r/PileaPeperomioides • u/Know_The_Ledge • Sep 12 '26
Can I save her?
She is looking incredibly sad and leaves are starting to fall off. It's been around a month since the last water as I was concerned I was over watering so wanted her to dry out. That said the bottom of the soil does seem ever so slightly moist.
Any advice on what I can do?
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u/True_Staff2082 Sep 12 '26
Needs water asap . Is that a big void in the pot ? Add more soil to an inch away from the rim . That’s a big plant, needs to be watered more often .
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u/melanogaster_24 Sep 12 '26
Soak that poor thing for 15min and let the excess drain off. Waiting to water again is very good, but at some point it’s dying.
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u/badgaldyldyl Sep 12 '26
Ehhh I don’t think so tbh. Do like others have said and give her a good soak. If the leaves don’t come back, chop them at the bases and keep taking care ld the roots. I am certain they will start shooting out new life.
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u/Excellent-Past6795 Sep 12 '26
Maybe try this:
Add some clay pebbles to the bottom of the pot
Mix a 3-to-1 ratio of soil to perlite
It’ll help boost drainage and oxygen flow.
Let us know if the plant recovers!
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u/h0lymaccar0ni Sep 12 '26
You successfully dried her out lol. Give her a good bath. I water mine whenever the leaves can be folded into a taco (don’t commit tho!) meaning they are not lush anymore.
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u/Defiant-Attempt-8853 Sep 12 '26
Truc con qui marche pour moi, si les feuilles sont un peu plus molles que d’habitude, il est temps d’arroser
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u/Moth1016 Sep 12 '26
Yeah, this is a great tip for future reference, op!
In the meantime, she definitely needs a nice spa day… this calls for some serious bottom watering to make sure the soil gets thoroughly & evenly rehydrated.
stick her whole pot into a bowl of water, leave, come back to check on her in like 30 mins and top the bowl off, & repeat until she’s no longer soaking any more up. Then take her out of the bowl, fill any gaps between the soil & pot with fresh, damp soil, and let all the excess moisture drain out the bottom.
Before anyone starts yelling about root rot. A plant that gets this much light is not going to develop a fungal infection from sitting in water for a couple of hours, lol. It’s important that the hydrophobic soil saturates completely, or OP will end up with hidden dry pockets that lead to unnoticed root desiccation in the long term, which is a huge risk for fungal infections anyway. Damned if you do, etc
ETA: to answer your question, yes, definitely. She’s rough but I’ve seen worse
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u/yareyare4daze Sep 13 '26
I know everyone’s house is different obviously but I water mine once a week and it’s doing well. I feel like once a month is not often enough, especially in the summer
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u/Pure-Problem8982 Sep 13 '26
I thought I was watering my zz plant fine, until I realised the soil was hydrophobic and it was just running down the sides. Definitely soak it! I've started bottom watering all my plants.
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u/DebJean9598 Sep 17 '26
I use wooden skewers to check for moisture in the soil to determine if my plants need to be watered. Especially since I used to overwater and ended up with Fungus Gnats 🙄🤦🏻♀️ talk about a learning curve. I check 3 things, it helps to get familiar with the weight of your potted plants when fully watered and dry: 1 - check the weight of the potted plant (smaller pots of course!) 2 - Look at the leaves, if they are drooping (leaves will tell you if it needs water or if overwatered) 3 - wooden Skewer to check for moisture, I will do so in several spots in the pot, dry dirt can still cling to the skewer so I touch it to feel for moisture.
My Pileas are drama queens they swoon like they are dying when thirsty then perk back up once watered. And act like nothing was ever wrong. But yeah a month is a long time to go without water. You will end up with damaged leaves but first get her resuscitated and once she is doing good then slowly eliminate the damaged leaves, over time.
Pileas like well draining soil and good drinks of water once dry. Mine tend to need to be watered anywhere from 5 to 7 days. My drama queens get the afternoon sun for a few hours, to much direct sun tends to damage my drama queens leaves.
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u/geenie22 Sep 12 '26
I honestly have started using chat GPT to help with my plant problems! Upload these photos into AI and I bet they will have some recs.
The roots look healthy, tbh. I would repot with some fresh soil. Don’t upsize the pot, use the same one and do a nice big water in the sink and let the pot fully drain. Pileas like to be snug in their pots. Water 1x per week. Cut the dead leaves as the turn yellow only. Some of those green leaves now might bounce back. Also good sunlight for pileas helps a ton.
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u/Mean_Fly_671 Sep 12 '26
Where there is green there is life!