Contents
In today’s post, let’s answer one of the most important questions in gardening – How to water plants? How much to Water? and How often to water plants and in the right way! I will discuss the 12 golden rules of watering showing you the best way to water your house plants to keep them healthy!
Introduction
Water is really amazing – H2O, made up of hydrogen and oxygen, it’s literally responsible for all life on Earth. Watering your plant is a no-brainer, but how much and how often can be more tricky to tell. Luckily, we have a few gardening tips and tricks in this episode on watering for optimum plant health. Watering your plants is key to keeping them healthy, apart from a rich soil and good amount of sunlight.
Frequently Asked Questions in Gardening
Today, Let’s solve this Frequently Asked Question in Gardening: How much to water plants, and how often to water plants – what should be the frequency of watering? – The answer to this question is not really easy and depends on a number of factors like the Type of plant, your location or the local climatic zone, the season of the year, the type and size of the container and so on.
The 12 Golden Rules of Watering Your House Plants
Now let’s list out the 12 golden rules of watering your house plants, especially applicable to container gardening. You must remember this very important line – “OVER-WATERING IS THE MOST COMMON PLANT KILLER THAN UNDER-WATERING”.
Rule 1: Avoid Water Logging and Stagnation
To avoid this, firstly, you need to have a well draining potting soil mix. Your potting mix must contain at least 30 to 50 percent of stuff other than just garden soil, like compost, peat moss or cocopeat, perlite, vermiculite, sand and stuff like that. You can check the best potting mix formula here. Then secondly, you must check whether the drainage holes of your containers are patent. Water should freely flow out of the holes, else can be a disaster to your plants.
Rule 2: Checking Top Soil for Moisture
Before you water your plant, make it a habit to check the top 1 or 2 inches of soil using the finger dip method. If it’s completely dry then you need to water your plants. You can also check this using a soil moisture meter or a simple moisture and PH testing gadget like this. But the best gadget is your finger! This is important because drying out of soil just before watering promotes growth of roots.
Rule 3: Water Less Often, but Thoroughly
This is really an important rule. Generally for most plants, it’s better to water less often but thoroughly. This is always much better than watering more frequently with little quantity of water. The next rule, that’s rule 4, explains this concept better.
Rule 4: Water Must Reach the Roots
Most roots are located deeper near the bottom of the containers. Hence superficial watering with small amounts and even though more frequently will not give you good results. Hence thorough watering and less frequent watering is recommended so that the water reaches the deeper roots till the bottom of the container.
Rule 5: Best Time To Water Plants
In late evenings and early mornings, the soil is cooled and hence less water evaporates than it would, on hot soil during the day. And the plants can sufficiently stock themselves with water for upcoming photosynthesis and the plants will be able to deal better with the upcoming heat of the sun.
Rule 6: Keep the Leaves Dry to Avoid Fungus
Generally for most plants, especially for succulents and cacti, it’s recommended to pour water on the soil and not drench the plant completely due to the risk of fungal disease, but this depends on your local climate and the type of plants. If it’s scorching hot in summer, you can mist or drench some of the plants. But not those plants which store water in their leaves and stem like the succulents and cacti, due to the risk of rot.
Rule 7: Water Gradually and Allow it to Go Down into the Soil
Water gradually, wait and water again till the water comes out of the drainage hole. This is thorough watering and important for deeper roots to receive water. As I already said in rule #3 – less frequent but thorough watering.
Rule 8: Using Clay-rich Soil
If you are on a vacation or want to reduce watering frequency, you can use clay-rich soil but smartly. This holds water well and this is the soil used by most nursery guys to water their plants less frequently. But there is always a risk of root rot from water stagnation if you use clayey soil. You can also use water retaining gel crystals like the SAP gel crystals or the super absorbent polymer which are now available as non-toxic safe granules which significantly reduce watering frequency.
Rule 9: Different Watering for Different Plants
This is really important specially if you are a beginner. You have to know the name of your plant and also its care tips like watering requirement, sunlight requirement and stuff like that. Do not hesitate to ask the plant identity and google about its care tips and watering requirement.
Rule 10: Container Gardening vs Ground Gardening
Watering requirement and frequency is different for these two types of gardening. Remember this line: Container grown plants dry out much faster, and hence require greater watering vigilance.
Rule 11: Water Your Plant After Re-potting
Always water your plant after re-potting so the plant can settle in and stay hydrated while it establishes itself in its new home.
Rule 12: Small Tips
- Plants in large pots dry out more slowly than plants in smaller pots.
- Plants in bright daylight dry out more quickly than plants in low light or indoor plants.
- Humid air keeps soil moist for longer, than dry air.
Please watch a detailed video demonstrating how to water plants the right way below.
