I use the term “chunky, well draining” to refer to the mix I use for most of my plants. It’s a mix of 1/3 indoor potting soil, 1/3 fine perlite and 1/3 orchid bark.

For Calatheas and Begonias I will add some Coco Coir to the mix to retain a bit more moisture.

Generally speaking, most tropical aroid plants like “bright, indirect light” which I’ve found to mean an east facing window, or set a few feet back from a south or west facing window. The more variegation a plant has, the more light it will need as the white parts of the plant cannot photosynthesize. Some plants, like Hoyas, will sun stress to a pretty pink when given extra light but use caution as thinner leaf plants can burn in too much light.

I recommend adding a plant light in winter up here in good ol’ dreary NY!

Yes. Most of the mom plants have been living happily in my apartment with the AC cranked in the summer and heat cranked in the winter.

I keep plants displayed clustered together by humidity preference then add a small humidifier near them if needed.

Alocasias, Philodendrons, Syngoniums, Pothos, Pepperomias, Hoyas and Tradescantias tend to adjust to ambient humidity pretty well.

Calatheas, Marantas, Begonias, Stromanthes - these like higher humidity so I put a humidifier near them.

Your entire room or house does not need to be high humidity for them to thrive! You just need to maintain the humidity in the area directly around the plants which is why clustering them together works well.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to mix up different fertilizer batches for each type of plant.

Instead, I use Grow Queen Organic fertilizer, or TPS fertilizer almost every time I water. Because I’m using it every time, I only mix it up to ½ strength.

About once per month, I will top water without fertilizer to flush any salt/mineral build up from the soil .

This one is a bit of a learning curve. When I first began, I used a wooden chop stick the way you’d test a cake with a toothpick - insert into the soil and if it comes out with moist dirt stuck to it, no watering needed.

Over time, practice lifting the nursery pot and feeling its weight before and after you water. You’ll quickly get a feel for how light “dry” will feel.

Alocaisas, Philodendrons, Syngoniums, Monsteras - these all want to dry up a little before the next watering, at least the top couple inches of the soil should be dry.

Begonias and Calatheas want to remain a bit more moist (not soggy!) so I will water them more frequently.

Hoyas and thick leaf Pepperomias can store water in their leaves so they need less watering, at least the top half of the soil should be dry.

The short answer - mostly, yes.

The longer answer - it really depends.

If your water is very hard or chlorinated, it’s a good idea to use distilled or rain water. If your water is soft and not chlorinated, go ahead and use it!

That being said, I’ve used city tap water and chlorinated well water for all of the plants except Calatheas and Stromanthes, and it’s worked fine. Calatheas and Stromanthes are so sensative to minerals and chlorine that tap water causes brown, crunchy leaves.

Once a month, I will top water all the plants with distilled water to flush any built up mineral salts from the soil.

I prefer to bottom water (where you fill a container with the water/fertilizer mix, set the nursery pot into that container and let the pot soak up as much water as it needs) to help keep fungus gnats at bay, and then top water (pour water onto the top of the soil) without fertilizer once a month to flush the mineral salt build up from the soil.

There is no right or wrong answer for this, it really depends on whatever is easiest for you!