A lot of house plants drip water – it’s just…what they do.
No one really knows why they do it, but it’s thought to be something to do with regulating the amount of water in the leaves.
I go into it more in this article all about guttation.
Why your peace lily is dripping water
It has too much water in its leaves so it’s getting rid of it. Plants tend to close their stomata at night, so plants need to find another way to get rid of excess water.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that your plant is overwatered. Some plants weep way more than others – there’s even a marked difference between plants of the same species.
Can you prevent guttation?
No.
I mean, sure, if you didn’t water it enough thn it would eventually stop guttating, but you’ll probably have done it some harm.
Low humidity can reduce guttation but it will make your peace lily sad (though let’s be honest, if it wasn’t mad about the low humidity it would find something else to be mad about).
Should you remove guttation?
I never, ever, remove guttation drips because I cba, BUT there is a school of though that thinks they contribute to the brown tips on peace lily leaves.
I don’t care enough about brown tips to even THINK about removing the drips but go for it if you would like.
Certainly don’t devote time each morning to going round all your plants and carefully remove the drips. Your peace lilies will get ideas above their stations.
Is guttation a sign of overwatering?
Not necessarily.
In fact, probably not.
In fact (reprise) no.
An overwatered plant might guttate more than a well watered one, but the most perfectly watered plant in the world is perfectly capable of guttating a tonne.
My peace lilies aren’t actually big on sweating/dripping/guttating but my Alocasia and Monstera are monsters for it.
Some plants guttate a lot. Others don’t.
They tend to guttate more when it’s humid and less when it’s dry. I also find mine cry more in summer than winter but that could be for many reasons – the humidity, the heat, the fact they’re growing…why knows?
Can you drink guttation?
I perused Google to see what kind of queries people had about guttation and this was more common than perhaps I would have liked.
Anyway, I don’t know. Probably? But also don’t.
