Hi,
I am new to hosta. Recently bought several of them and are growing them in pots. Could someone give me an idea of how much moisture does hosta need? How can I tell they need to be watered? Does the soil need to be moist all the time? Thanks in advance for your advice.
Watering hosta in pot
I have a couple in large pots. Wilt is a good sign of needing water but you hope to not get to this stage. When just starting you may want to water every other day, at least monitor the moisture in the pot. As they get established you can probably let them dry out more.
Here is Golden Tiara in one pot and June in another (this is in more shade while G.T. is in a lot more sun). Because we are getting a lot of rain so far this summer I rarely have to water either pot.
Hi Brisbane, I also am in Zone 10b. I live in SoCal but lived and worked in Daly City and Silicon Valley.
I also just started growing Hosta. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about them however I'm not finding many people in our zone with experience owning them.
A few weeks ago I received a few in a swap. I planted them in pots that I have on my patio. I've read that they need partial shade and should have moist soil.
Personally, moist soil is different than wet soil. I watered the plants when I potted them. I used Miracle Grow potting soil. So far only one of the pots has soil that has just started drying. I plan to water it today and wait until the top soil is dry on the others before I water them.
As a newbie one of my biggest mistakes is overwatering so I've decided to water on the conservative side. This may be a mistake.
I looked at my hostas this morning and all of them have new growth. That tells me that so far my watering plan is OK.
My biggest fear is that we don't get regular frosts. In fact, for me they are rare. I've read where some gardeners dig their hostas up yearly and put them in the refrigerator from January until March. Real estate in my frig is very limited and I don't have room to store plants in it.
I have an ambitious plan to put ice packs on each side of my hostas during the month of January in hopes of forcing them into dormancy. I just hope this will work.
I'd love to hear from anyone in Zone 10 where there is little to no frost that has experience growing hostas.
Thank you Hcmcdole and Shorty_CA for sharing your experience. I planted my first dozen of hosta in April, all in pots and sitting on a east facing balcony. They did pretty well for the first month or so. The balcony can be pretty windy, especially on the north end. I moved them to the other side (south), thinking they might appreciate a little more sunlight and less wind. Not so good an idea. The light color leaves started to turn brown. My research suggests that it's too much sun and/or too dry. I have killed a few plants in pots from overwatering, so I tried to error on the underwatering side. Now I am watering them every other day, crossing my fingers, hoping they will not rot. Also moved them out of the sun more. It's too early to tell if these steps help. Will post follow-up.
As long as the water drains you should be okay. If you see standing water then get that drain hole unclogged - at least tip the pot to its side so it can drain excess water. Good luck with finding the right spot for your hostas.
Its been awhile but is there any update on what happened to the 10b hostas? I live in Huntington Beach, Ca, also 10b, and really want to try a few hostas. I love the little mouses, am thinking of getting them their own little fridge for winter chill. Anybody still out there? Syb