How often to water string of pearls

The interval

String of pearls is watered about every 14 days in the growing season and about every 28 days in winter, and only when the compost has dried all the way through. Growing season means the warm, bright months from spring to early autumn, roughly March to September in the northern hemisphere and September to March in the southern. Winter is the cold, short-day part of your own year. The Royal Horticultural Society asks for free-draining compost all year and sparing water in winter, and the long winter gap is how you give it.

The beads tell you something, but not everything. A plump, round bead is full. A wrinkled bead is short of something, and the Missouri Botanical Garden notes that wrinkled pearls can signal too much water, too little water or poor light. So look at the compost as well. Wrinkled beads over dry compost need a soak, and wrinkled beads over damp compost mean the roots have rotted. Weight confirms it. Lift the pot after watering and again a week later, and water when it feels light.

Soak and dry works for this plant in one of two ways. Stand the pot in a bowl with about 2 cm of water for ten minutes so the compost draws it up, then lift it out and let it drain completely before it goes back. Or water slowly around the rim, not over the strands, until it runs from the drainage hole. Humidity is low for this plant and it needs no misting.

A rotting string of pearls fails fast. The roots go within days, not weeks, and the crown goes soft. A thirsty one shrinks quietly, with beads that wrinkle and flatten, and it recovers in a few days after a proper soak.

What is particular to this plant is its roots. They barely go down, so a shallow pot, or a hanging pot with good drainage, suits it better than a deep one, which only holds wet compost with no roots to use it. A pot that sits in water does damage that dry compost never does. The sap can irritate skin, according to the RHS, so wear gloves when you handle the strands.

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