Overwatering - 1 In Houseplant Destruction - By: Kent Higgins

Plants need water to help carry food from roots to the leaves and stems, and to keep leaves from dehydrating. On the other hand, there is serious danger in too much watering. If pots or roots stand in water, rot may be a quick result. Generally it is best to let soil dry out moderately, but not completely, between waterings - with some give and take at both ends of the scale for dry growers like cacti, and a few moisture-loving bog plants.

Symptoms of need for more water are: wilted, limp leaves and stems, and lack of or stunted growth. Slimy, oozing, rotted stems and leaves result from overwatering. Plants often topple suddenly because of rot at the base.

Soft water - rain water, if you wish - is ordinarily preferable to hard water; but the latter is not injurious to any but acid-loving plants.

Soil Mixtures and Substitutes

Prescribing a specific growing medium for any group of plants from varying families is as impossible as designing a diet or house that would suit everyone in the world. Plants have different origins, and so different needs.

Many home decorators that likes www.plant-care.com/1612-indoor-house-plants-bj-freeman.htmllarge indoor plants have little interest in, or time for, pampering plants with special soil mixtures. For them, excellent ready-made mixes - different types for different types of plants - are sold at variety and hardware stores, and garden centers. Or your florist or greenhouse can supply a suitable potting soil. For a small but justifiable fee, he will often repot your plants for you.

On the other hand, it's no tremendous task to prepare your own soil formula, or to experiment with soil substitutes. But except in rare cases or exceptionally fertile locations, it is not wise to pot any plant in soil just as it is dug from the garden or yard. It may be perfectly acceptable for outdoor growing, but lack many qualities needed by plants whose roots are confined to a pot and which will be subjected to unnatural growing conditions.

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