How often to water Chinese evergreen

The interval

A Chinese evergreen asks for water about every 9 days while it is growing and about every 16 days in winter. Growing means the warm, bright stretch from spring to early autumn, roughly March to September in the northern hemisphere and September to March in the southern. Winter is the coldest, darkest stretch of your own year, so a plant in Johannesburg and a plant in Manchester change gear six months apart. The gap widens because the plant grows slowly in weak light and drinks less.

Treat those numbers as a first guess and let the pot correct them. Push a finger 3 to 4 cm into the compost. If it is dry at that depth it is time to water, and if it is cool and clings to your skin it can wait. Lift the pot as well. Straight after a thorough watering it is heavy, and a pot that is ready for another drink feels clearly lighter.

Water from the top with water at room temperature, because cold water on the roots marks the leaves. Pour slowly around the stems until it runs from the drainage holes, empty the saucer after ten minutes and wait until the top of the compost has dried. Rainwater, or tap water that has stood overnight, is kinder to a plant whose leaf tips can brown from fluoridated tap water.

Too much water is the commoner mistake. The lower leaves turn yellow, the base of the stems goes soft and the compost stays dark for days, and the Missouri Botanical Garden warns that overwatering can cause rot. Too little shows later: the leaf edges brown and curl. Dry air and draughts do the same, so feel the compost before you blame the watering.

The Royal Horticultural Society describes the genus as rhizomatous, with short stems, which is why this plant forgives a dry week far better than a wet fortnight. A rhizome sitting in compost that never dries is where the rot begins, and a large pot of wet compost is what usually kills it. Ordinary room humidity is enough, so there is no need to mist.

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