Water & Roots

Overwatering, root rot, drainage and how to read a wet pot.

11 articles

• Philodendron Drooping: Thirst, Root Rot, Shock, or Cold, and Which One Fixes in an Hour

  A philodendron droops when its leaves cannot get water, and the soil under it says whether that is because the pot is dry or because the roots are dead.

• Orchid Leaves Wrinkled: Thirst or Dead Roots, and Why the Fix Is Opposite

  Wrinkled orchid leaves look like drought and often are not. The roots decide, and they are easy to see through a clear pot.

• Pothos Drooping: The Pot Weight and Soil Test That Tells Thirst From Root Rot

  A pothos that droops is asking for water at the leaf. Whether it is short of water because the pot is dry or because the roots are dead is the whole diagnosis, and the pot tells you in ten seconds.

• Snake Plant Mushy at the Base: Rot Has Started, and Here Is What Can Still Be Saved

  Snake plants are built for drought and die of wet feet. A soft base is the first thing the plant shows, and the response is a knife, not a watering can.

• Peace Lily Drooping: The Famous Wilt, When It Is Thirst and When It Is Rot

  The peace lily is the plant that taught a generation to water by wilt. It works, up to a point. Past that point the same wilt means the roots are gone.

• Spider Plant Drooping: Thirsty in a Root-Bound Pot, Rotting in a Wet One, or Just Heavy With Plantlets

  A spider plant's leaves arch and droop by nature, so the question is not whether it droops but whether the leaves are limp. Limp with a dry pot is thirst; limp with a wet pot is rot.

• Overwatered vs Underwatered: The Same Droop, Opposite Fixes, and the Three Checks That Tell Them Apart

  Wilting means the leaves are short of water. It does not mean the pot is. The most common houseplant mistake is watering a plant whose roots have already drowned.

• Overwatered or Underwatered? Both Wilt. The Difference Is in the Feel

  Both problems produce a limp, sad plant with yellowing leaves. Getting it backwards is how a struggling plant becomes a dead one.

• Yellow Leaves After Repotting: Shock, or a Pot That Is Now Too Big

  There is a version of this that resolves on its own and a version that gets worse. The pot size usually decides which one you have.

• Orchid Root Rot: What to Cut, What to Keep, and When to Stop Cutting

  The plant is saveable as long as a few firm roots remain. The mistake is cutting healthy roots that merely look unhealthy.

• Cuttings That Will Not Root: Water, Light, Warmth, and the Node

  The most common reason a cutting fails is that it was cut in the wrong place, and no amount of patience corrects that.