c/botany-lovers

Tried watering my succulents from the bottom up instead of top down

My jade plant always got moldy soil on top. Read a forum about bottom watering. Put the pot in a dish of water for 30 minutes. Worked great for 2 weeks until I left the pot sitting too long and got root rot instead. Any tips for timing bottom watering without killing your plant?

2 comments

nathan_hill60•4d ago

Overheard a lady at the nursery say she 'talks' to her plants every morning

I was at the local greenhouse in Eugene last Saturday picking up a new fern. This older woman was telling the cashier she reads the news out loud to her monstera before work. I thought it was weird at first, but then I realized I sing to my succulents sometimes without thinking. Has anyone else caught themselves doing stuff like that with their plants?

2 comments

michael_craig•22d ago

Picked peat moss over coco coir for my soil mix and I don't regret it

Tbh everyone in this sub swears by coco coir for water retention but after trying both on my balcony ferns in Portland this spring, the peat moss kept my plants from drying out during those random dry spells. Has anyone else had better luck with peat moss for container plants or am I just bad at mixing coir?

2 comments

wright.taylor•22d ago

Took me 5 years to realize I was overwatering my succulents every January

Found out when I caught condensation building up on the inside of a terracotta pot last winter and finally looked up what that actually meant, anyone else ever miss something that obvious for way too long?

2 comments

mark_cooper•25d ago

Trying to ID a plant from a blurry Facebook photo with no location is driving me crazy

I see it all the time in gardening groups. Someone posts a picture that looks like it was taken through a foggy window at midnight and asks "what's this plant?" No leaf detail, no flower, no info on where they are or if it's in sun or shade. And then 50 people guess something different... I got burned on a mis-ID once and ended up planting a mint relative next to my roses. Total disaster. Why do people think we're psychic?

c/botany-lovers

Tried watering my succulents from the bottom up instead of top down

Overheard a lady at the nursery say she 'talks' to her plants every morning

Picked peat moss over coco coir for my soil mix and I don't regret it

Took me 5 years to realize I was overwatering my succulents every January

Trying to ID a plant from a blurry Facebook photo with no location is driving me crazy

That one comment about my succulent spacing bugged me until I fixed it

Unpopular opinion: misting your indoor plants is basically useless

Shoutout to the time my Venus flytrap ate a wasp and got revenge

Rant: My venus flytrap disaster in the kitchen window

My new grow light timer failed right after the 30-day warranty ended

Saw a whole greenhouse get wiped out by a single pest at the Denver Botanic Gardens last fall

My friend told me to stop watering my fiddle leaf fig every Tuesday and just check the soil.

Vent: My neighbor said my 'botany' was just expensive gardening

I mean, I always thought talking to your plants was kind of silly, but my basil in the kitchen window is proof.

Rant: I used to kill every fern I touched until I saw one in a Seattle coffee shop

Am I the only one who spent 8 months trying to get a specific fern to fruit?

I finally looked up how many plant species are in my own state

I used to keep all my plants in one sunny window, now I have a light map on my phone

Hot take: I spent $80 on a fancy moisture meter and it was a total waste

My neighbor in Phoenix said to water my struggling jade plant from the bottom up...

Just realized I was wrong about that huge patch of kudzu near the old mill

PSA: My $20 moisture meter from the hardware store beats guessing soil dampness with your finger every single time.

I thought talking to my plants was silly, but my basil changed my mind

My peace lily went from sad to stunning in about 3 weeks

I thought talking to my plants was just a silly thing people did for fun