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So it seems that many people say that you should water your average house plant once a week or so, or whenever the top 1 inch of the soil is dry. My problem is that a lot of my plants are on a window sill and receive sunlight nearly all day long and the soil in the pot dries out after 2 or so days. Should I water the plants weekly or whenever the soil is dry?

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  • Where are you? What’s the temperature there? What plants are we talking about here?
    – user33232
    Jul 2, 2018 at 15:08
  • I am in northen europe, indoors where my plants are its about 22C. I have plants such as jade plants, cactie, spider plants, citrus and a few other ones. Could the problem be that I just don't pour enough water when I water my plants? It is very rare that any water comes through the drain holes in my pots when I water the plant in them.
    – Mihkel
    Jul 2, 2018 at 16:59

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In my opinion, plants need water when they need water. Not on some arbitrary schedule. If the soil is getting dry quickly water them.

One thing you can do to help retain moisture is to use a layer top dressing, small gravel on the top of the soil. This helps retain water and it looks nice. Again, in my opinion.

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    Vote given, but I wouldn't personally recommend the gravel on top - its hard to tell if the plant needs watering before it wilts if you can't see or feel the soil inside.
    – Bamboo
    Jul 2, 2018 at 15:27
  • I'm not recommending two feet of gravel. I disagree with your assertion that it's hard to tell if the plant needs watering before it wilts. There a number of ways including testing the pot weight (not on a scale, with your hand), simply observing (there are a number of stages between fully watered and fully wilted).Excessive watering and drying cycles is going to accumulate dissolved solids. I'll agree that if the only time you look at your plant is when you water it, there may be issues.
    – Tim Nevins
    Jul 2, 2018 at 18:10

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