How often to water inch plant

The interval

An inch plant is watered about every 5 days in the growing season and about every 10 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 to water moderately in active growth and sparingly in winter, and NC State Extension says to reduce watering during the winter months.

Check the top 2 cm of compost with a finger. Water when it is dry at that depth, and wait when it is damp. NC State Extension says to allow the soil to dry out between waterings. Then lift the pot. The stems are fleshy and hold some water, but the thin leaves dry out fast, and a basket of trailing stems is light, so the lift tells you more than the number does.

Water from the top until water runs from the drainage holes, wait ten minutes and empty the saucer. Try to keep the leaves dry, because NC State Extension links leaf spot and other fungal diseases to getting the leaves wet during watering. Humidity is medium for this plant, and ordinary room air is enough.

Too much water, in soggy soil, brings root rot and stem rot, as NC State Extension warns, and the stems go soft at the base. Too little shows as shedding. A plant left dry loses leaves from the middle of every stem, and the plant that results is a bare tangle with a tuft at each tip.

What is particular to this plant is that it goes bare in the middle whatever you do, since the stems lengthen and shed their oldest leaves. A dry spell speeds it up. Pinch the tips every few weeks, and when it gets away from you, take a handful of cuttings and push them back into the same pot. The RHS advises gloves when handling it, since it is a skin allergen.

Related guides

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The finger, the weight, the leaf and the pot. Four ways to read a plant's thirst, and what overwatering actually is.

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How to tell overwatering from underwatering, how much root damage is recoverable, and the exact rescue steps once compost has stayed wet too long.

Watering through a southern winter

Winter in the southern hemisphere runs June to August, and houseplants drink far less then. How to read the soil, and why overwatering is the bigger risk.