hi everyone this Noelle for Petitti Garden Centers and we're here at Oakwood
village back in the house plant department so we're really excited and I
wanted to talk to you today about watering house plants and it can be
challenging it's definitely a high question topic that we hear from all the
time and I want to tell you it is not an exact science that the routine is not
really there depending on the room the light the temperature the humidity the
plant size the soil you use all these factors kind of go into how you water
our house plant so I hate to tell you I would never be able to say you need a
quarter cup of water and water this once every five days it just doesn't work
that way and it's going to be different for everybody growing their houseplants
in different environments so a couple things to keep in mind the brighter the
light the higher the temperature the increase in water okay so it'll change
during the year - so in winter when we get the lower light levels the cooler
temperatures your plants just won't need as much water but as we move into the
summer higher light higher temperatures your plants are going to need an
increase in water okay higher humidity usually means you don't
have to water as much so if you increase the humidity around your plants by using
a humidity tray right here I have a tray with pebbles in it and you just fill it
with a little water place your plants on top of that humidity tray and as the
water evaporates it creates a more humid condition that's a good thing for the
plants and for you too it can actually cut down on airborne disease so that's a
good thing so humidity would cover those then if
you have a pot a big pot and it's got a lot of soil in it let's say a regular
potting soil that's also going to be able to absorb a lot of moisture and
hold on to that moisture near the root system okay so just be aware all of
these factors can really make a difference the other thing that you want
to consider is plant biology if a plant has a lot of thin sort of numerous
leaves if we'll like this rabbit's foot fern it's
probably going to need more water maintenance than let's say a little
succulent even though it's a little succulent it still is holding a lot of
water in its leaves it has a very small soil space so again doesn't need a lot
of water okay the one tip I do want to give you that
everybody should live by when watering their houseplants is trying to keep them
on the drier side of watering okay if a plant totally wilts and you've realized
it and you go ahead and water normally that plant has a good chance of
recuperating okay if you overwater and that plant totally
wilts because it is over watered at that point there is not a good chance of that
plant recuperating because you might have caused root rot or some disease in
that respect so just keep that in mind try to keep your plants on the drier
side of watering when you do go in water what we want you to use is
room-temperature water and we want you to try to water in the morning for every
plant out there outside in inside watering in the morning is absolutely
the best because it enables that plant to use the water throughout the day
whether it's photosynthesizing or a transpiring or what-have-you whatever
that plants doing okay and they can use it through the day and then there won't
be anything left at night if you're watering in the evening there's a chance
that water is going to sit there and maybe cause a problem like rotting again
or a disease issue okay what I do is I will fill up my watering can in the
evening before I go to bed I'll late I'll just leave it on the counter in the
kitchen and I'll just let it come to room temperature which is the best
temperature to water your plants and then all the things that we put in our
water to clean our teeth and everything that actually dissipates over the night
and then you're ready to water in the morning so the next thing you can do is
you can take your plant and you can put it over the sink or maybe over a drip
tray whoops I'm going to move this bromeliad really quick and we're gonna
water it and in order to thoroughly water what you're going to do is you're
going to put the plant over the sink or over
a drip tray and then you're gonna thoroughly moisten the soil in the pot
until the water comes out the drainage holes there goes so it's draining out
the bottom of the drainage holes you want that to happen you don't want your
plant to be sitting in water okay do that one more time so you're going to
repeat you're gonna go ahead thoroughly moisten plant soil and let the water
come out the bottom of the drainage holes when it's done draining you're
gonna go ahead and put it back and it's pretty pot and you're gonna go ahead and
just put it back in place until the next time you need to water okay how do you
know when you need to water next okay well I think one of the easiest ways is
to lift up the pot if the pot feels heavy to you and you'll get to notice
really really easily the pot feels heavy you probably have plenty of water for
your plant and so wait another couple days at the pots really really light or
the plant is wilting of course then of course you need to thoroughly water that
plant okay it's always better to thoroughly water instead of just little
bits of water at a time okay the other thing that you can use is your finger
stick your finger in and of course I just watered this spathiphyllum but
when you stick your finger in when you pull it out you'll notice that there's
gonna be soil and also moisture and that so if soils sticking to your finger it's
a pretty good idea that there's probably moisture in that pot okay and you just
stick it in about an inch or so to the first knuckle right around there you can
also use a green bamboo stick these are really nice to have around have handy
for you and they're great moisture indicators so you can go ahead stick the
bamboo stake into the soil about an inch or so pull it out
same thing you're gonna notice that there is soil on this stake and also
it's gotten slightly darker green indicating that there's moisture in the
soil of course we just watered it okay the other thing that you can use is a
moisture meter so if you want to really be sure that you're applying a good
amount of moisture or when the plants are dry you can go ahead and you put the
probe right into the soil about 3/4 of the depth of the soil and you can get a
good indication if you've got moisture in that
soil as well okay so those are all good things to remember another thing that I
want you to remember is the humidity levels so remember I mentioned that the
higher humidity usually the less you have to water so you can spray mist your
plants absolutely especially in the winter they love to get spray misted
keeps that humidity high around them or if you don't have a mister bottle or a
spray bottle handy again you can go ahead and you can kind of cluster your
plants on the humidity tray that'll keep a moist or humid condition around them
and that will actually continue the water will evaporate in that tray and
will create that humid condition around the plant so either way whichever you'd
like to do increasing that humidity is really a good thing trying to think of
there's something else I forgot but I think for the most part folks just
remember practice makes perfect that watering is not necessarily routine it's
going to change throughout the year it's going to change from room to room in
your home and if you do just remember air on the drier side of watering okay
one more thing that I did forget is bottom watering so some plants
especially fuzzy leafed plants actually would prefer to get watered from the
bottom and that's fine you actually will put the water in their
drip tray or saucer and then you'll let them absorb the water from there and
that's actually a very healthy way to water plant material you can kind of
watch as they absorb what they need a caution statement here is that don't let
them sit in that water for too long so let's say after about thirty minutes or
so if they haven't absorbed that water they probably won't so you're gonna want
to get rid of that water okay discard that water and then go ahead put them
back in place and let's see what happens from there
one of those plants is the African violet and they make special pots for
African violets so basically you can plant your African
violet and the top and then you'd go ahead and put your water down in the
base and then go ahead and set that African violet back down into the
it'll absorb what it needs but again it's good to check in about 30 minutes
or so and see if there's any water left over
go ahead and discard it and you're ready to go
enjoy