It is essential to know the right amount of water that your plants need
Water is life for all the living beings and so essential for plant life too. In plants, water is important for transportation of nutrients and keeping the plant parts turgid. Any stressed, be it deficient supply or overwatering, is reflected in the sick look of the plant and loss of turgidity, which is visible as wilting. Feeling the fear of wilting or water deficiency we indulge in frequent and more watering, which most of the time exceeds limits. Nothing could be more damaging. Besides, there are many more factors. Let us understand some of these.
The factors that matter are the kind of plant species, the place of plant placement, the method of watering, frequency of watering and quantity of water applied, and container or pot used. Mostly, one learns it by experience but it is not uncommon that we lose costly plants during such a learning process and hence the enthusiasm.
When once you develop interest in gardening, you cannot resist getting all kind of plants that attract your taste. The plants could be shade-loving indoor ones, or outdoor, bulbous or rhizomatic plants, succulents, xerophytic or even water plants. The succulents are normally very attractive and one falls for these instantly. It's love at first sight. Some of these are Haworthias, Kalanchoe, Gasterias, Luxmi Kamal, Sensevieras and Aloes. Normally, the mistake is made when we water them like other plants. The growth in some cases is such that the water does not percolate down and stays up entangled in the closely knit leaves. Then how to water such plants? There are two ways, one you put the plant pot in a trough and let the water rise up from the base hole. But in that case, there could be more than required uptake. Another, but a safer method, is to add water in the pot like you pour a drink - with a fizz from the bottle and into in glass. I am sure the people of this region will understand better! In case you have kept such plants indoor, water these scantly and after a long duration. Suppose you have kept a dwarf sensevieras planted in a plastic or ceramic pot indoors, give about a cup of water after 10 days. This holds good for other succulents too.
At times, when we water plants with a hose or fountain, the plant holds some water on leaves like dew. It happens during winter too, when in the morning time you can see natural dew drops on leaves. It looks very pretty and as the sun rises, most of it goes. But the big drops stay and as the sun starts becoming harsh, these start acting as lenses. To understand this, recollect your childhood adventure of burning papers by holding a lens on paper against the sun. The leaves too get burnt. It is most frustrating when this happens to those plants that are costly and are admired only for their foliage; for example, poinsettias. Otherwise too during these months we give less water, only meagre amount just needed to occasionally moisten the surface of the soil.
(The author is a retired horticulturist from Punjab Agriculture University. He is based in Chandigarh)
