges at bay.

If you want to supercharge plant growth, placing a transparent plastic bag over the plant can help trap humidity and create a makeshift mini greenhouse for better moisture levels. However, as with watering, balance is key. This trick works best on plants that receive indirect sunlight or prefer shade. Since the clear plastic traps heat, leaving the plant in direct sunlight intensifies the sun’s energy, ultimately scorching your plant instead of moisturizing it. While you can apply plastic bags to plants in sunny spots, you’ll need to put them on in the evening and remove them before the sun shines again.

In addition to tropical houseplants, this trick is great for sprouting plant seeds. Use it to grow a monstera or another popular houseplant from scratch, or to get your garden seedlings ready for the spring.

Why Showering Is Great for Indoor Tropical Plants

Just to be clear, we’re not suggesting you literally haul a few pots into the shower while you’re lathering up. But the shower does provide a great opportunity to give your tropicals a “spa day,” especially in winter when the air tends to be driest (and challenging low humidity is the norm).

Gather an armful of plants and put them in the shower, then turn on the water. If you have a handheld shower head, you can use it to wash each plant for a few moments, which not only removes dust (dust blocks the light plants need for photosynthesis) but also flushes away any possible pests. As each plant is thoroughly cleaned and watered, set it aside and move on to the rest. When you’re done, turn off the water, close the shower curtain or door, and give them a half-hour or longer to revel in the enclosed, warm, steamy space while their soil drains. (Tip: Only attempt this hack with houseplants that are in containers with drainage holes.)

The Benefits of Giving Your Tropical Plants a Shower

There are lots of other humidity-boosting hacks for your plants, but none works this powerfully. A steamy shower is the closest thing to genuine tropical heat and humidity, so even an hour once a week will give your plants the conditions they need to truly thrive. Other benefits include deterring spider mites, which like dry conditions, loosening compacted soil with a thorough watering, and rinsing out accumulated salts from fertilizer and watering. (If you have hard or softened water, rinse them well with distilled water instead of tap water.)

If you have a large walk-in shower or a wet room, you can even keep a few select humidity-loving plants right in the shower itself. For the rest of us, a windowsill or ledge in the bathroom (or just outside it) is almost as good, provided space and lighting permit.