STOP Believing These 6 Houseplant Myths!

Misting Plants

The first myth is probably the most common, and that is misting your houseplants with a spray bottle such as this will increase the humidity around your plants. Some houseplants require a higher level of humidity for them to grow properly. A calathea, for example, does require high humidity to avoid developing those crispy brown edges on the leaves.

So the myth is that misting the leaves of your houseplants with a bottle like this will increase the humidity around the plants, but in reality, this creates more problems than it solves. It’s assumed that the water you spray onto the leaves of the plant will slowly evaporate and provide extra humidity to the plant in the process, but misting your leaves only serves to moisten the leaves, which then dry quickly, not really providing any extra humidity for the plant. The amount of evaporation given off from the wet leaves on the plant is so minuscule that no extra humidity is provided.

Doing this will only increase the risk of things like fungus and rot developing on the leaves because you’re leaving water droplets on the surface of the leaves to dry. If you want to increase the humidity of your plants, there are a couple of other options. One option is to group your plants together to create a little mini microenvironment with higher humidity, or you can invest in a humidifier that you can place next to your plants.

Top Water Purity

Houseplant myth number two is to let tap water sit overnight before watering your houseplants the next day. The reason for this is to apparently allow the chlorine in the tap water to dissipate, improving the purity of the water. This is really not necessary at all because the tiny amount of chlorine in the tap water is not harmful to your plants.

If we can drink tap water, then surely it’s good enough for our houseplants. There’s absolutely no evidence that the chlorine in our tap water does any harm to our houseplants. This myth is just a massive waste of time, and you’re best just watering your plants with water straight from the tap.

It’s really not feasible to have gallons of water on standby ready to use on the houseplants the next day.

Cold Water

Myth number three is a continuation of myth number two, and that is to not water your plants with cold water straight from the tap. The idea here is that the water from your tap is too cold for your plant’s roots and this will send your plant into shock.

But if this was the case, then I would have a lot of unhappy plants in my house, but all the plants in my house are doing just fine. Plants are robust and can generally take the various things we throw at them, and using slightly cold water from the tap to water them is really not going to do any harm to your plants at all. Your plants aren’t going to go into shock when you water from the tap because it’s not like the water is going to freeze the roots.

It’s not that cold.

Air Purifying

Myth number four is that houseplants work to purify the air in our homes. This idea sounds lovely, of course, and I do wish it were true.

I wish that if we filled our homes with lots of lovely houseplants, we’d have lovely pure air to breathe, but sadly, that’s just not accurate. This myth started with a NASA-published study where scientist Bill Wolverton studied the effects of plants in removing pollutants from the surrounding air in an airtight laboratory environment. The study did show some promise that plants could remove some pollutants from the air, but the key thing here is that the experiment was done in an airtight lab environment.

Scaling this up to having plants removing the pollutants in our homes would be incredible. We need millions of plants. This is because our homes are not airtight labs but spaces with doors, windows, leaks, and drafts.

So the plants will be able to do nothing in this environment. The effect of, say, 100 plants in a living room on the air pollutants in the room is so remote that it’s not really worth considering. I’d recommend checking out the study for yourself if you have the time, guys.

Houseplant Growth in Winter

Houseplant myth number five is a popular one, and that is houseplants don’t grow during the winter. This is a common misconception that is not really accurate. Plants are living organisms, and they do grow all year round.

It is true that their growth is slower during the winter due to the longer nights and colder weather, but they are still developing leaves and roots, especially since we live in warm houses during the winter. This gives them the opportunity to continue growing. It can be dangerous for our plants to assume that plants don’t grow during the winter because we might assume that they don’t need any water.

Not watering your houseplants in the winter will harm your plants from the roots drying out. So we just need to make sure we keep watering our plants during the winter, albeit at a slower rate than during the spring, summer, and autumn. Many indoor plants are native to the tropics where they grow all year round.

This means, of course, that they will continue to grow in our homes. Many of my plants, such as my Tradescantias and even my Philodendron Birkin, have put on lots of growth over the winter. My Birkin continues to put out those new white leaves all year round.

Succulent Watering

Houseplant myth number six is that succulents are drought tolerant and hardly need any water to survive. This is a dangerous myth for your succulents and cacti and will likely result in the death of your plant if you stick by it. People read on blog posts and in books that succulents are easy to look after because they don’t need much water, and this leads them to never water their succulents.

They might buy a succulent, place it on a windowsill in a south-facing room, and forget about it all summer, not watering it all summer. This will lead to shriveling leaves, of course, and eventually plant death because the plant is dying from dehydration. Succulents do store water in their thick leaves or their thick trunks.

So that means they need less water than regular houseplants, but they do still need water. I water my succulents about once every two or three weeks during the spring and summer, and I make sure to let the soil dry out in between waterings. I cut this back to probably once every four weeks during the winter.

You do need to be careful about overwatering your succulent because the leaves will only be able to store so much water. If they take on too much water, then the leaves will start to turn yellow and go a little mushy. But just remember to at least water your succulents sometimes to avoid the plant from drying out.

It’s always worth using a moisture meter just to check that the plants do need water. Just stick it into the soil, and it will tell you whether the soil is dry, moist, or wet.