If you water and spray all your plants in the similar regime, you make a huge mistake. Each houseplant has individual watering requirements, and its frequency, as well as intensity, depend on a number of factors:
- species and size;
- the size of the planter;
- season;
- room temperature;
- lighting;
- the composition of the soil or the quality of the potting mix.
Much depends on the weather. If the sky is cloudy and the room temperature is moderate, the plants need little moisture, but in the heat, many types of flowers feel the need to "drink" regularly. Remember that the plant grows taller and wider over time, which means that even at a stable temperature and constant, optimal humidity, at some stage it may need more water. Growth revitalization - a period of increasing demand for life-giving water.
You can determine that it is time to water by different methods - by touch or by weight. Plants in ceramic pots require more watering than their counterparts in plastic containers. Crops with thin or drooping stems and large leaves or strong roots require more moisture than other species.
How do you know a plant is thirsty?
Before watering indoor plants, make sure they need it. Many amateur flower growers act traditionally, checking the dryness of the earth by touch. This approach is correct if you "dig" with a stick deeper than the surface layer. The soil in the upper part can dry out, and below it can retain high humidity. The risk of the bay turns out to be great.
Lack of moisture is indicated by drooping or fallen leaves, sluggish shoots, quickly drying buds or flowers. The fact that you clearly overdid it with watering will be indicated by the brown ends of the leaves, mold, rot, and the falling off of young leaves. In addition, the flower grows much more slowly with an excess of moisture. When overflowing, the sheet becomes sluggish, the ends are covered with brown spots
The need for hydration can be determined by ear by tapping lightly on the surface of the container with your finger. When the soil is dry, a ringing sound will be heard, when wet, a dull sound. The weight of a pot with wet soil is significantly greater than with dry soil. The methods, of course, are primitive, but with some experience and careful attention to domestic crops, they turn out to be very effective, especially when it comes to small flowers in standard pots.
What about the devices for determining soil moisture?
Most of the problems for amateur flower growers are created by representatives of the flora planted in large, voluminous pots or barrels, the height of which exceeds 30 cm. As practice shows, they most often suffer from waterlogging. To protect such plants, you can purchase one of the fairly simple devices that allow you to determine the level of soil moisture.
Before watering the specimens in tubs, following the instructions, you will use the indicator, the arrow on the scale of which will show if the soil is dry or still wet. Cheap devices wear out quickly enough, at some stage they begin to show very dubious readings. Based on this, ideally, it is worth changing the measuring device annually.
If mineral salts have accumulated in excess in the soil, even a new apparatus will be wrong. This happens if plants are watered with too hard water for years. This is the case when incorrect indicator data is a signal that the flower's land needs to be urgently changed.
Modern sound moisture meters are convenient. As soon as the plant begins to feel thirst, the device informs about it with a ringing or, for example, a lingering whistle. It is advisable to install such a device in a flower pot that requires moisture earlier than others. Before watering the plants, it is worth checking them with any of the above methods.
Do I need to follow the watering regime?
Ideally, watering indoor plants must be carried out strictly according to the regime. Information on the rules for moistening the soil can be obtained from encyclopedic descriptions of the cultivation of a particular flower. In general, there are three types of watering:
- Rare moisture - the need for cacti, gloxinia, and succulents, as well as many other plants, when they are at rest. They do not need hydration for several weeks.
- Abundant watering, which is needed by the vast majority of tropical crops with thin leaves. It involves moistening the soil immediately after the soil clod dries out. Azalea, begonia, ficus, and other similar plants require a lot of water.
- Moderate watering is especially suitable for species with pubescent stems and leaves, such as peperomia or African violet. House flowers with thick roots (asparagus, dracaena, columnea, palm, chlorophytum, and others) also love this kind of moisture. It involves adding water one to two days after the earth dries out.
Final thoughts
Of course, when there are a lot of plants, you may be confused by their different watering needs. We recommend dividing all flowers into three types depending on the need for moisture and periodically checking the soil of each indoor plant for dryness.
Remember that it is much more beneficial to moisten the soil of plants more often and little by little than to arrange abundant watering from time to time. It is important that complete moistening of the earthy coma is achieved. In spring and summer, when active growth occurs, flowers should be watered more often and more abundantly than in autumn, when the plants are dormant.
If you are still not sure about your discipline, pay attention to the so-called self-watering pots that can be purchased for especially delicate crops.
You can also learn the practice of cultivating plants in a hydroponic system. In this case, you can pay close attention to them a couple of times a month, and the rest of the time the soil will be moistened automatically. If necessary, buy granulates, hydrogels, and other compounds that retain moisture.
