Tried watering my succulents from the bottom up instead of top down

My jade plant always got moldy soil on top. Read a forum about bottom watering. Put the pot in a dish of water for 30 minutes. Worked great for 2 weeks until I left the pot sitting too long and got root rot instead. Any tips for timing bottom watering without killing your plant?

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graym494mo ago

A friend of mine had the same problem with her snake plant. She started setting a timer for 25 minutes and using a dry chopstick to check the soil moisture before pulling it out. Once the soil felt damp about halfway up the stick, she took the pot out right away. She also drilled two extra drainage holes in the bottom of her pot to help prevent over soaking.

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nathan_hill604mo ago

And yeah, the chopstick trick is pretty much foolproof. I've been doing that with my own succulents after drowning a couple good ones early on. Drilling extra holes is a game changer too, you'd be surprised how many pots trap water even with that one little hole at the bottom.

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