I've been thinking about how to judge when to water. Presuming the plant is fully rooted in the pot. Not newly potted in lots of soil, then it should be on the dry side until the roots get going and fill the pot. OK, for my watering theory!
Green, yellow, RED!
Like a traffic light,
Green---- go ahead and water and feed, ---------When there are new leaves growing. Look closely, are there baby leaves? When the plant is coming out of dormancy, go ahead and water, but sparingly. Remember, there must be leaves to respire all that water. In hot sunny weather, think sweat.
Yellow---- the plant starts blooming. Slow down on the water, it's not growing new leaves, or is it? Too much water and your buds will drop off, boooo and
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If you have a bud that's close to blooming, and it drops off, put it in a tiny container of water, a bottle top, and it might go ahead and open.
Red--- Stop watering!! October/November. very little water for the northern house plants. Some even drop all their leaves. Arabicum genes make a plant go dormant for a month to several months.
Yellow leaves--- sometimes they just turn yellow and fall off with old age. Other times they turn yellow because the caudex is rotting. I look carefully at all my plants every day. (I wonder when this will get old--as in boring??) If the leaves don't look right, I'll turn the pot upside down and gently get the plant, the 'soil' and all, out to see if there's a problem in there. I've caught rot a number of times doing this. If ALL the leaves are looking bad, or turning yellow, that's not good. The old age thing is the, well, the old leaves down on the stem.
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