From our root system's point of view, the difference between too much and too little water is a matter of life and breath. When you overwater us, you flood our air pockets. The soil becomes a dense, oxygen-poor swamp. We begin to suffocate and rot, turning from firm, white, healthy roots into a mushy, brown, and decaying mess. This root rot cripples our ability to absorb any water or nutrients at all, creating a cruel irony where we appear thirsty while actually drowning. In contrast, underwatering leaves us desperately searching. We become dry, brittle, and may stop growing entirely. We simply cannot access the water needed to transport essential elements up to the stems and leaves, leaving the entire plant parched.
Our stems are the highways for water and nutrients. Their condition tells a clear story. Underwatering causes us to become limp and weak. The internal water pressure (turgor pressure) drops dramatically, causing our stems to wilt and droop in a desperate attempt to conserve resources and reduce surface area exposed to the sun. This wilting from thirst is often our first dramatic plea for help. Overwatering, however, leads to a different kind of weakness. The rotting roots can no longer support the stem structure. The stems may not just wilt; they can become soft, mushy, and blackened at the base. They lose their integrity and may collapse entirely, a condition often called "damping off."
Our leaves are the most visible billboards announcing our distress. When thirsty from underwatering, we communicate with crispness and color. Our leaves will often feel dry and brittle to the touch. They may curl inward or upward at the edges to conserve moisture and will turn yellow, then brown and crispy, typically starting at the tips and margins. The entire plant takes on a dull, lifeless appearance. The overwatered leaf tells a more subdued and soggy tale. The yellowing is more uniform across the leaf or appears as mottled patches, and the leaf feels soft, limp, and bloated with water, not crisp. In severe cases, the cells burst from the excess water, forming unsightly blisters or oedema, which look like water-soaked spots that later turn into corky, brown bumps.
Our ultimate goal is to bloom and reproduce, so we divert energy away from this vital task only when in severe distress. Both extremes of water will cause us to stop flowering, but in nuanced ways. Underwatering is a direct survival response. To preserve the little water we have for basic life functions, we will abort our flower buds and blooms. They will wither and drop prematurely. You may also see a significant stunting of our overall growth. Overwatering, through the root rot it causes, creates an indirect starvation. Even if we want to flower, we cannot because the rotten roots cannot absorb the nutrients required for bloom production. Growth is similarly stunted, not from lack of water, but from a lack of functional roots and the onset of disease.
