One of the most frustrating parts of houseplant ownership is when a normally healthy plant starts dropping leaves or turning yellow and you’re not sure why. Don’t fret; many of these problems can be easily resolved with small care changes. Learn how to decode the messages your plant is sending—and how to fix them. You’ll be back to thriving, happy plants in no time!
Underwatering:
Signs: Soft, wilted, or curled leaves, drooping stems or whole plant slumped over; soil visibly dry, hard, and shrinking away from your container.
Treatment:
A severly underwatered plant will need to be bottom watered, usually for several hours, until the soil feels damp and supple again. Humidity-loving plants will perk back up faster if they are also kept in a high humidity area while soil is rehydrating. It make take a few hours or few days for a plant to look back to normal after underwatering incident.
Prevention:
Utilize a consistent watering routine, checking on your plant a regular intervals to ensure your are watering as soon as they need it. Also when purchasing your plant make sure you follow the plant care tips that come along with the plant, & if you don’t see the plant care tips, you can also google the plant a read a short care tip to follow.
Excess water
Signs: Yellowing leaves, water pooled at bottom of the container, visibly soggy soil with water squishing out when you press on the soil. Plant leaves falling off or quickly turning brown or black (this will happen to succulents & air plants)
Treatment: Depending on the extent of the damage, sometimes just emptying any excess water from the container and letting the lant dry out completlty before watering it again. If the soil is very waterlogged, it is best to remove the plant completlely and wrap it with a dry towel (the roots) & allowing the root to dry out a couple of days before placing it back into a well dry potting soil mix.
Prevention:
Often this problem is referred to as “overwatering” which can be a misnormer, since it is not just about how oftern or houw much you are watering but rather about the balance of how much water the plant can use compared to how much water is being stored in the soil.
Lack of light
plants leaning towards windows, doors or areas with brighter light. Sometimes this means their leaves will all start to face the light. Other times, the whole plant can start to lean, branches and all! Yellow, pale and very small leaves.
Treatment: Move the plant to brighter light do it graduallyy and rotate the plant towards the indirect or bright light.
Prevention
Keep plants in the apporopriate amount of light for their needs; remember that no plant will truly thrive in very low light or in the dark.
When choosing a houseplant and placing it in your home, remember that it was grown under ideal conditions in a greenhouse. The plant will need time to adjust to the light, humidity, and temperature conditions in your home. Don’t be alarmed if, in the meantime, leaves drop, leaf tips turn brown, or leaf color changes slightly. After the houseplant has been given enough time to become established and its condition does not improve it could be from one of these plant care problems.
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