HOW TO KNOW IF YOU'RE OVERWATERING YOUR PLANTS.
It's easy to give your new plant babies too much TLC.
Did you know overwatering is the most common way you can kill a plant? Here are some of the symptoms to know your plant is being overwatered. If you spot any of them, please do your plant babies a favor and put that watering can down! Remember, less can be more.
Overwatering is easy to spot. When checking a sad plant, it's important to look at it as a whole, and not just the part that has been affected. Overwatering is not just adding too much water to the potting mix, it's what's going on inside the plant that really matters. If your soil is not drying out fast enough, it may be one of two things,
too much water or not enough sunlight. If your plant is being watered appropriately, but it does not receive enough sunlight, the potting mix will most likely stay moist and the plant will remain overwatered. As a rule of thumb, water during the morning. Learn more about how the time of day should impact the way you water
here.
This should be your diagnostic when figuring out if you're overwatering:
Firstly, you should feel your plant's potting mix. Place your finger inside the potting mix a few inches deep. If it feels moist or wet, it is most likely being overwatered. Another sign could be fungus gnats. Fungus gnats feed on the fungi in the environment. They reproduce themselves when the soil is too wet for too long. Don't worry though! You can get rid of them.
Another way to spot an overwatered plant is to see its lower leaves. If they start to turn yellow, and you can even see them blackening at the base, it's a clear sign you're overwatering. If you see base mushiness or rot, it may be a game over for your plant. Try to catch it early, the sooner, the more likely it is to survive!
Our rule: water your plant when its potting mix is dry. Give it enough light and warmth for the water to evaporate and dry out. It's a lot easier to overwater a plant in a non-draining pot, so make sure your pot has a drainage hole (tip: if it doesn't, try to add a layer of lava rocks at the bottom).
For any other questions on watering, make sure to contact our plant experts!
