Plants Not Thriving? This Common Watering Mistake Could Be Why

When it comes to growing healthy and strong plants, you probably know the importance of watering them regularly, changing out their soil on occasion, and making sure they sit in a sunny place. However, gardening is a little more complex than just those three steps, and a simple mistake you may be making when you’re watering your plants could be inadvertently hindering their development.

You can technically water your indoor or outdoor plants whenever you want. But to get the most growth possible, the best time to do it is in the early morning, preferably sometime before nine so that it’s still cool out and the moisture doesn’t automatically evaporate off of leaves.

If you water your plants at night it can leave them drenched in water for hours at a time, which can lead to problems like fungi growth that may kill them. If you absolutely can’t water anything early in the morning, the late afternoon or early evening are the next best times, as plants can still absorb much of that water and don’t have to worry about it evaporating quickly.

However, the time of day isn’t the only part of the watering process that could hinder your green thumb. You also need to make sure that with any watering, you target the soil and roots as opposed to just dumping water directly on the leaves, as most of the absorption and hydration that plants need happens deep in its root systems. Doing so will not only help your plants grow faster and more quickly, but it’ll also keep those stems and leaves healthy, too.

Gardening can be tricky at times, but just tweaking when you water your plants — and how you water them — can make such a huge difference. Have fun flexing that green thumb!