Underwatered snake plant shows many signs of discomfort and stress. You need to know about them to revive your plant.
There are many techniques that give new life to underwatered plants. But in the case of snake plants, these formulas only work in 30 % of the cases.
Therefore, you need a permanent solution which is learning the correct watering technique.
In this article, I will explain the different signs of underwatered snake plants, how you can bring back your snake plant as quickly as possible.
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Common Signs of Underwatered Snake Plant
A dehydrated plant shows many signs of its health status like brown leaves, wrinkles on leaves, brown leaf edges, etc.
Below are the Common signs of dehydrated snake plants.
Wrinkled leaves
The early gesture of the thirsty snake plant is wrinkled leaves. Actually, plants show the first sign of thirst on their leaves.
They develop small to medium lines on their leaves. Discoloration of the leaves is the second stage of dehydration.
Falling Over
Leaves falling off is another common sign of a thirsty snake plant. Due to a lack of water in the potting soil roots become unable to absorb nutrients.
This results in lifeless plants and the leaves fall over.
First, your plant will look weak, and then leaves start falling off.
Dry Leaves or Brown tips
Dehydrated plants develop brown leaf tips. This indicates that affected leaves do not get proper nutrients. And there is something wrong with the root zone of the plant.
Brown and crispy leaves or only brown edges are the second stage. In this stage, the leaves indicate that there is no water left in them. They are dying and this changes their natural color to yellow and then brown.
Curled leaves
Snake plant has beautiful leaves and seeing curled snake plant leaves is painful for a grower. When this plant receives an insufficient amount of water. It starts curling its leaves to save its energy to live.
If your plant has curled leaves then you should immediately check the moisture in the potting soil. To check it poke your finger in the soil or use a soil moisture testing meter.
This is an inexpensive device that tells the moisture in the growing medium in digital form. It is easily available on Amazon.
Dry potting soil
Dry soil in the plant pot is a sure sign of a lack of water. When the soil gets dry it starts developing cracks on the top surface.
Plant roots need moisture in the soil to absorb nutrients.
Roots absorb nutrients along with water. If there is no water in the soil, roots cannot take up the nutrients.
This results in stunted or no growth. Because the lack of essential nutrients makes the plant lifeless and stops the multiplication and division of plant cells.
If there is no cell division there is no plant growth.
How to bring back your underwatered snake plant?
Size and material of plant pot
The size of the plant pot matters a lot. Because a small size pot tightly holds the roots and this stops the growth. Whereas large size plant pots hold a large amount of soil and water. This leads to root fungal diseases.
Therefore, always choose one size large pot than the plant. The width of the pot should be 2 inches more than the root ball.
The best material should be clay because it gets dry quickly and reduce the chances of overwatering.
Right watering Technique
Snake plants do not need a large amount of water. They just need moist soil to transport nutrients from the soil to all parts of the plant.
Therefore, you need to learn the right watering technique.
The golden rule of watering snake plants is checking the moisture in the soil. For this purpose, poke your finger in the soil. If you are new use the soil moisture meter.
The top 2 inches of the soil must be dry between watering.
Take a jug of water and directly pour it into the base of the plant. Make sure you are not wet the plant leaves. If they get wet take a cloth and dry them.
Quality of Water
The quality of water is as important as the watering technique. The water must be clean and should not contain heavy minerals. In some parts of the country, tap water is not useful for drinking. Such water should not be used for watering plants.
The heavy minerals in such water get collected at the base of the plant. This results in damaged roots. Once the roots get damaged your plant stops growing and starts dying slowly.
To prevent this problem, use drinkable clean water. The water temperature should be between 17 to 25 degrees C.
Too cold or too hot water puts stress on plant roots.
Create Comfortable Environment
To revive your underwatered snake plant you should create a balanced environment. This is the environment where light, water, temperature, humidity, and nutrients are well balanced. In short, a perfect growing environment for a plant.
Give your plant indirect bright light. Snake plants are best to grow inside the home. They look fabulous in fancy colorful plant pots. Do not expose your snake plant to direct sunlight. It will burn the leaves.
The good news is it can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. The ideal range is 55 to 85 degrees F. Too high or too low a temperature inhibits the growth of the plant.
The general home humidity is enough for a snake plant. No need to make any change in it but if your home humidity is less than 40%. Then you need to do something to increase it.
Use the pebble tray method or simply turn ON the humidifier to increase the room humidity level.
Also, use a well-draining potting mix that also contains some amount of organic material. Because the organic substances in the formula give all-important nutrients to the plant.
Nutrients
Plants need a little nutrient boost to regain their health. Therefore, fertilize your snake plant once you corrected the cause of underwatering.
Use liquid organic nutrients, dilute them first to reduce their potency, and then give them to the plant.
Fertilize your plant only in the spring and summer seasons.
Stop it in the winter season, plants do not need many nutrients in this season. Because this is their resting time.
Conclusion
To save underwatered snake plant you need to first know its signs. Then water your plant by using fresh water.
Give it a perfect growing environment and your plant will easily regain its health.
To prevent this condition, learn the correct watering technique. Underwatering is a result of a lack of gardening skills.
