Proper Light and Water Levels for Your Plant

Although there are many elements that can have an impact on how a plant grows, proper sun light and watering levels are by far the most important in our opinion.  As long as you position your plant in a place with the right level of sun light and provide the right amount of water, it should thrive through most conditions.

How can I make sure my plant is receiving the right amount of sunlight? There are many factors that impact how much sunlight your plants will receive, such as the time of day, weather, direction of the window and time of year, which can make it difficult to determine if your plant is receiving enough light. If you are a new plant owner, buying a light meter can help tremendously when deciding where to place your plant friends. Light meters typically measure the amount of light in foot-candles or lux. A single foot-candle is equivalent to the amount of light that falls on a surface that is one foot away from a single candle, and a lux is the amount of light that falls on a surface one meter away from a candle. For conversion, 1 foot-candle = 10.764 lux.

Below is a guide to the general light levels for our light classifications and a graphic to help when deciding where to place your plant in the room.     

Low Indirect Light: 50-250 foot-candles or about 530-2,700 lux

Medium Indirect Light: 250-750 foot-candles or about 2,700-8,100 lux

Bright Indirect Light: 750-1,250 foot-candles or 8,100-13,500 lux

Direct Light: 1,250+ foot-candles or 13,500+ lux

How often should I water my plant? One of the most common mistakes plant owners make is overwatering their plant. There are many variables that can impact how often a plant needs to be watered, such as humidity, temperature, soil mixture and light exposure. but as a general rule of thumb you should only water your plant when the top few inches of soil become dry.

At first, you can gently press your finger into the top of the soil to see if your plant needs water but as you learn to understand your plant more, you will likely know when it needs water based on how the leaves look. As a general rule, we recommend being conservative with watering to help protect from root rot, which can be difficult to recover from.  

Many of our planters come with a drainage hole with optional stopper, which allows for them to be used with a saucer to catch excess water. If you are concerned about proper watering and don't want to add a saucer, we recommend lining the bottom of the planter with rocks to allow excess water to drain to the bottom of the pot.