Common plant myths

Let´s debunk 3 common plant myths!

OVERWATERING:

I hear a lot of people say that ´´overwatering´´ means giving too much water, which isn´t true.

It is about how often you give, not how much! ¨Too much¨ only exists if the plant has really dense soil or the pot has no drainage, then excess water cannot get out and roots can rot.

If the pot and soil has proper drainage, then it doesn´t matter if the plant gets 1 liter or 100 liters of water.  I might trigger some people by saying that, but know that the plant isn´t going to use the excess water because IT DRAINS OUT THE POT! Watering thoroughly is great because it means full hydration and it prevents hydrophobic (water-repelling) soil.

Now normally, it takes the average plant 1 week to have fully dry soil again and use up all the water. That means that if you water that plant twice or even 3 times a week no matter how much, the soil doesn´t have enough time to dry out and the roots can start to rot!

So long story short, it is about how often you water and not how much. Next myth!

¨BIG POTS WITH SMALL PLANTS IS FINE¨:

Before going any further, note that this website is about houseplants and not garden plants.

No it is not. You might think that your plant could grow into it or something but that rarely ever works out. The roots of a plant are delicate, and when a plant with a small root system gets placed in a big pot and you water it, the roots can never reach all of the water in time. That excess water just sitting there will eventually start rotting and suffocating roots, so be careful!

REPOTTING BASED OFF OF PLANT SIZE:

Large stems or big leaves does not mean that the root system is big as well! A lot of plants focus more on folliage rather than roots, especially epiphytes. Pull the nursery pot off of your plant and check the volume of the roots and if it is circling at the bottom. When it is looking like a dry pack of forbidden ramen noodles down there, repot the plant in a well-drainage mix in a pot that is one or two sizes bigger than the root ball. I find that Anthurium in particulair do well in pots that are a bit bigger, so maybe even a small 3 sizes bigger than the root ball max.