Peace lilies: are we propping up bad myths? Droop-watering, “low light,” and rootbound blooms don’t add up

I keep seeing the same advice repeated for peace lilies:

They’re “low light” plants.
Water when they dramatically droop.
Keep them rootbound to encourage blooms.

After years of watching these circulate, I’m convinced most of this is either misunderstood or actively harmful indoors. Here’s why, and I’d love real data from folks willing to poke at the assumptions.

1) “Water when it droops” sounds convenient, but repeated turgor loss isn’t benign.

Recurrent wilting correlates with persistent brown tips, leaf edge necrosis, and shorter leaf lifespan in my side-by-sides.
The plant looks “forgiving” because it perks up, but the cumulative damage shows up weeks later as ragged leaves and reduced vigor.
Hypothesis: repeated hydraulic stress + low-oxygen media = root damage that masquerades as “salt/fluoride burn.”

2) Rootbound-for-blooms feels like survivorship bias.

Commercial peace lilies are often bloom-forced with gibberellins; people bring them home and assume the pot tightness was the trigger.
When I upsized into a very airy, evenly moist mix and increased DLI, blooms returned without letting it get pot-bound again.
If bloom were a rootbound stress response, why do many never rebloom in dim rooms even when roots are circling?

3) Are we blaming “fluoride burn” when the real culprit is alkalinity and pH drift?

Dracaena is well-documented as fluoride-sensitive. Spathiphyllum? The evidence is shakier.
High alkalinity tap water + limed peat mixes push substrate pH up over time, leading to iron/manganese lockout (chlorosis, weak growth, tip necrosis).
People switch to distilled/rain and see improvement, then credit “no fluoride,” when the main fix was reduced alkalinity and lower EC.

4) “Low light” isn’t the same as “adequate light.”

A living room that keeps leaves green isn’t necessarily enough to sustain flowering. Typical indoor DLI is tiny compared to even bright shade outdoors.
The “low light” label seems to excuse dim conditions that lead to no blooms, slow decline, and overwatering problems in dense mixes.

If you’re game, can we crowdsource some actual numbers and experiences to test these?

Water source: municipal well/tap/distilled/rain; alkalinity (KH) if you know it; EC/TDS; pH (even a strip/cheap pen helps).
Potting: mix recipe, pot material, drainage; any added lime; repot cadence.
Light: approximate DLI or at least sustained PPFD/lux at plant height and hours on; window orientation or fixture specs.
Care style: do you wait for a full droop, water by pot weight, or soil feel? Frequency between “hard droops.”
Fertilizer: product, rate, and frequency.
Plant origin: big-box forced bloomer vs division; how long since purchase; bloom frequency since.
Outcomes: tip burn prevalence, leaf lifespan, root health at repot, time to rebloom.

Simple challenges to try for 6-8 weeks:

If you water on droop, switch to weight-based watering, keep the medium evenly moist but airy, and log tip burn/leaf longevity.
If you rely on “rootbound = blooms,” divide/repot into fresh, coarse mix and raise DLI (aim ₈-12 mol/day; e.g., 150-250 µmol/m²/s for 12 h). Report bloom timing.
If you suspect “fluoride burn,” test with low-alkalinity water plus modest fertilizer to EC ₀.8-1.0 mS/cm; track runoff pH trend.

Also, if anyone has links to actual horticultural trials on:

GA3/BA forcing protocols for Spathiphyllum flowering;
documented fluoride sensitivity for peace lily vs general salinity/alkalinity effects;
substrate pH drift under high alkalinity irrigation in peat mixes;

drop them. I’m not interested in repeating easy advice that slowly wrecks plants just because it’s convenient. If the consensus is that peace lilies thrive with steady moisture in high-oxygen media, moderate-to-high indoor light, and controlled alkalinity-and that droop-watering/rootbound myths are artifacts of retail production-we should say so and retire the old scripts. Who’s got data?