Are You Watering Your Plants Correctly?
If your plant is losing its leaves, you may be watering it incorrectly, either by underwatering it or overwatering it. This can often happen if you forget to water your plants when you are on vacation.
Typically, when the plant is first purchased, it is overwatered due to the owner’s excitement. Growing reliant on the constant supply of water, the plant grows weaker roots. When the owner decreases the attention, it is harder for it to get the supply it needs.
How to Correct Your Plant Watering Technique
Water the plant less often, but check to make sure that the soil is soaked thoroughly. If the soil dries out too much, the water will seep through it immediately and won’t nourish the plants. Let it soak in a sink (under a slow trickle) for 15-20 minutes or check it periodically with a pitcher until the soil returns to normal. Allowing your plant to have a dry cycle will help it avoid root rot as it grows stronger roots.
Repot plants into larger pots with more soil. This will give your plant more room to grow roots as well as offer it more water. Don’t go too large right away. Instead, replace the pot as the plant outgrows it. While there are pots designed with no holes, people tend to water them less, they can encourage root rot, and there is no great way to rinse out the salts.
If you know that you’ll forget to water your plants, use plastic or porcelain pots. The water in clay pots evaporates a lot quicker, allowing our soil to dry out more quickly.
How to Water Your Plants In the Future
When you bring home a new plant, research it thoroughly and set up a detailed watering plan. Make sure to follow it. You can set up reminders on your phone if necessary.
Correct your watering on your current plant and hope that it returns to its glory. Take care to make sure that it has all the nutrients that it needs.
Do Your Plants Get Enough Light?
If your plant is slouching or has thin or discolored leaves, it may not be getting the correct amount of light. New growth on your plants may appear thin, flimsy, and discolored. As a whole, your plant will slouch, lose leaves, and appear pale.
Find a Better Place to Place Your Plant or Use Synthetic Lighting
Find out how much light your plant is typically supposed to receive and see if you can duplicate it. You may have to do a few things to increase the lighting for your plants.
In the future: choose plants that have full leaves and are used to shady environments (such as tropical rainforests with heavy canopies).
Are You Over-Fertilizing Your Plants?
It is important to fertilize your plants to replace the plant’s nutrients they would typically receive from decaying leaves and twigs in an outdoor setting. It is important, however, that you do not overfeed them as it can burn the roots.
If you see brown leaf tips and soft, wilted leaves, you may have a plant fertilization problem. When you have over-fertilized your plant, you may see soft, wilted leaves that seem to fail even when you have watered the plant. You may also notice these symptoms even if you haven’t fertilized recently as water evaporates and leaves the dry fertilizer behind.
Be Careful About How Much You Fertilize
Make sure that you read the instructions on the fertilizer correctly and that it has the correct N-P-K ratio for that plant in question. It should also be labeled on the package that the fertilizer is good for houseplants. If you are confused about how much to give, feed the plant the lesser amount.
Don’t fertilize a plant until you know that it needs it. Typical signs include smaller or paler leaves than normal or no new growth on the plant at all. Don’t fertilize a plant right when you purchase it. They have typically been fed by the growers and shouldn’t need more fertilizer for a very long time.
You should also be aware of the type of fertilizer you are using. If you can find them, use time-release fertilizers as they are less likely to damage the roots of your plant.
Does Your Plant Need More Humidity in the Air?
If the air in your home is dry, your plant may not be getting the humidity it needs to thrive and could be experiencing heat stress. You may see dry, brown-streaked leaves, or a loss of leaves on the plant.
Even if your home is typically humid due to your location, it could dry out in winter, causing damage to your plants. This typically will show in the leaves or flowers of the plants, either by them drying out and becoming brown or falling off the plant altogether.
Create a Humid Environment for Your Plants
One of the best places in your home for humidity-loving plants is the bathroom as the air becomes more moist whenever you run the shower or bath. You can also add humidifiers or swamp coolers to some rooms to raise the moisture level of the air.
You can aso place plants on a pan of stones and water so that the water can evaporate around the plant. Try grouping plants closer together so that they can help raise the humidity around each other.
Alternatively, you can choose plants that need less humidity. Choose plants with woody stems, succulents, or bulbs so that you don’t have to worry about them drying out.