*Don't allow the plant to sit in the effluent that exits the drain hole.

* Do this:
immediately after a thorough
watering, hold the pot in one hand over the sink, lawn, or
over-sleeping significant other and move it downward, then sharply
reverse the direction to upward. You'll immediately note that a good
measure of 'excess' water will “continue downward in a straight
line” and exit the drain hole. The sharper the reversal of
direction, the more water exits the drain hole. When you have
repeated the exercise until water no longer exits the drain hole on
the reversal of direction, you will have eliminated all excess water
and your plants will regard you with a newfound sense of awe.

* Don't water until a tell stuck deep in the pot comes out barely moist or dry. See below.

* Have you fertilized? You should be, regularly. I suggest you use Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. You won't find a better choice.

*Repotting into a fast-draining highly aerated medium would likely do wonders for your plants and your ability to keep them healthy.

This should be helpful.

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality
and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid
it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy
source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need
energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it,
they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see
that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to
drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and
not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would
like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a
healthy plant.

Watering in small sips leads
to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved
solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions,
which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in
sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates
another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply
adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the
saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating
dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced
to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods
of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can
immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very
important factor.

In many cases, we can judge
whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is
especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic,
but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier
material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes
grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for
water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two
into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep
pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry,
while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated.
Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak
havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure
of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even
measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean
the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the
fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable
methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'.
You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of
about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48”
(120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair.
Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip
so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the
wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root
system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try
several places until you find one where you can push it all the way
to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and
inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water
until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of
wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress
isn't a recurring issue.

Al

Hi Al, Thank you so much for the information. Felt like I attended a crash course and learnt so much. I will try out the watering method and look to use the ‘tell’ for moist level checking. I haven’t been adding fertilizer other than using rice water and banana peels soaked water as some additional nutrients to the plant. Time to get some real fertilizer now. Thank you again. :)

Thank you for the kind words, B Li.

Al