Have you ever watered your plants, only to find that the water just sits on top of the soil?
In all likelihood, your soil is hydrophobic. In other words, your soil doesn’t want any water.
Would you like to find out how to fix hydrophobic soil in your home?
Fixing hydrophobic soil does require some more care than simply watering the plants. When soil goes hydrophobic, it is due to the fact soil molecules have much tighter bonds and the water is repelled into the air – so you are going to have to get the soil to relax.
Why Does Soil Become Hydrophobic?
No, hydrophobic soil does not mean that the soil is afraid of water.
Instead, it means that the soil is actively resisting water instead of absorbing it.
When bacteria and fungus break down and decompose in the soil, it creates a waxy coating on soil particles.
Once that bacteria and fungus die off from soil being dry for too long, the soil becomes hydrophobic, and your plants will show signs of hydrophobic conditions.
Your plants can still be hydrophobic when you are watering them regularly. You most likely were told to water your plants until water is leaking out of the bottom drainage holes, which is great advice whenever you are watering; especially if your plant is hydrophobic because if it is hydrophobic, that water is running down the sides of the pot through the bottom and your plant is not getting any.
Soils can also become hydrophobic if you are adding in peat.
Did You Know: Peat is added into soil mixtures to retain water, therefore the plant has a water reserve to use when soil starts drying. However, when the peat dries out, it is hard for the soil to rehydrate.
How to Fix Hydrophobic Soil
So, how do you remedy the situation?
Here are some things you can try to start to convert your anti soil into something that accepts water.
Bottom Soaking
If your pot is drainable and is easy to move, this is a good place to start:
- Put the pot into a larger container. Then fill the container with water until it is about halfway up the side of the pot.
- Leave the plant in water for 5-10 minutes.
If the soil is not noticeably darker at the top of the soil in the pot, leave it in the larger container for another 10 minutes.
If the top of the pot still appears dry, then you may proceed to the next step.
Aerate the Soil
Using a fork, skewer, or chopstick create some deep aeration holes into the soil.
You want to be careful for the roots!
This will be aerating the soil a little bit increasing the surface area for the water to be able to get absorbed into.
By creating many aeration holes it will help the water be absorbed into the soil more evenly.
After your plant is mostly dry go back and repeat step one, and try bottom soaking now that plants soil has been aerated.
Wetting Agents
If obtaining a good soak, with the benefit of aeration, hasn’t improved your soil, then it’s time to look at wetting agents.
Wetting agents often work by lowering the surface tension of the soil, which allows the water to move through the soil more easily. Simply put, the bonds between soil particles become a little looser and allow the water to permeate.
You may have something to make a wetting agent with at home without even realizing it. Dish soap diluted with water makes a great wetting agent.
All you have to do is stir ¼ teaspoon into a gallon of lukewarm water. Pour the water over the entire surface of the soil. Make sure the water covers every area at the top of the soil.
If DIY isn’t your thing, you can always purchase wetting agents to use on your plants.
Alternative: If none of these work, it may be time to try repotting your plant in new soil. Look for a soil that has wetting agents already mixed in or one with perlite in it to help retain moisture.
How Prevent Hydrophobic Soil
The advantages in all of this is you can stop you soil from becoming hydrophobic in the first place.
The reason for hydrophobic soil is because the soil has dried down too much, so establishing a watering schedule is important, but that does not imply that you need to water your plants each day; you will likely drown them!
You can determine if your soil is wet simply by placing your finger or a toothpick an inch or so down into the soil and seeing if there is any moisture still remaining. If the soil has moisture still, you are good, but if the soil begins to feel dry it is time to water.
If you keep up the soil dampened to your taste, you will keep in soil bio-organisms like plant beneficial bacteria and fungus happy.
Since they have the moisture to survive they will not break down as easy, and they will not be coating all of your soil in waxes.
You might also want to consider purchase higher quality soil that already has wetting agents mixed in. This would be very nice for plants who prefer to die down a little bit before they are watered again.
Now when these plants get watered the next time wetting agents will stop the soil from being hydrophobic.
Providing fertilizes even helps stop soils from becoming hydrophobic:
- The fertilizers contribute significant nutrients to the soil that nourish the plant, but the soil bacteria also consume the same nutrients.
- Find out how often you can fertilize your plant and only use the suggested amount.
Most of the time, during the winter months the plant will not need any fertilizer at all.
Final Thoughts
If your apathetic and thoughtless roomate didn’t bother to water your plants at all while you were on vacation, you may need to get rid of them and find yourself a better plantsitter.
Drying out too much between waterings will cause the soil of your plant to become hydrophobic, meaning it will not properly absorb water.
Removing hydrophobic soil is a relatively easy problem to solve, but it would be much better to just prevent the problem in the first place.
Using soil with good structure, moisture-retaining capacity, and without ever allowing the soil to dry out between waterings will ultimately result in healthy soil and plants that will be grateful to you.