How to dry out overwatered soil is often a concern for many gardeners, and in this regard, know that it can be achieved in several straightforward and trouble-free ways.
Plants can often be over-hydrated, resulting in their overall well-being being hampered. In this article, our experts will show you how to tackle this problem with basic resources and items.
Continue reading to obtain a detailed and direct look at the steps involved in drying out the soil and tips and techniques for adequately caring for the plant so that they thrive happily and healthily.
JUMP TO TOPIC
How Can You Dry Out Overwatered Soil?
You can dry out overwatered soil by scaling back on the watering and relocating the plant. Moreover, you can also boost the aeration of the soil, and clear the soil debris. You may also manually dry out, or try to replant in fresh soil.
– Scale Back on the Watering
The first thing to do as soon as you suspect overwatering is to stop and scale back on the water. If the plant has been affected by excess water, it may often have a wilted look. This should not be mistaken for a lack of water, so no additional water is to be added. This way you are also letting it dry from one watering session to the next one.
Unless the soil feels completely dry, irrespective of your watering schedule, refrain from watering the plant and proceed to the following steps to give the soil a chance to dry out. Check the moisture levels by using a moisture meter before you water plants again.
If you continue to water a plant that is situated in soil that is already damp, the condition will only deteriorate further. So allow the plant to evaporate or drain away on its own accord.
– Relocate the Plant
Moving your plant to a new location is an efficient and natural method for drying out soil that is too wet. You should relocate the plant to an area where it will receive a significant amount of direct sunlight. However, you should also remember the type of plant that you have, and make sure that you wouldn’t place it in a location where it will be stressed due to too much sun.
But note that if the heat and light of the sun are too much for your plant to handle, you can protect it by placing a garden sheet over it. This will allow enough light to be diffused to help the plant evaporate its water more quickly—an easy solution in response to your problem of drying out overwatered plants.
Because of the warmth produced by the light, any extra water present in the garden soil will be able to evaporate and be removed from the environment. Therefore, you will need to use a few additional methods to evaporate the water.
In addition to this, you must also check to see that the new location has moderately low relative humidity and consistent airflow or increase ventilation. If you do this, the plant will be more prone to drying out due to the increased transpiration caused by the wind, and the soil will dry much faster.
– Boost Aeration of Soil
If the soil isn’t overly soggy, an easy and effective way to dry it out is to increase the aeration of the soil. This could be done by poking holes with a sharp tool similar to a chopstick, taking care not to cause any damage to the roots.
An overwatered plant soil prevents oxygen from penetrating the roots, thereby hampering the plant’s overall health. Additionally, the soil can become compacted, making it difficult for moisture to evaporate, this means that as you aerate it properly, the matter would be adjusted well.
By poking holes, you technically aerate the soil, allowing oxygen to penetrate through to help the roots and speed the process toward dry soil. Aeration of the soil, in fact, consistently, whether outdoor or indoor plants, can be undertaken to prevent overwatered soil and the spread of bacteria and fungi often caused in an overly moist environment.
– Clear the Soil of Debris
On another note, you may also try to gather all of the trash, including the leaves, and dispose of it in a location that is not near the soil. When you aim to get rid of dead leaves or other plant parts that you find in the soil is important because these little complications help the soil hold onto moisture, and humidity will be trapped, so if you take care of them, then the soil would not hold humidity excessively anymore.
If you leave them there, the rate at which the ground dries out will be slowed down. The surplus of water in the soil can be helped to evaporate if the area around the plant is cleaned up. You should also remove mulch that you might have added to the topsoil because it also acts as a moisture retainer, and you should do this as soon as possible to make the soil dry.
– Manually Dry Out
When you see too much water, you would try to ask yourself, can overwatered plants recover on their own; the short answer is, in fact, they can if the level of moisture isn’t severe. Otherwise, manually dry out the soil by using a hair blow dryer, but of course, you will have to remove the plant from the pot so that every section of the root and the soil is dried out.
If you use your hairdryer on the plant without first removing it from the container, you will only be able to dry out the uppermost layers of the soil. However, do this task in a cautious manner, as the air produced by the hairdryer has the propensity to be warm, so do not bring it too close to the plant.
Maintaining a safe distance while using the hairdryer allows you to achieve the best possible results in a dry garden or potted plants. One more easy technique for those looking for an answer to how to dry out clay soil quickly is lime.
Moreover, some lime may also be used to aerate the soil and dry it out, and it is common practice to apply lime to the soil to hasten the process of it drying out. If you dig it into the ground and combine it with the soil in the garden, it will make the garden dry out faster.
– Replant in Fresh Soil
If you find the garden soil too wet and overly moist, despite all the above steps, then you would see that it is time to replant it into fresh soil. To get started, gently tap the bottom of your pot or container and remove the plant from the soil.
Inspect for any blackened sections or root rot due to excess water caused by fungal growth. Take some pruners and remove any decaying or damaged roots from the plant. It is essential to disinfect the pruners before each use as well as after they have been used, because they may be infected by a disease that you are not aware of.
Replant into a pot or container with proper drainage holes. Use a new potting mix and incorporate some perlite into it so that the soil continues to have adequate air circulation. After the soil has been switched out, the plant may show signs of stress. Do not fret over it, as with regular and proper care; the plant will limp back to life and completely dry.
Conclusion
You have now been taken through the process of drying out soil that has been overwatered.
The following is a summary of the information we learned from this article.
- You can get waterlogged or overwatered soil to dry out by either repotting the plant or creating an environment that encourages the plant to lose water through evaporation.
- You could also try relocating the plant to an area that receives more sunlight or has better ventilation overall.
- As soon as you have even the slightest suspicion that you are overwatering plants, the very first thing you should do is stop and cut back on the amount of water.
- Removing dead leaves or other plant parts in the soil is essential because these things help the soil hold onto moisture, and a hair blow dryer can manually dry out the soil.
- It is time to replant it into fresh soil if, despite taking all of the steps outlined above, the soil remains soggy and excessively moist.
After reading about the various methods available, it should not be difficult for you to dry out the wet soil on your own. So what are you waiting for, get to work immediately to save your plant before it’s too late.
