Water Only When Needed
Too much water can be just as damaging to plants as too little water. Before watering, check your garden's soil moisture with your finger. Push it into the ground around your plants. You want the top 2 or 3 inches of the soil to be dry, and the soil below that to be moist.
Give the soil a squeeze to check for moistness. If you squeeze and the soil sticks together then it is moist. But if the soil crumbles or it remains in a loose pile as you squeeze then the ground needs more water. Now drop the soil and brush the soil off your hands.
To dry out soil quickly, you can apply hydrated lime to the soil, add compost and then turn the soil thoroughly to aerate it.
Hydrophobic soil occurs when a waxy residue builds up on the soil particles resulting in it repelling water rather than absorbing it. It is most common in sandy soils, dried out potting mix and soils containing unrotted organic matter. You can identify hydrophobic soil by watering it.
If you walk across your lawn and the ground feels spongy and has a lot of give in it, you are likely overwatering. Watering less often and allowing the soil to dry out before watering again actually encourages grass roots to grow deeper to find moisture.
When a plant is first becoming overwatered, leaves turn yellow. If soil doesn't have a chance to dry out before you water again, leaves start to wilt. When overwatering is the problem, wilted leaves are soft and limp. (If too little water is the issue, wilted leaves are dry and crispy.)
A value of 0 means soil moisture is at the wilting point (very dry) while a value of 1 means soil moisture is at saturation (very wet). A value of 0.54 means near optimum soil moisture for plant growth while values below 0.2 and above 0.8 indicate drought and excess moisture stress.
They normally need watering once or twice a week in the spring and summer, but less in the autumn and winter.
Make sure the plant is well watered 2-4 days in advance. You don't want to repot when it's sopping wet but being too dry will cause stress. Take the plant out of the pot. If the rootball is a bit tight, gently massage the roots to loosen them up.
An acceptable level of indoor humidity is generally 30 to 50%, which prevents the growth of microorganisms, such as mold. Excess moisture promotes mold, mildew, fungi, bacterial growth, and possibly viruses. Contaminants can degrade the indoor air quality and cause health problems.
This water stress can affect soil chemical, physical, and biological activities that are essential for plant and soil health. One of the obvious effects of drought on soil health is the lack of nutrient uptake by crops, as water is the major medium for moving nutrients into plants as a result of water uptake.
One of the quickest, first signs of overwatering your plants is to observe occurs at the tip of the leaf. If the tip of the leaf is turning brown this is a sign of overwatering. Too little water will result in your plant's leaves feeling dry and crispy to the touch while too much water results in soft and limp leaves.
Overwatering can cause plants to drown from lack of oxygen in the soil, can cause root rot and fungus to grow in soil that isn't drying out, and can be misdiagnosed as pest damage. Here's how to avoid overwatering your houseplants. Before you water each and every plant, check the soil individually.
The good news is that most plants will bounce back between 7-14 days if they're given proper care (which includes rehydration). If this isn't possible because major damage was done or little healthy root system exists then expect about 2 weeks until improvement can be seen.
Signs of root rot are slow growth, mushy stems, and wilting, yellow, distorted leaves (especially when the plant has been well watered, as wilting leaves can also be a sign of a dry plant).
Underwatering your plants will result in limp and wilting leaves. Your plants must have enough water to pass through the cells for turgor. If there isn't enough water, the plant will not only wilt but also close its stoma to prevent evaporation.
Yellow Leaves + Fading to Green + or Bright Yellow =
These symptoms together mean that your plant is overwatered. Usually lower leaves drop first, although the whole plant may be affected. The solution = repot (to remove soaked soil) and water less, or let soil dry out and water less.
A common reason is that the potting mix has dried out and isn't absorbing the water. Most commercial potting mixes contain peat, which holds water well once it has been moistened, but -- as everyone who works with sphagnum peat outdoors knows -- is difficult to wet the first time.
Use coarse-textured fill material, such as sandy loam or loamy sand, to improve aeration and drainage. Do not use soil with a high clay content as fill material. Soil conditions that should be avoided include gravel under loam and sand on top of clay.
Hard-packed clay soils and even garden soils can become crusted and resist wetting, letting water run off instead of absorbing it. To re-wet, repeatedly sprinkle the surface lightly, making sure there is no run off. Covering the surface with a mulch such as straw, leaves, wood chips, or compost will also help.
If there are no cold-condensing surfaces and the relative humidity (RH) is maintained below 60 percent indoors, there will not be enough water in those materials for mold to grow. However, if the RH stays above 70 percent indoors for extended periods of time, mold will almost certainly grow.