Gadenin日本語Get the appSoak and dry, never little and often
The roots are thick and fleshy, closer to a fleshy tuber than to fine fibrous roots, and they store water. That makes the plant far better at handling a dry spell than a wet one. Water thoroughly until it runs freely from the bottom, then leave it alone until the top two or three inches (5 to 8 cm) of the mix are dry.
Light, frequent watering is the pattern that kills these plants. It wets only the top of the pot, so the deep roots that matter stay dry while the surface stays permanently damp, which is the exact condition that starts rot and fungus gnats.
- Check with your finger Push a finger in to the second knuckle. If it comes out with damp mix clinging to it, wait. Dry and crumbly at that depth means water now.
- Water until it runs out Add water slowly until it comes freely from the drainage holes, then stop. A large pot needs more than one pass, because dry mix repels the first flush.
- Empty the saucer Tip away anything standing under the pot within half an hour. Roots sitting in water in the bottom inch of the pot rot even when everything above them is fine.
In an outdoor tub in high summer, the whole pot can dry in two days. Judge by the pot, not the calendar, and if a big pot has dried right out, water it twice half an hour apart so the water soaks in rather than running down the sides.
Rough intervals through the year
These are for a mature plant in a pot around twelve inches (30 cm) across in a free draining mix. Take them as a starting point and adjust to what the pot is actually doing, because pot material and position change the answer more than the season does.
| Season | Where it is | Interval | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Indoors or hardening off outside | Every seven to ten days | Thorough soak |
| Summer | Full sun outdoors | Every two to four days | Thorough soak, in the morning |
| Autumn | Coming back under cover | Every ten to fourteen days | Thorough soak, stretch it out |
| Winter, cool rest | Bright and 50 to 59F (10 to 15C) | Every three to four weeks | Enough to stop wilting only |
| Winter, warm room | Heated living room | Every ten to fourteen days | Reduced but not stopped |
Winter is where plants are lost
Cold and wet together rot the rhizome, and it happens out of sight. The plant looks normal for weeks while the base softens, and by the time a leaf stalk goes yellow and pulls away with a wet base, much of the crown has already gone.
The rule for winter is simple: the cooler the plant is, the drier it must be. If you cannot keep it warm, keep it much drier than feels right.
- Water in the morning The surface then dries before the cold of the night. Watering a cool plant in the evening leaves it sitting wet through the coldest hours.
- Use tepid water Cold water straight from the tap chills fleshy roots. Let it stand in the room overnight, or mix in enough warm water that it feels neutral to your wrist.
- Fix the temperature before the watering If it is below 50F (10C) and you are worried, move it somewhere warmer and brighter first. Watering a cold plant to perk it up is how the rot starts.
Squeeze the base of a suspect leaf stalk between finger and thumb. Firm is fine. Soft and slightly hollow means rot has reached that fan, and it should be cut out at the rhizome with a clean knife before it spreads.
Telling thirst from rot
The leaves show the same symptoms whether the plant is much too dry or much too wet, so the leaf on its own never gives you the answer. Feel the mix first, every time, and then read the table.
| Symptom | If the mix is wet | If the mix is dry |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves curling inward lengthwise | Roots damaged and cannot take up water | Normal midday response to heat, or genuinely thirsty |
| Lower leaves yellowing | Overwatered, check the base for softness | One old leaf at a time is normal aging |
| Brown crisp leaf edges | Root damage from standing water | Dry air or a missed watering, cosmetic only |
| A new leaf browns before it unfurls | Rot in that fan | It dried out at the wrong moment |
| Whole plant limp and dull | Rhizome rot, act immediately | Water deeply, it recovers within a day |
When you truly cannot tell, slide the plant out of the pot and look. Plenty of firm pale roots means a watering habit to correct. Brown, soft roots that slip their skin when pulled mean rot, and the mix has to be replaced.
Water quality and leaf tips
Brown tips on otherwise healthy leaves are usually a build up of salts, from hard tap water and from fertilizer, rather than a watering fault. It is worth ruling out before you change anything else, because chasing it with more or less water makes it worse.
- Flush the pot twice a year Run water through the pot slowly for a couple of minutes so it drains freely away, which carries accumulated salts out. Do it at the start and end of the growing season.
- Use rainwater if your water is hard Collected rainwater or water left to stand removes most of the problem. A plant fed regularly and watered with hard water is the classic brown tip case.
- Trim tips to shape Cut brown tips off with scissors following the natural curve of the leaf, leaving a thin margin of brown. Cutting into green tissue makes a new brown line.
What to record
Watering intervals for this plant vary so much between houses that other people's numbers are close to useless. Your own from last year are excellent. Note the date each time you water for one full season and the pattern becomes obvious.
Worth writing down alongside it: the date you moved it outdoors and back in, the week the pot started needing water twice as often, and any spell where it wilted. The second of those tells you when active growth begins in your conditions, which is also when feeding should start.