How do I know when to water, really?

Check the soil rather than the calendar. Push a finger a couple of inches down: if it's still damp, wait. A schedule is useful as a reminder to go and look, not as an instruction to pour.

Should I mist my plants?

It does much less than people hope. Misting raises humidity for a few minutes, and the plant needs it for weeks. Grouping plants together, or standing pots on a tray of damp gravel, does far more — and doesn't wet leaves that would rather stay dry.

Do I need special soil?

Mostly you need drainage. A general peat-free compost with a couple of handfuls of grit or bark through it suits most houseplants better than anything sold in a bag with a plant's name on it.

My plant is leaning towards the window. Is that bad?

It's normal, and it tells you the light is directional. Turn the pot a quarter turn whenever you water and it'll even out. If it's stretching with long bare gaps between leaves, that's a different signal — it wants more light, not just a turn.

When should I feed it?

During active growth, at less than the label tells you, and not at all in the depths of winter for most houseplants. Feeding a plant that's struggling for another reason usually makes things worse — deal with the light and the water first.

One of my plants is toxic and I have a cat. What now?

Move it out of reach rather than out of the house, if you can — height and a closed door solve most of it. If you think an animal has actually eaten something, ring a vet; that's a veterinary question and we're not going to pretend otherwise on a web page.

Does the app just tell me all this automatically?

It applies the same reasoning to your specific plants: the watering interval shifts with your local weather, a photo gets diagnosed against the catalogue, and pet safety is on every record. What it won't do is invent a fact it doesn't hold — if the data isn't there, it says so.

Where do I find guidance for my specific plant?

In the app, on that plant's record. Care that's genuinely species-specific belongs next to the plant you actually own, not in a general article — which is why this page covers reasoning you can apply, rather than a list of species.

Answers on this page, not links to more pages

Six things that go wrong, and what to actually do

Most plant advice online is confident and contradictory. What follows is the reasoning the app itself uses — including the parts where the honest answer is “leave it a week and look again”.

What’s covered

How often should I water it?
Why are the leaves going yellow?
Is this spot bright enough?
What are these tiny things on it?
Does it need a bigger pot?
Should I worry, or wait and see?

all six are below

Question one

How often should I water it?

“Once a week” is the answer that kills plants, because a week in a February flat and a week in an August heatwave are not the same week. The useful answer is a base interval that moves by at most a day, in response to weather you can actually check.

Next watering

Wed

base cadence

Never more than one day either way, and never two rules pulling against each other — if a “water sooner” condition fires, the “wait longer” ones don’t get a say.

Heat waveSoil dries faster than it did last week.

−1 day

Strong sunHigh UV pulls water out of the pot.

−1 day

Bone-dry airLow humidity, so it drinks sooner.

−1 day

Recent rainLikely still moist — skip a day.

+1 day

Cool and humidSlow to dry out. Hold off.

+1 day

No weather available? Then nothing is adjusted and the base interval stands. A guess dressed up as a forecast would be worse than no adjustment at all.

Question two

Why are the leaves going yellow?

Too much water and too little water produce leaves that look alarmingly alike, which is why so many plants get watered to death by someone trying to help. What separates them is which leaves, where on the leaf — and what the soil feels like two inches down.

123

1
Lower leaves first, soft and uniformly yellowPoints to too much water. The soil stays wet, roots can't breathe, and the oldest leaves go first.
2
Crisp brown edges on otherwise green leavesPoints to too little — or to dry air. The leaf is losing water at the margins faster than the roots supply it.
3
Fine pale stippling, worst on the undersideNot a watering problem at all. That's feeding damage — check the underside properly before you change anything.

The test that settles it: push a finger two inches into the soil. Cold and wet after several days means you’re overwatering — the fix is to stop, not to feed it. Dry that far down on a plant that’s wilting means the opposite. If you’re unsure, wait. A plant recovers from a late watering far more often than from an extra one.

Question three

Is this spot bright enough?

Almost certainly less bright than you think. Your eyes compensate for dimness so smoothly that a corner which looks fine to you can be a fraction of the light at the window. Distance from the glass matters far more than which way the window faces.

On the sill

A pace back

Halfway across

The far wall

On the sill

Brightest, and hottest. Great for a cactus; scorching for a fern.

A pace back

Bright indirect — where most houseplants are happiest.

Halfway across

Noticeably dimmer than it looks to you. Your eyes adjust; a plant can't.

The far wall

Low light. Tolerated by a few, enjoyed by almost none.

The quick check that needs no equipment: at midday, hold your hand a foot above the spot. A sharp-edged shadow is direct sun; a soft but clear shadow is bright indirect; a shadow you have to look for is low light.

Question four

What are these tiny things on it?

You will almost never see the animal. You see what it left behind — and that’s enough to tell them apart, if you know what you’re looking at. Check the undersides; that is where all of this happens.

Spider mites

Fine webbing in leaf joints; pale speckling across the top surface.

Undersides, in dry warm air.

Mealybugs

White cottony tufts that don't brush off cleanly.

Where leaf meets stem, and down in the crown.

Scale

Small brown limpet-like bumps that scrape off with a thumbnail.

Along stems and the midrib underside.

Fungus gnats

Tiny black flies that rise when you water. Adults are harmless; larvae live in wet soil.

The top inch of consistently damp compost.

What to do first, whichever it is: move the plant away from its neighbours. Most infestations spread by contact, and separating it costs nothing. Then wipe the leaves — both sides — and deal with the conditions that invited them in: spider mites thrive in dry air, fungus gnats in soil that never dries out. Treating the plant while leaving the conditions alone just buys a fortnight.

Question five

Does it need a bigger pot?

Probably not as often as you think, and when it does — one size. The instinct to give a struggling plant plenty of room is the one that finishes it off.

Signs it’s actually ready

Roots coming out of the drainage holes, or circling the surface.
Water runs straight through and out, seconds after you pour it.
It dries out far faster than it did last summer.
It's visibly top-heavy and tips over when the compost is dry.

Why one size: compost with no roots in it stays wet, because nothing is drinking from it. Jump three sizes and you’ve wrapped the root ball in a cold, sodden collar — and produced the exact overwatering symptoms from the yellow-leaves section above, without ever overwatering.

Current potOne size up — rightTwo sizesThree sizes — wrong

Seen from above. One ring out is a size up.

Question six

Should I worry, or wait and see?

More houseplants are damaged by anxious intervention than by neglect. These are the three levels the app itself sorts problems into — and the first one is much larger than people expect.

info

Nothing wrong — it's just doing that

One or two of the oldest, lowest leaves yellowing slowly. Plants shed.
No new growth between November and February.
A newly-bought plant dropping a few leaves in its first fortnight.

watch

Note it, change one thing, look again in a week

Several leaves going at once, but the plant is otherwise firm.
Wilting that recovers within hours of watering.
Brown tips spreading slowly across many leaves.

serious

Act now — this one doesn't wait

Soft, dark, mushy stem at the base. That's the one to move on today.
Webbing or visible insects, especially on a plant near others.
Soil that has been wet for over a week and smells sour.

When the app diagnoses a photo it tells you which of these three it thinks you’re looking at, and how confident it is. A watch with low confidence means exactly what it says: change one thing, not four, and look again in a week.

Everything else

Questions that come up constantly

How do I know when to water, really?: Check the soil rather than the calendar. Push a finger a couple of inches down: if it's still damp, wait. A schedule is useful as a reminder to go and look, not as an instruction to pour.
Should I mist my plants?: It does much less than people hope. Misting raises humidity for a few minutes, and the plant needs it for weeks. Grouping plants together, or standing pots on a tray of damp gravel, does far more — and doesn't wet leaves that would rather stay dry.
Do I need special soil?: Mostly you need drainage. A general peat-free compost with a couple of handfuls of grit or bark through it suits most houseplants better than anything sold in a bag with a plant's name on it.
My plant is leaning towards the window. Is that bad?: It's normal, and it tells you the light is directional. Turn the pot a quarter turn whenever you water and it'll even out. If it's stretching with long bare gaps between leaves, that's a different signal — it wants more light, not just a turn.

When should I feed it?: During active growth, at less than the label tells you, and not at all in the depths of winter for most houseplants. Feeding a plant that's struggling for another reason usually makes things worse — deal with the light and the water first.
One of my plants is toxic and I have a cat. What now?: Move it out of reach rather than out of the house, if you can — height and a closed door solve most of it. If you think an animal has actually eaten something, ring a vet; that's a veterinary question and we're not going to pretend otherwise on a web page.
Does the app just tell me all this automatically?: It applies the same reasoning to your specific plants: the watering interval shifts with your local weather, a photo gets diagnosed against the catalogue, and pet safety is on every record. What it won't do is invent a fact it doesn't hold — if the data isn't there, it says so.
Where do I find guidance for my specific plant?: In the app, on that plant's record. Care that's genuinely species-specific belongs next to the plant you actually own, not in a general article — which is why this page covers reasoning you can apply, rather than a list of species.

The last tool on the rack

Everything above is reasoning you can apply to any plant. What the app adds is applying it to yours — your weather, your rooms, your specific plants, and a straight answer about the ones it doesn’t have data for.

Get the app See the plant library