From my perspective, your overzealous watering is a death sentence by drowning. When you pour too much water into my pot, you are filling all the air pockets in the soil. My roots, like all living things, need to breathe. They require oxygen from the soil to convert the sugars and energy you provide me with into usable growth. When you overwater, you are literally suffocating me. My delicate, hair-like feeder roots begin to rot and die in the constantly saturated environment. This root rot is a silent killer; you cannot see it happening until it's often too advanced. As my root system fails, it can no longer absorb water or nutrients, creating a cruel irony where I exhibit signs of thirst while my roots are sitting in a swamp.
Conversely, when you forget about me for too long, I enter a state of survival panic. Water is the very medium through which I transport essential nutrients from my roots to my stems, leaves, and flowers. It is also what keeps my cells turgid and upright. Without a consistent drink, this internal transportation system grinds to a halt. My leaves, which are broad and designed to photosynthesize, become a liability. To conserve my precious remaining water, I must sacrifice them. They begin to wilt, curl, and yellow, starting from the oldest ones, as I attempt to redirect my dwindling resources to my core and my crown to keep myself alive. It is a slow and stressful withering.
You can read my distress clearly if you know what to look for. When overwatered, my leaves will turn yellow, often starting in the center of the plant or across multiple leaves at once. They will feel soft, mushy, and limp to the touch. You might even notice a foul odor coming from the soil, which is the smell of my roots decaying. My beautiful flowers will droop and rot quickly. When underwatered, my leaves will also yellow, but they will do so from the edges inward and feel dry, crispy, and papery. They will wilt dramatically and my stems will become floppy and limp. My flowers will wilt and dry out, fading quickly without the water pressure to keep their structures supported.
The most direct way to understand my needs is to check my home. For overwatering, the soil will be constantly wet, cold, and clumpy to the touch, even days after you last watered. The pot will feel unusually heavy due to the water weight. For underwatering, the soil will be dry, hard, and may have pulled away from the edges of the pot. It will feel dry not just on the surface, but a finger inserted a couple of inches down will find no moisture. The pot will feel very light, like it's full of dust.
Beneath the soil lies my life source: my tuber. This swollen stem stores the water and energy I need to survive dormancy and re-sprout. When you overwater me, this tuber rots. It becomes soft, brown, and mushy, and this damage is almost always fatal. When you underwater me, my tuber uses up all its stored reserves to try and keep me alive. It can become shriveled, dry, and wrinkled. While a dehydrated tuber can sometimes be revived with careful rehydration, a rotted one cannot.
