Although Staghorn Ferns look like quite unique plants, they are generally fairly easy to care for. However, because of their distinct growing style, many people wonder about the best ways to keep them properly watered, especially when they are mounted. How do you water a Staghorn fern?
Staghorn Ferns grow best when they receive regular, deep waterings, in between which they are allowed to almost fully dry out. How to properly water your fern will depend on whether they are mounted or potted, but higher humidity levels can help these ferns manage their moisture levels between waterings.
Proper watering for Staghorns doesn’t have to be complicated. In this article, we’ll go over the right way to water your fern, whether it’s potted or mounted, and discuss some other environmental factors that have a potential impact on the frequency in which you’ll need to give your plant a drink.
Staghorn Fern Water Requirements
To start, let’s take a brief moment to discuss how much water a Staghorn Fern prefers.
This small group of plants is indigenous to Australia and other parts of South Asia, where they grow in hot, humid, and often wet areas. They are epiphytic, meaning that they grow on other plants, mainly trees, where they utilize the small amounts of water and organic material that fall from above.
Staghorns have adapted to not need a whole lot of inputs at once, so when it comes to water, they are used to soaking up what is available when they can and utilizing it efficiently during dry spells in between rain showers.
In general, Staghorns prefer conditions where they receive a deep watering, allowing their rhizomes, roots, and fronds to become fully saturated, followed by a period where they are allowed to dry out.
This allows the plants the ability to maximize important processes like nutrient absorption, nutrient transport, and transpiration but protects them from the perils of overwatering, including rot issues.
As houseplants, where environments are much more consistent and much less extreme, Staghorn ferns tend to be fairly low maintenance, as long as you pay close attention to their water requirements. Knowing how to water them and how to identify that they are ready for another drink will go a long way in keeping these ferns healthy and vibrant in your home.
How Often Should You Water a Staghorn Fern?
As much as we wish we could give a definitive answer to this question, the truth is that too many variables impact how much water your plant needs. As a result, there are no hard and fast rules about how often you should be watering your Staghorn Fern.
However, we can offer you a set of guidelines that will get you started, while avoiding situations where your plant ends up over- or underwatered. From there, you can tweak your watering schedule based on the needs of your individual fern.
In general, regardless of whether your Staghorn Fern is mounted or potted, you should start by watering (or soaking) your plant about once a week during the warmer months of the year, when the plant is more active. During cooler months, usually mid-Fall to early-Spring, you should reduce watering sessions to once every ten days to two weeks.
Remember, this is your starting point. There are a lot of factors that can impact your plant’s individual watering needs, including the age and size of your plant, how warm your region is, how warm you keep your house, whether you live in a humid or dry environment, and how much light your plant receives during a given day.
You may find that you need to decrease the time between watering sessions by a few days during the warmest parts of the summer. Or, weekly waterings may be too much if you live in milder climates.
I have a potted Staghorn that is several years old and only needs to be watered about once every ten days year-round. This is likely because I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and the conditions in my house are pretty consistent throughout the year.
How often you water your fern will be totally dependent on the specific conditions of your home and area, as well as how big the plant is. Weekly waterings are a good starting point, but keep an eye on your plant to watch for signs of over- or underwatering so you can adjust the schedule, as needed.
Factors that Impact How Often to Water Staghorn Ferns
There are other factors that can have a significant impact on how often your fern should be watered. Again, there aren’t any definitive rules when it comes to these factors, but most of it is common sense.
Temperature, humidity, and light exposure are the three main environmental factors that have the greatest impact on your fern’s water needs because they all influence how fast the plant can dry out.
Generally, the warmer and drier it is, the more often you’ll need to water. More intense light exposure tends to facilitate or contribute to these warm, dry conditions and can have a significant impact on watering needs.
Cooler, dimmer, wetter conditions do the opposite and will likely increase the amount of time between watering sessions. Extra care should be taken in these settings to avoid overwatering your fern and creating conditions where rot can get a foothold on your plant.
Signs Your Staghorn Fern Needs Water
How will you know when your fern needs more water?
To avoid chlorosis and rot, you definitely want to allow your fern to dry out between watering sessions, but the side effects of underwatering are also pretty undesirable, so it’s all about finding that fine line between the two.
The good news is that your Staghorn will give you a bit of warning when it is starting to get thirsty.
Normally, when a Staghorn is properly watered, the foliar (or antler) fronds will feel plump and full, and will actually fan out from the base of the plant, arcing gently upward. As the plant dries out, these fronds will begin to gently droop as the plant’s internal water pressure drops.
Once you start seeing these fronds drop, it’s about time to give your plant another drink. After it receives more water, you should see its fronds once again lift up and out towards the sky.
This is going to be your main indicator of when to water your mounted ferns because it is often hard to gauge how wet the roots and growing medium are when they get covered by the shield fronds. For potted ferns, you can always check the moisture of the topsoil to confirm when it is time to water again.
It’s worth mentioning that if your plant’s drooping goes unnoticed for too long, you run the risk of dehydrating your fern to the point of damage. If you see that your fern is wilted, with fronds that look shriveled, it is underwatered. If allowed to dry out further, you may start seeing frond tips that turn brown and begin to burn from the lack of moisture.
You do not want to let your Staghorn Fern get this dry. Once allowed to dry out too much, it can be difficult to rehydrate the growing medium surrounding the plant’s root system, making it harder for the plant to absorb any water.
How to Water a Mounted Staghorn Fern
Because of the Staghorn’s epiphytic growth, many of these plants end up getting mounted on pieces of board, bark, or other solid substrates and hung on walls. This is a great way to maintain your ferns and turn them into living art that looks great in the home.
However, mounted ferns are not without their challenges, and many people wonder how to properly water these plants on a regular basis.
Start by watering your mounted fern about once a week. Mounted ferns often need to be fully submerged in water, face down, for about 5-10 minutes to allow all their parts (fronds, rhizomes, and roots) to become fully saturated.
Depending on the size of its mount, you may need to fill a large sink, bucket, or even bathtub with water to allow enough room for the plant. Room temperature (or slightly cooler) water is ideal for submerging your fern. Collected rainwater is even better. Never use water that is too warm or cold to avoid burning or shocking your plant.
Alternatively, if you don’t have the space to soak, you can hang your mounted plant under a showerhead, allowing water to spray over the plant until fully saturated.
Whether submerged or sprayed, remove the plant from the water and allow the entire thing to drip dry before returning the mount to its spot in your home.
How to Water a Potted Staghorn Fern
Potted Staghorn Ferns can be watered differently than mounted plants. Typically, potted ferns have much more growing medium surrounding their roots, so making sure that soil gets fully saturated and drained is very important to give the plant access to the proper amount of water.
Overhead watering is a common practice and works well, as long as you make sure all of the soil in the pot is getting saturated with water. Sometimes, potted ferns can produce shield fronds that make overhead watering difficult, so bottom-up watering, where the pot is placed in a tray of water, which the soil absorbs through the drainage hole, can be a helpful technique.
Because these plants can also absorb water through their fronds, when I water my potted fern, I place it in the sink and wet all the fronds with the faucet sprayer in addition to watering the soil. Just let it drip dry before moving it back to its proper spot.
You can even fully submerge your potted Staghorn in water for a few minutes, similar to how you would water a mounted plant. I tend not to use this technique, however, mainly because overhead watering works well for me, and I don’t want to dislodge the growing medium in the pot too much.
Regardless of how you saturate the soil, the most important thing is that your plant has excellent drainage to carry away excess moisture. This is one of the most crucial factors in protecting your fern from rot.
Pot your plant in a growing medium that is light and airy, like cactus mix amended with extra pumice or even sphagnum moss. And, be sure there is a drainage hole in the bottom of the container your fern lives in!
Again, you’ll want to start watering once a week and adjust, as needed. The nice thing about potted Staghorn Ferns is that you can always check the top inch or two of topsoil to gauge how dry the plant is and confirm that it’s time to water again.
The Impact of Humidity and the Importance of Misting
Humidity plays an important role in the health and well-being of Staghorn Ferns. Of course, these plants come from areas that are warmer and wetter than most indoor environments and have adapted to thrive in that added moisture.
However, humidity also acts as a buffer for the plant, often protecting it from becoming too dry too quickly. Because they are epiphytic, Staghorns can grow in very small amounts of organic matter. This is a great adaptation, but it does come with some tradeoffs.
The small amount of growing medium the plant relies on can be subjected to extreme conditions and dry out quickly, causing a drought-like situation for the root system. But, because Staghorns can absorb water through their fronds, humid conditions can often provide the moisture a plant needs to survive and thrive during breaks in rainfall.
For Staghorn houseplants, a higher humidity level is the condition that best maintains these plants between watering sessions. By absorbing moisture through their fronds, Staghorns can better regulate their water levels for longer, meaning they require water less frequently and are better protected against extreme conditions that can cause them damage.
Indoor settings tend to be drier than what Staghorn Ferns prefer, but there are a few ways to increase the humidity levels in your home.
If you have the space for it, a room humidifier is a great way to provide additional moisture and maintain a certain humidity level in the long term. If that is out of the question, displaying your fern in a more humid area of your home, like the laundry room or bathroom, is another option.
Rather than worrying about the humidity levels in my home too much, I prefer to mist my fern several times a week as a way to provide my plant with additional moisture in between watering sessions.
All you need is a quality mister or spray bottle filled with room-temperature water. Spray both the basal fronds and foliar fronds so they are coated with a fine mist of water drops. Be sure to hit the underside of the fronds, as well.
A light misting three times a week will go a long way in keeping your fern properly hydrated and protected against dry indoor conditions.
Avoid Overwatering Your Staghorn Fern
No article on proper plant watering is complete without a quick discussion about overwatering, and Staghorn ferns are no different.
Like many other houseplants, nothing will kill your fern faster than overwatering. Too much water can totally disrupt the very important processes your plant carries out to survive and will often create conditions where rot can take hold and spread quickly.
A milder sign of overwatering is for your fern to droop. This can be confusing, since it will exhibit the same behavior when it is thirsty, but in the case of overwatering, the fronds will still feel plump and full rather than dry and wilted.
If you start seeing discoloration on any of your fern’s fronds, especially yellow or brown, you are most likely overwatering. Yellow discoloration starting from the base of the plant and working out towards the frond tips indicates that your plant’s root system is waterlogged and unable to properly absorb nutrients. Brown or black spots of any kind, whether they be spots, splotches, or entire fronds, usually means your plant has rot.
In any of these instances, you need to stop watering your plant and allow it to dry out. In mild cases, your plant will bounce back pretty fast, but if you have rot issues, you may need to remove the plant from its pot or mount and cut away any rotten roots and fronds before replanting.
Overwatering can be devastating to your Staghorn Fern, so be sure to stay tuned in to the conditions your fern is exposed to and adjust your watering schedule accordingly. Also, remember that you can increase the number of days between watering sessions and use misting as a way to help your fern stay hydrated in the meantime.
Final Thoughts
Staghorn Ferns may seem intimidating to care for at times but are generally pretty easy once you’ve determined their watering needs.
Although you can use a watering schedule initially, make sure you adjust it based on how your ferns respond to the specific conditions and climate in both your area and your home, paying extra attention to the signs your plant is giving you when it needs more moisture. Also, don’t be afraid to mist your plant in between watering sessions!
As long as you avoid watering extremes, your Staghorn will continue to grow and flourish for you!