The overwatering shame spiral started with a single sagging pothos

I kept a pothos by my kitchen window for two years and thought yellow leaves were just its personality. Then I repotted it and saw the roots were basically mush at the bottom, like wet newspaper. Turns out I was watering on a fixed Tuesday schedule instead of checking the soil depth with my finger. My neighbor in apartment 4B pointed out the pot had no drainage holes and I had been drowning it slowly. Anyone else figure out their watering system was wrong after a plant looked fine for way too long?

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barbarahill1mo ago

Ugh, that mushy root thing is heartbreaking, I felt this in my gut.

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mason7981mo ago

Stick your finger about an inch or two into the soil before you even THINK about watering. If it feels damp at all, just walk away. That fixed everything for me after I pulled a half-dead fern out of a pot that had no holes. Also, lifting the pot helps, once you know the weight of it dry versus wet, you can tell without poking at all. And if you're dealing with that mushy root situation, chop off every dark squishy part with clean scissors, even if it feels like you're butchering the plant. Then water sparingly for like a month while it grows new healthy roots. My pothos came back from like 3 sad stems, so it's totally doable.

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