How much to water indoor snowdrops?

Question

Last year I bought my girlfriend some snowdrops, they didn't like repotting very good and promptly fell over and died. Or so I thought at first, turns out they have an onion that makes new snowdrops, next year.

Now it is next year, I had left the snowdrop pot in my cellar since then for around 8 months and what did I see sticking out from the middle? A snowdrop sprouting! This was two weeks ago, now there are like 10 of them making their way through the dirt, that's more than I originally bought.

Since then I brought the pot back in the apartment, set it on the window and have watered it a bit every day, maybe around 20ml per day. The apartment is hot, its around 30C indoors, because girlfriend. I live pretty far up north so right now we get around 3 hours of "sunlight" per day.

Over the last few days I've noticed a white mold appearing on the surface of the soil, I've removed it gently with a spoon twice but it keeps coming back. It looks exactly what the internet describes as harmless saprophytic fungus, they also say it happens when the soil is too wet.

Am I overwatering the snowdrops? The pot is 16cm in diameter, 20cm high, has a hole at the bottom and a little pan. When I do the watering, the top of the soil is left slightly moist, no water ever reaches through the bottom.

Answer 1

You are watering incorrectly - it is better to wait until the surface of the soil in the pot feels quite dry to the touch, but not so dry its shrunken from the sides of the pot, then water thoroughly, allowing excess to drain away freely from the bottom of the pot, not allowing water to collect and sit in any outer tray or pot, that should be emptied out. Then wait again till the soil feels a bit dry and repeat the process.

You may find you get green growth but no flowers because they have been sitting in a pot indoors in the same soil since last year with no fertiliser. Snowdrops grow from bulbs, and food is stored in the bulb for the following year - give some fertilizer weekly while the green growth is present, so even if you get no flowers this year, you will next year. Just use a general fertilizer, one that can be mixed in water (such as Miracle Gro general purpose). Stop feeding when the foliage starts to die back.