How Often Should You Actually Water Houseplants? It's Not What You Think

For the first year of owning houseplants, I watered everything on Sundays.

It seemed logical. Pick a day, make it a habit, water all the plants. Simple. Organized. Very adult of me.

The problem: half my plants were drowning while the other half were dying of thirst.

My snake plant, getting watered every week, started turning yellow and mushy at the base. My calathea, also getting weekly water, had crispy brown edges and looked perpetually sad. Same schedule, opposite problems.

That's when I learned the most frustrating truth about plant care: there is no universal answer to "how often should I water?"

Why "once a week" doesn't work

Every care guide I read gave me schedules. Monstera: every 7-10 days. Snake plant: every 2-3 weeks. Calathea: keep moist.

These aren't wrong, exactly. They're just incomplete.

My apartment is different from your apartment. My monstera sits in a north-facing window with mediocre light. Yours might be in a sunny corner. Same plant, totally different water needs.

Even within my own home, the same type of plant needs different care depending on where it lives. I have two pothos. One's in my bright living room and drinks water every 6-7 days. The other's in my dim bedroom and goes 10-12 days between waterings.

Generic schedules are starting points, not rules. The real skill is learning to read your specific plants.

What actually determines watering frequency

A bunch of factors combine to decide how fast your plant uses water:

Light. More light means more photosynthesis, which means more water consumption. A plant in a bright spot will need water way more often than the same plant in a dark corner.

Temperature. Heat speeds everything up. My plants need more water in summer, less in winter. During a heat wave last July, some of them needed water twice as often as usual.

Humidity. Dry air means faster evaporation from both the soil and the leaves. My apartment gets really dry in winter with the heating on, and I notice my plants' soil drying out faster even though they're growing slower.

Pot material. Terracotta is porous and lets moisture escape through the sides. Plastic and ceramic hold water longer. I switched one plant from terracotta to plastic and suddenly it needed water half as often.

Pot size. Smaller pots dry out faster because there's less soil to hold moisture. A plant in a 4-inch pot might need water every few days while the same plant in an 8-inch pot goes a week or more.

The plant itself. Some plants are just thirstier than others. My calatheas want moist soil constantly. My snake plant wants to dry out completely between waterings. Their needs are fundamentally different.

All of these factors interact, which is why no chart can tell you exactly what your plants need. You have to figure it out through observation.

How I actually decide when to water

I stopped following schedules and started checking soil.

It sounds obvious when I say it, but I resisted this for a long time. Checking every plant individually felt like too much work. I wanted a simple system.

The problem is that plants aren't simple. So now I check.

For most plants, I stick my finger about an inch into the soil. If it's dry, I water. If it's moist, I wait. Takes about two seconds per plant.

For my succulents and snake plants, I wait until the soil is completely dry all the way through. Sometimes I'll pick up the pot, and if it's light, that's usually a good sign it's time.

For my calathea and fern, I try to keep them slightly moist and not let them dry out completely. These are the high-maintenance ones.

This isn't glamorous or systematic, but it works. My plants are healthier than they've ever been.

Some rough guidelines (with caveats)

Even though I don't follow strict schedules, I do have general expectations for different types of plants. These help me know if something's off.

Tropicals like monstera, pothos, and philodendron usually go about a week between waterings in my home. Sometimes a bit longer in winter, sometimes a bit shorter in summer.

Succulents and cacti go two to three weeks, sometimes longer. I've forgotten about my echeveria for almost a month and it was fine. These plants are built to survive drought.

Ferns and calatheas are the needy ones. Every four to five days, sometimes more often if the air is dry. These are the plants I check most frequently.

Snake plants and ZZ plants are basically camels. Every two to three weeks, and honestly sometimes I push it to a month if I'm busy. They're incredibly forgiving.

But again, these are my plants in my home. Your results will vary.

The seasonal shift

One thing that took me a while to understand: watering needs change throughout the year.

In spring and summer, most houseplants are actively growing. They're producing new leaves, building roots, using up water and nutrients. This is when they're thirstiest.

In fall and winter, most plants slow down. Growth stalls. They enter a rest period. During this time, they need much less water.

I made the mistake of maintaining my summer watering schedule into winter. My plants weren't using the water as quickly, and a few of them developed root rot because the soil stayed soggy for too long.

Now I pretty much halve my watering frequency from November through February. Some plants go from weekly to every two weeks. Some go from every two weeks to monthly. I just check the soil more carefully and water less often.

Learning to read your plants

After a while, you start to notice the early signs that a plant is thirsty. Before the drooping and the drama.

My monstera's leaves get slightly less shiny when it wants water. My pothos leaves curl a tiny bit at the edges. My peace lily droops dramatically (this one's not subtle at all).

These signals aren't in any care guide. They're things I learned by paying attention to my specific plants over time.

The best thing I did for my watering was start tracking when I actually watered each plant. I use an app called Beflore for this, just logging each watering with a quick tap. After a month or two, I could see the patterns clearly. My monstera was consistently getting water every 8-9 days. My snake plant every 18-20 days. My calathea every 5-6 days.

Having that data helped me stop second-guessing myself. Instead of wondering "did I water this recently?" I could just check.

The one mistake that kills more plants than anything

Overwatering.

Not under-watering. Overwatering.

Most people, when they're not sure if a plant needs water, give it some water "just in case." The plant's looking a bit sad? Water it. It's been a few days? Better water it.

This kills plants. Roots sitting in soggy soil can't breathe. They rot. Once root rot sets in, it's hard to reverse.

If you're not sure whether to water, wait. Check again in a day or two. An underwatered plant will recover quickly when you finally water it. An overwatered plant might not recover at all.

When in doubt, don't water. Seriously.

The bottom line

There's no magic number I can give you. "Water every X days" is a myth.

What works: checking your soil before watering, adjusting for seasons, paying attention to how your specific plants respond in your specific home, and learning the early signs of thirst for each one.

It sounds like more work than following a schedule, but honestly it becomes automatic after a while. A quick finger-in-soil check takes two seconds. And your plants will be healthier for it.

Your monstera doesn't care what the internet says about watering schedules. It only cares about what it actually needs. Learn to listen to it.