How often to water a succulent? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Dick_Justice@lemmy.world to c/houseplants@mander.xyz

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I'm terrible at telling when it's dry until it's totally parched. I'm new to this and really wanna keep the poor little guy alive. Is there a safe interval I can just set a reminder for? It's a small pot, like I can hold it in one hand.

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[-] barnyard_noise@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Do you mind me asking what type of succulent you have? But for a fixed interval, I would say watering every 4 weeks should be safe. And when you water, you can pour the water over the top of the soil (like you would with a watering can or squeeze bottle) OR you can do “bottom watering” wherein the plant is placed in bowl/bucket full of water for like 45-60 minutes. With bottom watering, the idea is that the plant takes up the water it needs and because the water is beneath the pot, the roots grow downward.

For top watering, a good rule of thumb is to water the plant until you see water run out of the drainage hole at the bottom. For bottom watering, you stop when the top soil is damp.

Whichever way you water, make sure to let the excess water drip out of the bottom of the pot. You don’t want to leave the plant sitting in water—that can lead to the roots rotting and the plant will die.

I’ll include a link to a vid about watering techniques because I know it was confusing to me. Best of luck OP!

https://youtu.be/_ZrlEmjJUiE
https://savvygardening.com/bottom-watering-plants/

this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023

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