A quick guide to identifying what plant leaves are saying about plant watering.
Underwatered
Yellowing, stiff, dry leaves crunchy to the touch with soil coming away from the pot. What to do? Remove damaged leaves, submerge your pot entirely under water and keep it there until air bubbles will stop coming out. Bubbles is an indication of water rushing into all the dry cracks of the root ball, watering the plant thoroughly. Why this happens? Water is how roots deliver nutrients and keep cells turgid. Without water, cells experience plasmolysis and shrink, presenting you with a dry leaf.
Overwatered
Stunted growth, yellowing, soft and limp leaves that don’t have a crunch to them. Some plants may present you with water soaked spots or blisters on stems and leaves known as oedema. If stems near soil are rotting and soggy the damage has gone quite far. What to do? Take your plant out of its plant pot and place on a saucer to allow to dry out. Once the soil is dry, shake it out and carefully investigate root damage. Remove any rotted or damaged material. Repot your plant in fresh, slightly damp medium, use a spritzer. Water the next day. Why this happens? Water logged soil has no oxygen causing roots to suffocate. But before plants get to that stage, they try to fix the problem through transpiration; loosing excess water through leaves. Unable to lose water at a fast enough rate, the overly turgid cells present themselves as dark spots or patches.
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