---

What's up everyone? Welcome back to your digital garden.

We are going to talk about one of the most common problems that people run into when they're starting gardening. It's something that I've done plenty of times. Especially as I get into houseplants, which is not something I had grown before. I run into this more often than I want to admit, let's be honest here. Just put all my cards on the table. The problem I'm referring to is over watering. How do we know when we're over watering our plants and we're not dealing with some other problem, maybe lack of light, maybe a disease, maybe a pest? Today we'll look at five different signs of over watering and what they might signal for your plant.

Wilting Plant?

Let's get right into it. First of all, number one. Is your plant wet and wilting? This is a very obvious tip. If your plant is green, well watered and still struggling, you might have over watered it. The most common problem is this guys. If your plant is looking healthy but is just very droopy, the most likely cause is that you watered it too much. Another reason might be that you're using soil that retains too much water, so although you didn't necessarily water it too much, the soil is holding too much water and is causing the same symptom. That's another reason why your plant might be wet and wilting.

Leaves Browning?

Are the leaves turning brown and wilting? Number one was just a wilting plant. Number two is if the leaves are turning brown and wilting, this is where it gets a little harder to say, oh yeah, it's over watering. A lot of people might think this is a nutrient burn issue, or the plant is getting too much sun and it's drying out. There are some plants that respond to over watering with the tips of the leaves actually browning. That is one system of over watering you should definitely watch out for.

Edema

The third we'll talk about is edema. If your plant has absorbed more water than it needs, what that can do, because plants are made of cells, is it can cause the plant's cells to expand to the point where they actually rupture. We're talking about cells that literally just burst because they are too full of water. You'll know that this is happening if you look at the plant and you see blisters or lesions on the plant, and then eventually those lesions turn into dark, or sometimes even white scar tissue. One other sign of edema is indentations on the top of the leaves. Watch out for edema. It's one of the more unique issues that can stem from over watering.

Yellowing Leaves

The fourth issue, very similar to number one and two, yellow falling leaves. If you happen to have leaves that are yellowing and it is new growth, and that new growth is falling off of your plant, probably an overwatering issue. There are some other reasons that would cause this. Yellowing and new growth falling off before it has a chance to really establish itself is almost always over watering.

Roots Rotting?

Finally, the biggest downside to over watering, why we really want to avoid it as much as we can, is the dreaded root rot. If you get root rot, your plant is pretty much dead in the water, pun intended. When the soil is full of water, the roots effectively can drown. When they drown, they die. When they die, dead things begin to rot. It's a fungal disease. There's various different ones. It causes the roots to turn any color that is not white basically, brown, gray. It'll get a little slimy. Eventually the plant will wilt. Now the root system isn't there to support the growth of the plant.

Root rot typically an over watering issue, and it's coming mostly from people that are either watering too often, or they're watering into a medium that holds too much water and there's not enough drainage. These have been five simple, simple, simple causes of over watering and symptoms of over watering.

Thanks For Listening!

If this is your first time reading my writing, thank you! Please leave a comment so I can get to know you better.

My name is Kevin and I run Epic Gardening, a website, podcast, and YouTube channel. My goal is to teach 10,000,000 people how to grow their own food.

I'm a big believer in Steemit and decentralized platforms, so I'm going all in on Steemit, dtube, and dsound. Be sure to check me out there too! You'll find me writing about gardening, travel, health, and philosophy - I can't seem to stick to one topic :P

Thanks and happy Steeming,

---

► Listen on DSound
► Listen from source (IPFS)