Why is My House Plant Oozing Liquid? [5 Best Reasons]

If you’ve noticed that your house plant is oozing liquid, you’re not alone. This is a common issue with plants, and there are several things you can do to address it. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at what causes plants to ooze liquid, and we’ll provide some tips for fixing the problem. We hope this information helps you keep your plants looking healthy and vibrant!

Are you tired of your monotonous everyday routine of waking up for work or school and coming back home to sleep in your dull and gloomy bedroom?

Or are you sick of struggling with the constant pressure, stress, and anxiety of performing well at your work or studies?

Here is a simple and easy tip for you to help you brighten your days; invest in a potted house plant! Yes, adding a bit of greenery to your home can do wonders for your mood and overall mental health.

Not only do the small, visually appealing, and refreshing planters give your living or office space an instant and budget-friendly makeover, but they help motivate you in many ways.

According to a recent 2022 research study, caring for a potted house plant helps reduce stress levels, relieves anxiety, and reduces employee absenteeism.

Hence, if you need to enhance the outlook of your house so you have a cozier and more welcoming setting to come home to, and if you want to benefit from calming and re-energizing at-home therapy, you need to get yourself some potted house plants now.

However, while these plants can help uplift your life in many ways, caring for them is no easy task. As a matter of fact, these potted house plants have also been called the new pets of our time.

These house plants have unique needs and watering requirements and are highly sensitive to external and internal conditions.

If you fail to understand what your indoor planter wants from you, you may have to prepare yourself for a quick and devastating premature plant death.

Hence, you must understand the signs and symptoms of a distressed house plant to save it on time.

One common complaint many new indoor plant parents have is that their plants ‘cry’ and ‘sweat’ a lot. At times, the plant ‘tears’ are watery, and at times, they are very sticky.

If these signs are ignored, the house plant may eventually lose the ability to perform its vital everyday functions and might die.

Hence, if you wish to care for your house plants so that they can help you maintain a positive and calm attitude, you need to understand why your house plant is oozing a liquid.

Continue reading to learn the different types of liquids a potted house plant can ooze, why and when they begin oozing, and what happens if nothing is done to help the house plant.

Let’s get started!

What is the Liquid My Potted House Plant is Oozing?

If you are seeing a few tiny droplets of water on the surface of your potted house plant’s leaves for the first time, you need not worry, as this is normal for all plants.

However, if you frequently notice excessive amounts of water droplets on the leaves of your indoor plants, even during the day, you need to start analyzing where you went wrong with your house plant care.

Moreover, if the liquid sitting on the top of the potted house plant’s leaves or the surface of the stem is off-whitish and sticky, you need to be more alarmed.

Let us go through all the situations individually for a better understanding of each one and then how to tackle them.

Few Water Droplets on the Surface of a House Plant’s Leaves in the Morning

All green plants need to create their food by carrying out photosynthesis. This process needs water molecules and uses sunlight as a catalyst to produce sucrose, which is a form of sugar.

Without sucrose, the plant cannot carry out its daily activities and will eventually wilt and die. Hence, the correct amount of watering is vital for the plant’s long-term survival.

Most potted house plants have roots that grow into the soil. When you water the soil, the roots cannot simply start absorbing the water on their own.

Instead, they need a suction force to pull the water out of the soil and into their cells. The same suction force is also needed to pull the absorbed water molecules up the plant’s stem and the leaves.

Hence, without a suction force, the house plant will not get any water and thus cannot make any plant food. However, how is this suction force created?

When the tiny holes of the leaf allow some water molecules to move out of the cells, a vacuum is created inside the leaf tissue. This process is called transpiration.

This vacuum, in turn, creates the suction force, allowing more water molecules to be pulled up the plant to the leaves like a straw.

Hence, the tiny droplets of water you see on the surface of the leaves are entirely normal and a part of the process that a plant needs to carry out to stay alive.

Excessive Amounts of Water Droplets on the Surface of a House Plant’s Leaves All Throughout the Day

Usually, the dew you see on the surface of your potted house plant’s leaves should only be seen during the day.

However, if you spot excessive amounts of water droplets on the leaf’s surface all throughout the day, you have a problem as this plant behavior is not normal.

If you do not analyze your mistake and address it immediately, the potted house plant may dehydrate itself and eventually die.

Off-White and Sticky Liquids on the Surface of a House Plant’s Leaves and Stem

If the surface of your potted house plant’s leaves or stem has an off-white dew that is sticky to touch, then the oozed-out liquid is no longer just water.

Instead, you are touching plant sap, which is made up of sucrose sugar, water, and other plant nutrients.

A healthy potted house plant should ideally never have its sap leaking out as the plant needs it to remain upright and alive. Hence, if you can notice leaking plant sap, you have certainly messed up the plant care routine.

Read How to Get Rid of Springtails in Houseplants

Why is My Potted House Plant Oozing a Liquid?

As explained above, it is normal for the leaves of your potted house plants to ooze out some water droplets during the morning to suck up fresh water from the pot’s soil.

However, if the potted house plants begin to ooze out too much water or leak plant sap, you need to understand why this is happening.

Some possible reasons behind the abnormal oozing of liquid from the potted house plant’s surface are as follows:

1. You Are Overwatering Your Potted House Plant

People who have experienced the death of a potted house plant due to underwatering usually try to correct their previous mistakes by overwatering the house plant.

While this strategy may work for some potted house plants, generalizing the exact watering needs to all indoor plant species will be a big mistake that will lead to another devastating house plant death.

When you overwater a potted house plant, the excessively saturated leaf cells automatically begin to transpire out the water molecules faster than usual.

As a matter of fact, the high amount of water molecules gets pushed out of the cells to release some tension.

The potted house plant reacts to overwatering by doing this to prevent the excess water from accumulating inside the plant’s pot.

As a result, you can notice several water droplets on the house plant’s leaves and flowers throughout the day, especially after you overwater the soil.

However, the plant cannot remove all the excess water from the pot. Instead, if you continue to overwater the plant, fungus may grow inside the pot’s soil, causing the plant’s roots to decay and rot.

Eventually, the potted house plant will no longer be able to pull up any water, thus losing its ability to stay upright or make any plant food.

2. Your Potted House Plant is Getting Excessive Amounts of Sunlight

Transpiration of water molecules from the potted plant’s leaves does not only happen to suck up water from the soil.

Instead, the process is also carried out when the plant needs to regulate its internal temperature. Just as humans sweat to cool down their bodies, plants also transpire to bring their internal temperature down.

For instance, if you keep a potted house plant on the windowsill to get some sunlight, the sun’s heat may increase the plant’s internal temperature.

As a result, the plant will try to bring the internal temperature to its average level by transpiring water. When the transpired water evaporates off the leaf’s surface, it will create a cooling effect, allowing the internal temperature to drop.

Hence, when this happens, you may begin to notice your plant oozing water during the way time. As long as this water is minimal, there’s no need to worry.

3. The Regional Weather Conditions Are Too Hot for Your Potted House Plant Species

Not all potted house plant species can be grown in all weather conditions. Instead, all indoor plant species have the ideal weather conditions that help them grow and stay alive.

If you live in a town or a city where the weather is hot, introducing potted house plant species that need cooler surroundings to stay alive will be a bad idea.

The hot weather will increase the plant’s internal temperature, forcing it to release more and more water molecules from its leaves.

This means the plant will require more frequent watering, and if that’s not done in the right amounts, the plant will overheat and die.

4. The Air in Your Living Space is Excessively Dry

If the air inside your house is extremely dry and lacks any moisture, you will also spot water droplets on the surface of your potted house plant’s leaves.

The dry external conditions and the relatively wet internal conditions of the plant result in the formation of a concentration gradient.

Hence, water begins to move from the area of higher water concentration to that of lower water concentration.

As a result, water molecules begin oozing out of the plant’s leaves and evaporating into the air.

5. Your Potted House Plant is Going through a Pest Infestation

If your potted house plants have a white, clear, or sticky liquid oozing out of their leaves or stem, then your plant is dealing with a pest infestation.

This happens when the potted house plant is infested with scale insects. These insects stick onto the surface of the plant’s leaves and stem and begin sucking out the plant’s sap.

As the pest moves to another location to suck out more sap, the sap continues to ooze from the previous bite. This allows some of the plant sap to leak out of the plant and settle on its surface.

If this continues, the plant will not have enough sap to perform its functions.

Read How to Use Neem Oil on Houseplants?

Final Thoughts

You are not alone if you struggle to keep your potted house plants alive. However, do not worry, as we are here to guide you every step of the way.

Caring for a potted house plant is all about keeping an eye for an abnormal sign or reaction from the plant that indicates sickness or distress.

For instance, if your house plant is oozing a liquid, you need to check when it does that, how much liquid it oozes, and what type of liquid is coming out of it.

As mentioned in this article, all these factors have a big impact on what you should do next to ensure that your plant remains healthy.

This information will help you make a correct analysis of where you went wrong with your plant care and what you can do to correct the mistake.

However, if you choose not to pay any attention to your house plants, the following will happen:

• Excessive transpiration will cause the plant to dehydrate, wilt, and die.
• The excess overwatering may cause fungus to grow, which will decay the plant’s roots. As a result, the plant will not be able to absorb any more water and will hence die.
• The pest infestation will result in a sap shortage in the plant. As a result, the house plant will not have the energy to perform its different functions and will thus die. 

You may like the following houseplant articles:

• Why Are Houseplants So Expensive?
• House Plants for West Facing Window
• How to Get Rid of White Worms in House Plants
• Soil Mites in House Plants
• House Plants That Grow From Cuttings