Darryl

Could you please show me where the plant lives in relation to the window? Also, please tell me your thought process on watering. Exactly how do you water?

Please let me know. I’ll do my best to help!

Darryl

Plants need light to make their own food through photosynthesis – just as you need to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The moment this plant came to live with you in your windowless office, its photosynthesis productivity dropped down to 5-10%. It is starving.

I’m going to assume you want two things:

• You want this plant to live in your office

• You want this plant to live as long as possible

Here’s what I suggest you do: water the plant thoroughly and evenly (does the pot have drainage holes?) – you want the soil to be evenly moistened but excess water needs to drain away. Do this on a Friday afternoon. Before you leave for the weekend, put your plant somewhere else in your office that has the widest possible view of the sky but not more than 2-3 hour of direct sun. Let your plant do some work on the weekend.

Most plants have leaf turnover, which means the older leaves will eventually fall off as new ones grow. You can just cut off the oldest ones or wait until they fall off naturally. If you evenly soak the soil and provide at least the weekend of being able to see the open sky, then your Peperomia should last several months – and do expect to cut off the older leaves regularly. Plants are not statues, Nature includes both growth and decay.

If you want a plant that has less noticeable leaf turnover even in very poor lighting, I’d suggest a snake plant or zz plant.

Side note: I’m only suggesting this method of caring for the plant because I’m assuming this person wants to keep the plant at their desk. Ideally, all plants want the widest possible view of the sky (furthermore, some plants also need a certain number of hours of direct sun exposure).