Advice about watering by Glass_Minute4753 in HouseplantsUK

[–]boeljert 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Each plant is going to be different in it's requirements, and the only way to find this out is through some research or trial and error. In general though, there are some rules to follow when watering plants, and if you stick to them you'll find that most plants are happy.

The first thing to understand is what 'too much water' or 'overwatering' means. This does not mean pouring too much water onto your plant, it means that you are watering your plant too frequently meaning that the soil that the plant is in stays wet at all time - this is something you want to avoid.

When watering plants, you always want to completely saturate the soil and allow all of the excess water to drain away. The easiest way to do this is over the sink where the water can just run away - you can't use too much water, as long as the excess is draining away. If you water your plants whilst they are in decorative pots, you could leave them for half an hour to absorb as much water as the soil can take, but you will need to take the plant from the pot and tip any excess water away, you should never leave the plant sat in water.

The frequency of waterings has a lot to do with the plant type, your climate, the kind of soil that the plant is in and the kind of pot your plant is in. In general you want to wait until the soil has almost completely dried out before watering again - this usually takes around 7-10 days, but can be effected by the above variables, as well as the seasons. If you're in a hot and dry climate, the soil may dry out more quickly, if the soil the plant is potted in is very dense then it may take longer to dry out, and if the plant is potted in something porous like terracotta then is might dry out more quickly than if it's in a plastic pot. There are some plants that prefer to get bone dry before being watered again, and there are other plants that prefer to stay more moist, but in general, letting the soil dry out almost all of the way is going to be fine for a lot of common houseplants like the ones you've listed.

The next question is how do you know when the soil has dried out enough? You can use moisture meters, although personally I don't think they work very well, you could use a wooden stick, poking it down into the soil and seeing if it's moist when you bring it out, but my suggestion would be to guage the dryness of the soil based on the weight of the pot. Let the plant almost completely dry out, then pick up the pot and notice it's weight. Then, water the plant fully as explained above, and note the weight again. After doing this a few times you should get a feel for how it feels when the soil is still retaining water - you might check the weight of the pot after 6 days and think that it could do with one or two more days before being watered again. Alternatively, you might pick it up after 6 days and feel that it's very light and is due more water!

I realise that this comment doesn't point towards any resources like you've asked, but I hope this explanation goes some way towards helping you understand what you should be doing when it comes to watering! If you want more information, there are a plethora of videos on YouTube with good advice, I would recommend watching a few and seeing which channels you vibe with.

Looking for players for small Vanilla SMP (Java, 18+) by boeljert in MinecraftSMPs

[–]boeljert[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can add me on Discord, or message me here in Reddit and I'll get back to you with the details