Old timer at the botanical garden told me I was watering my ferns WRONG

I've been growing ferns for years in my little greenhouse and always misted them from above. This guy probably 70 years old walks by while I'm watering and says 'you're drowning them, water the soil not the leaves'. I felt dumb but he showed me how fern roots are shallow and need moisture at the base instead. Been doing it his way for 3 weeks now and my Boston fern is putting out new fronds like crazy. Has anyone else gotten a tip from an older grower that totally flipped how you care for a plant?

2 comments

2 Comments

noah88020d ago

Had a guy at the local nursery tell me I was killing my rosemary by not letting the soil dry out completely between waterings. I'd been treating it like all my other herbs and keeping it damp. He said rosemary wants to be treated more like a cactus than a mint plant. Started letting it go bone dry for a few days before watering again and it went from barely hanging on to getting all woody and healthy in like a month. Funny how you can do something wrong for years without even knowing it.

paule5320d ago

Bone dry for a few days" is spot on. That's the part most people miss. I killed two rosemary plants before someone told me the same thing. They're from the Mediterranean, so they're used to hot sun and rocky, sandy soil that drains fast and stays dry for a while. If you keep the roots wet, they just rot out slowly and you don't even notice until it's too late. Now I let mine get totally dry to the point where the soil is cracking away from the pot edges before I even think about watering it again. It's insane how much tougher they get when you basically neglect them a little.