My wife told me my plant care was too much like my spreadsheets

She said I was treating my fiddle leaf fig like a quarterly report, checking the soil moisture with a meter every single day at 5:15 PM. I was logging the data in a notebook, but the plant was still dropping leaves. She pointed out that plants aren't machines and told me to just look at it and feel the soil with my finger. I stopped the daily checks about three weeks ago and now I only water when the top inch is dry. The plant has put out two new leaves since then. Has anyone else had to unlearn being too precise with their plants?

2 comments

2 Comments

umabailey8d agoMost Upvoted

My old roommate killed three succulents by following a strict app schedule. It's like we forget to just look at the thing in front of us sometimes.

fiona_sullivan298d ago

Oh man, this is so real. I was doing the exact same thing with a monstera, had a whole calendar alert for watering and misting. It was looking sad and I was confused. My friend basically told me to chill and just pay attention to the plant itself, not my phone reminders. Once I started just checking the leaves and poking the dirt every few days, it totally perked up. We can definitely overthink it!