What to do if your plant is getting too much water and too little light
Want to learn more about Treatment - overwatering and too dark
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The correct lighting and watering routine are essential to the health of your plant. If the balance between these is off, your plant's overall health will begin to decline.
Plants require sufficient light to grow well, but it also affects how much water the plant uses. A plant placed in a brighter spot drinks more than the same plant placed in a darker area.
SYMPTOMS
Your plant might present a number of symptoms related to insufficient light and overwatering. Water and light imbalance is one of the most common diagnoses when people have problems with their plants. By making sure your plant gets the preferred light it needs, the risk of overwatering it will also lower as well.
Here are the most common symptoms:
Yellowing leaves
Droopy leaves
Black, wet or dry spots or areas beginning from the edges of the leaves. Sometimes with a yellow border to the healthy tissue
Root rot
Stunted or etiolated pale growth
Stems starts do die off
WHAT TO DO NOW
Try to make sure that your plant is placed in the species' preferred conditions - consider moving it to a brighter spot, or put it under grow lights if a brighter spot isn't available. If you want to move it to direct sunlight and it hasn't been exposed to it before, you need to slowly acclimate it to brighter conditions first so you don't risk scorching the leaves.
HOW DO I KNOW HOW MUCH LIGHT MY PLANT NEEDS? Check the light recommendations for each plant in Planta. It ranges from full sun, bright indirect light to shade. If you’re not sure what the light conditions of your sites are, you can use the Light Meter to measure this.
CHECK DRAINAGE AND WATERING
Check on your watering schedule to see that your plant is getting the right amount of water - not too much and not too little. Any excess water collected in the outer pot or on the tray should be removed after you have watered your plants.
You may also want to check its drainage. If your pot does not have holes, you should consider repotting it. However, sometimes your plant may appear to drain very slowly even if there are adequate drainage holes. If this is the case, you may need to change the type of soil you are using, or you could try manually aerating it to stop the soil from becoming compacted.
- If your plant is placed in an outer pot, make sure that it isn't too tight against the nursery pot. This can actually close off the air circulation and cause root rot.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TYPE OF SOIL MY PLANT PREFERS?You can find all the recommended soil types for each one of your plants in Planta