You may have noticed your ZZ plant drooping a bit lately and decided to give it a spritz. However, you could be thinking, ‘should you mist a zz plant?’
Though at times the usually glossy leaves look tired, misting a ZZ plant is not a solution that we’d recommend. There are other ways to spruce them up and make them look their best, including checking the soil and knowing when to water (and when to hold off from watering).
Should You Mist a ZZ Plant? How Often Should You Mist ZZ Plant?
Misting, or the act of spraying a plant and its leaves with water doesn’t apply to all plants. The ZZ plant is one of those that can do fine without it.
ZZ plants are super tough and can thrive in a variety of conditions. They come from tropical regions, which means they’re used to having relatively dry soil most of the time, as well as dry air. In fact, you don’t need to do much when it comes to taking care of a zz plant- just make sure it gets adequate light and don’t forget that it exists!
So the answer to the question is no, you should not mist a zz plant. It’s okay if you do but that would be wasted effort since it doesn’t benefit them that much. When your plant appears stressed out and sports brown edges on its leaves, here are a few things you can do.
How to Care For a ZZ Plant
To keep your zz plant looking its best and glossiest you should know its care requirements, particularly watering and light.
The most important thing to know is that a zz plant does not need to be in direct sunlight. Anywhere between bright indirect light to shade should be fine. If indoors, you can put it on a windowsill or area that gets enough light during the day. Outdoors, the ZZ plant will thrive in the shade.
If the leaves appear brown and burnt, this is because they’ve been exposed to direct sun. Move it out and in another place, so it won’t happen again. Alternatively, if your zz plant looks like it’s reaching then you should probably relocate it so it gets more light throughout the day.
Having small brown tips on the edges is generally fine as long as it doesn’t spread and isn’t that noticeable. You can counteract this by increasing humidity levels around the plant and watering when the soil feels completely dry.
ZZ plants are incredibly versatile, and they often do well and are happy in moderate environments. That is, the room isn’t too hot nor too cold, or too dry or too wet. This makes them the perfect indoor plant when you want to liven up a room with natural foliage.
Do ZZ Plants Like Moisture?
It’s tough to kill a zz plant as they can live in a wide range of conditions. They’re similar to snake plants as they can tolerate medium-light environments. However, when it comes to humidity they tend to favor dry more than wet.
These plants want dry soil and infrequent watering. You can water once a week during hot days inside and more often when they’re outside.
As a rule of thumb, you should check if the top two inches of the soil are bone dry before you reach for the watering can. Also, if you do water make sure that the soil gets soaked thoroughly- pour in clean water until it comes out of the pot or container’s drain hole.
Watering and keeping it out of direct sunlight should be enough for your ZZ plant to look healthy and sport shiny leaves. If the room is unusually dry, you can do the occasional ‘water in a saucer with pebbles’ technique, which is exactly as it sounds.
Fill a small saucer with pebbles and water until it reaches the top, then set your ZZ plant on it. Do this maybe once or twice a week or until humidity levels are at around 40 to 50.
Is Misting Good for ZZ Plants?
ZZ plants are largely unaffected by misting and generally won’t change if you mist them or not. Instead, make sure that they’re out of strong sunlight and get adequate water so it could look its best.
Related Article: 10 Great Plants for an Office With no Windows