Poor Hal gets watered too much on its first week at home. Hoping to revive it after doing these steps!
I was wondering why one leaf was turning yellow and the ends of the other leaves started to wilt.. I also touched the tips of the leaves and found wet droplets (transpiration), so I searched it up and found that the plant was drowning. I found out that day, too, that the house help was watering it when I left the house (not knowing it only needed watering once a week!). So I read up and tried to save it.
I took it out of the pot and found that the soil inside was extremely wet, almost claylike. I laid out the soil on paper bags hoping that it would help seep the water.
I didn’t find any algae in the soil, so I decided to reuse it. The wet, claylike clumps were removed, and I kept some small ones and mixed it in with the dry soil to keep the soil semi-moist.
Slowly, I removed the wet soil surrounding the roots to prevent it from absorbing more water and to check for root rot. Almost all roots were white and firm, so I didn’t have to cut any part out.
I left the plant out of the pot for about 3-4 hours, and put it back in the same pot. I made sure the soil was loose so that the roots could breathe, and made sure the soil wasn’t super dry. I haven’t watered it yet.
It has been a day since doing this, and the center leaf that was wilting at a fast pace is starting to stand again. Soon i’ll share a photo of a (hopefully) healthier, happy Hal.
Some helpful sources: The Spruce, Proven Winners