10 Common Houseplant Pitfalls (and how to avoid them!)
As Welltended’s plant expert, I have seen and personally experienced many of the classic challenges that one can run into when caring for a living plant. Luckily, these pitfalls are easily fixed by listening to your plant, and knowing the key signs of distress.
Plants are wonderfully communicative,and I’ve learned that if you pay attention to your plant, you can intervene before many tragic outcomes. With any of these suggestions, they are high level guidelines, and you can always reach out to us at help@welltended.com with more specific questions.
1. Over-Watering
The most common mistake I see — hands down — with our customers tending to their houseplants is over-watering. If there is one thing you take away from this post, I want it to be: do not over-water your plant! While we love and want to care for our houseplants, caring is not reflected in the amount of water we give our plant.
Signs: Wet soil that never dries, causing rotting roots and yellowing leaves. This typically happens when water has moistened the medium that your plant is sitting in so much that it can’t ever fully dry.
Solution: Follow the watering guides that came with your plant (and found on the Welltended), and touch the soil to check its moisture level.
2. Under-Watering, or Surface watering
I admit that I have been guilty of this. In an effort to prevent over-watering, it’s easy to over compensate and end up under-watering the plant — only watering enough to wet the surface soil. While not so terrible in the short-term, repeated under-watering prevents water from reaching deeper roots. So, you should be cautious of giving the plant enough water to reach the roots, but then letting the soil dry appropriately in between waterings (pending the specific type of plant).
Signs: Wilting stems and leaves.
Solution: Follow your plant’s watering guide, and water until you see the soil is evenly saturated.
3. Too little light
It can be easy to misjudge how much light a window is providing your plant. Luckily, we’ve written on this topic before to help our customers understand how to assess the light in their home or office space. Generally, light exposure is thought of as direct and bright (the surface on which your plants sit may feel warm or hot during the day), indirect and bright (they’re sitting near a window or light source, but sun rays don’t directly beat down on the area), or low light (you can read a book in the space, but there’s little brightness).
Signs: Your houseplant grows very slowly, even in spring and summer months; its stems elongated (like a succulent that grows up and not out); its leaves turn a lighter green and begin to drop.
Solution: Move your plant to a brighter spot.
4. Too much light
At the same time, too much light for certain plants is also not ideal. Be cautious when selecting a plant to choose one that fits your space’s exposure, or use our quiz so that we can help you do so!
Signs: Leaves are burning, possibly with brownish burn spots, and becoming yellow.
Solution: Move your plant away from the window to a less directly lit space.
5. Over-Fertilizing
Similar to over-watering, it is easy to give your plant too much fertilizer, because what could be wrong with some extra nutrients? Well, it turns out that extra nutrients can harm the roots and leaves of your houseplant.
Signs: Fertilizer burn on the leaves.
Solution: Decrease concentration of fertilizer and reduce the frequency of the doses. We will be offering fertilizer before too long in the Welltended shop that is tailored to the type of houseplant you own!
6. Under-Fertilizing
Much less common than over-fertilizing, under-fertilizing only occurs if you haven’t fed your plant in over 6 months. While the soil that your Welltended plant comes in will include the proper food for your plant for the first several months, it’s important to add in new nutrients after several months, to keep your plant looking its best.
Signs: Slow stunted growth with no new shoots or flowers.
Solution: Feed your plant with low dose of fertilizer (soon to be offered at the Welltended shop).
7. Disease (eek!)
While rare, sometimes plants get sick, just like humans do. Whether it’s from rude insects, fungi, or bacteria; it’s important to recognize that something is wrong and contact us at Welltended immediately for assistance! Many times, we can help to revive your plant; or, if you experience the tragic, untimely death of your plant, we’ll offer a pep talk and everything you need to replenish your urban jungle!
Signs: Abnormal growth on your plant (could be some white fuzz, or even clearly insects that shouldn't be there)
Solution: Contact us! There are many possible disease culprits and we will help guide you through it, offering a suggestion on how to remove the pest. While there’s no guarantee when it comes to pest control, we’ll be there to help you along the way. Welltended offers a 30-day guarantee for our own plants, or we can help set you up with a replenishment kit!
8. Not Re-potting
If you’re taking wonderful care of your plant friend, then it will reward you with lush new growth. Like a snail shedding its shell, eventually your plant will run out of room and need a new pot. Typically, this will only happen once every year or two, and you’ll often see roots emerging as a clear sign that you plant needs a new pot.
Signs: No growth, roots coming out of the soil.
Solution: Re-pot your plant! Look out for an upcoming Welltended care guide explaining how to re-pot your plant.
9. Not grooming them
Some plants can make quite a mess. They lose stems, as well as drop leaves and flowers — and this can be totally normal. It’s important to keep your plant tidy, to avoid pests and keep it looking dapper.
Signs Stunted growth; the plant can’t grow if old stems, flowers and leaves are in the way!
Solution: Remove dead branches and leaves as well as pinch off dead flowers.
10. Moving them around too much
In nature, plants enjoy a rooted lifestyle and do not appreciate being hassled by movement (much like me on the weekends). In your house it’s best to mimic nature and leave your plant be, as much as possible, once you’ve found its perfect spot.
Signs: Slow growth and yellowing of leaves.
Solution: Stop moving the plant about — you’re stressing it out!
