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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?
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umabailey3mo ago
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.
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fiona_sullivan293mo 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!
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christopher_flores462mo ago
Dude, my snake plant almost died because I was measuring out exactly 200ml of water every Sunday morning like clockwork. I had a whole color-coded chart taped to the fridge with different watering amounts for each plant. The snake plant started getting all mushy at the base and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized I was drowning it because the pot didn't have drainage holes and I was just pouring water in on a schedule without actually checking if it needed it. Now I just stick my finger in the dirt once a week and only water when it feels bone dry. It's pushing out new pups now. Seriously, we take the fun out of plants when we turn them into little science experiments.
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