Improper watering ails houseplants

You can easily become almost an expert in diagnosing your friends' houseplant troubles. First say "Too much water." Then, if your friend acknowledges hardly ever remembering to water the sickly plant in question, merely respond, "Too little water." Chuckle, chuckle.

It's true, though: Houseplants are at our mercy for water, and many, many problems can be traced to improper watering. Furthermore, too much water or too little can produce the same symptoms. Too much water suffocates roots so they cannot function. Too little water, and the roots can breathe just fine; but they have nothing to drink. Either way, the leaves dry, beginning along their margins, from losing water without being able to replace it.

Take your time when you water. Quickly sloshing water into a flowerpot might wash away soil to expose shallow, tender feeder roots. A quick sloshing of water might not even wet a soil that has gone bone dry. Dry soils often shrink away from the sides of the pots and develop cracks. Water can then flow right down through the cracks or between dry soil and the edge of the pot, not even stopping on the way down to moisten the soil itself. Water a bone dry soil especially slowly, or immerse the pot for a half-hour or so in a pan of water to let it slowly absorb the water as it expands and closes up cracks.

So, next time one of your houseplants looks sick, think first about how you water it.