A plant expert is showing the world how to overcome that stubborn soil that refuses to absorb water correctly for your plants.
Certain soils take in water better than others. Those that don't are called hydrophobic. But there's a way around it.
The scoop
Instagrammer Krystal Duran (@plantswithkrystal), who has close to half a million followers, shows viewers how she makes sure her plant growing from hydrophobic soil gets the water it needs.
"The water repels right off the soil after I water," Duran laments before showing how she takes care of the problem.
The Reel begins with Duran showing us her plant inside a terracotta pot. She expresses, "My pearls are dry and my soil is very dry, too, which means it's hydrophobic."
She then takes the entire plant, including the soil attached to the roots, and places the soil — so tough and clumped together it retains the shape of the pot — into a bowl of water.
She soaks the entire clump of soil in the bowl for twenty minutes and then lifts it out and removes some of the soaked soil with her hand.
She goes on to put some fresh, dry soil into her terracotta pot and then places the plant with the wet soil inside and shakes the pot. She untangles the plant, cutting off some of the dry strands "just to liven it up a little bit."
In the final scene, she waters the plant while telling us, "now it can take in the water as it should."
How it's helping
Hacks like this can help prolong the life of your plants while keeping them looking fresh and healthy.
There's more to having plants in your home than the simple fact that they can look pretty. Plants can help purify the air inside your home, though for this to be genuinely effective, it's important to have many plants.
They also help keep homes cool during the increasingly hot summers, potentially saving us money from that air conditioning bill.
Plants also have a kind of magic to them that not everyone fully understands but that almost everyone can benefit from to some degree. Research has shown that people who are frequently surrounded by plants, and nature in general, report higher levels of well-being.
What people are saying
Viewers of the Reel had plenty to say.
"Now I see what I did wrong," one commenter admitted.
Another expressed how they "had to do this with my string of turtles but because the roots are so fine and it's in completely new soil the weight of the vines keep pulling it out of the pot and it won't root in the new mix properly."
"This is the plant I haven't been able to keep alive, but it's so cute. Maybe this video is a sign to reattempt, lol," another wrote.
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