How often to water English ivy

The interval

Indoor ivy is watered about every 6 days in the growing season and about every 12 days in winter. 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 says plants in a cool room need water less often than plants in a warm one, and ivy, which is a cool climate plant, is the clearest case: a chilly, bright windowsill suits it, and a warm dry room does not.

Water by touch. Push a finger 2 to 3 cm into the compost and water when it is dry at that depth. The RHS advises checking the pot rather than watering to a routine and says a drier pot feels lighter than a wet one, so lift it as well.

Water from the top until water runs from the drainage holes, wait ten minutes and empty the saucer. Try to keep the leaves dry. The RHS advises avoiding wetting the foliage when watering ivy, because wet leaves invite leaf spot. Humidity is medium for this plant. A light misting about every 4 days suits a heated room.

Too much water shows as yellow lower leaves and a pot that never dries. Too little, with dry heat, shows as brown crisp edges and, soon after, the fine webbing of spider mites, which prefer exactly the warm dry air that ivy dislikes. The RHS says drier compost wilts and drops leaves.

What is particular to this plant is how little it asks for in cool air and how much it asks for in warm. In a heated room a pot dries far faster and the leaf edges brown, while the same ivy in a cool bright hall takes the interval above in its stride. Outdoors, NC State Extension notes that English ivy is invasive in North Carolina and advises growing it in a patio container, so a plant you move outside should stay in its pot.

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