Watering houseplants is an art; water them this way and they will burst out of the pot in a week

When you grow plants, you need to water them, and in our everyday lives we usually just give them a casual splash and that's that. In fact, watering is an art. People who know how to water never worry about root rot, and their plants can burst out of the pot in just a week.

Watering actually has its tricks. You cannot water just a little, and you cannot water too much either. So how do you get the amount of water just right? Let me share a trick with you. Prepare some straws and poke them into the soil around the sides of the flower pot. Prepare some sand and pour it in through the straws. Finally, pull the straws out. This way the sand will run all the way through the pot from top to bottom. When you water, the moisture will flow from top to bottom, avoiding the problem of blockage that stops the water from draining down.

Some plant lovers especially like to water their plants, watering them whenever they have nothing else to do, and that is wrong. If the soil in the pot holds too much moisture, the plant simply cannot absorb it, which leads to problems like root rot. So when you have nothing to do, you can loosen the soil, and when you want to water, poke a chopstick in to see whether there is still water at the bottom. That way you can tell whether your plant really needs watering right now.

You also need to get the timing of watering right. It is best to choose a sunny noon, because then plants absorb water well and carry out more photosynthesis, so no water will accumulate at the bottom. On cloudy and rainy days, try not to water at all.

Also, do not water with water straight from the tap. Let it sit for a while first, because if the water coming out of the tap is very cold, it will damage root growth. Likewise, when watering, do not be in a hurry. Water slowly and wait for the moisture to soak through fully, otherwise you are very likely to end up with waterlogged soil or with too little water given.