Indoor plant care mistakes: Expert reveals the surprising reason you need to start dusting your houseplants

Indoor plants need a few basic essentials to survive, but if you really want them to thrive the conditions need to be right.

Get light, water and humidity wrong and your greenery will be looking a little sad and may even perish.

We the Wild founder Josh Armstrong knows indoor plants inside out after developing a natural and organic fertiliser that helps pot plants be as healthy as they would if they were in the ground.

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To help us keep our houseplants growing well and looking good for a long time to come, Armstrong revealed the top five mistakes he sees people making with indoor plants.

Overwatering

When we think of plant care, watering immediately comes to mind so we assume that regularly drizzling indoor plants is what we should be doing.

However, it's not as simple as that and too much water can result in root rot and make our plants look limp and off-colour.

"Checking the soil is really important to make sure that it's not wet before you water, and using something like our support pellets, which is full of a certain fungi that essentially helps regulate the moisture levels, is a really great way to fix that," he told 9Honey Living.

And if your plant doesn't look right, don't just reach for the watering can because that also leads to overwatering.

"People often just try and solve a problem by just continuing to water their plant."

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Light

Indoor plants by their very nature don't need hours of sunlight, but they do need some light and each plant is different. So understanding the light need of each type of plant you have is essential.

"If you think about your plant in its natural ecosystem, where [does it typically grow]? If if it's a spiky, thick leaf plant, it's probably a desert plant, so you want to put it in the brightest spot," he said.

"If it's something that's more of a vine that you think might be growing under a tree, then it's probably used to shade. So you can put it in a lower light."

When thinking of getting a particular plant, or if you have one that's failing, research its light needs or check the plant care label it came with for information on the best location for it in your home.

Pests (like fungus gnats)

If you keep getting pest infestations, Armstrong has some bad news.

"What people don't understand is that pests actually are incapable of attacking a healthy plant," he said.

"They actually can't digest the sap of the leaf of a healthy plant. Our products build resilient, pest resistant plants to stop pests even coming in the first place, so you don't even have to treat [them for pests]."

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Dust

When was the last time you wiped your indoor plant leaves? Never? Same and it's a bigger deal than most of us think.

"People underestimate cleaning leaves. It basically stops sunlight coming into your plants, which is what they need to survive. It also it leaves a toxin build-up that blocks the plant's ability to absorb oxygen, which they also need."

So gently dust your plants' leaves with a damp cloth now and again.

Humidity

Getting this one right makes a big difference to the health of your plants, though it's a harder one to control in the home than light, water and dusting.

To help your plants get the humidity they need in winter, Armstrong shared a clever hack.

"Move all of your plants together because their leaves actually emit moisture... then they create their own little kind of moisture barrier all around them, which can increase the humidity," he said.