Hi! I’m curious about how much water I should be giving my plants. For all my watering tasks, Planta says to water the plant until water drips out of the drainage holes. However, this happens almost right away, before all the soil is saturated with water. My understanding however is that with succulents, you want to fully soak the soil when you water it. Should I stick with Planta’s guidance or should I fully saturate the soil?
It depends, are you using a peat-based soil? If so, peat becomes very hydrophobic when it dries out, meaning that, when you water your plants it’s largely going to drain out before absorbing into the soil and properly reaching the roots. You could either allow the plants to soak slighter longer (without risking rot), or consider a better-suited substrate
1 likeYou could also try watering very small amounts at first, allowing the peat to hydrate before fully watering
2 likes
Sounds like your soil might be hydrophobic. Or your plants are rootbound and you don't have enough soil left in the pot. Hydrophobic soil can be bottom watered, as Crazy plant lady said. When I'm trying to get hydrophobic soil to accept water, I usually fill a bucket so the water is only an inch under the top of the pot and submerge the pot. It forces the water in quickly so it doesn't have to soak for 24 hours plus in order to get water halfway up the pot. If the plants are rootbound, you'll need to repot. Either in a bigger pot or trim back some of the root system and put back into its current pot
1 like