Indoors Boston Fern, what am I doing wrong, please?

[MrsBertMacklin]

Probably not the best plan for a novice, but I bought a Boston Fern a couple of months ago.

It's very droopy and hos a lot of brown leaves/fronds.

It's situated near to a south west facing window, so it gets direct light at about 2-4pm and dappled light throughout the day (it's in a triple aspect room). I was watering it as soon as it started to feel less-than-moist, but the leaves started turning yellow, so I've started watering less (about every ten days).

Do I need to water more or less and do I need to change its' location? The only alternative is in my bathroom window sill, which is north facing, but the sill isn't quite large enough to accommodate it.

I was misting it every other day as well and had a pebble tray under it, but this only seemed to help turn its' leaves yellow - since I've removed this and cut down on watering, leaves are just brown instead of yellow.

Boston ferns are tough to maintain beautifully. It will always have dried leaves under the green ones. Aways. I saw one above an indoor pond and it still made a mess. Keeping a high enough humidity is nearly impossible in a home (you don't wan it either:mold risks).
You will need to to clean up the plant regularly, it will always make dried brown leaves under the healthy ones.

Regarding the light, if you turn the plant regularly to have it looking nice all around. I think you have a good location.

Watering once every ten days is def. not enough. Because the plant is full of superficial roots I find is easier to lift slightly the plant. Water it toroughly so that the plant becomes heavy. When it becomes lighter, its time to give it more water. Avoid to let it become too light. You only want the earth to dry slightly. So I think you had it right at first.

You did not choose the easiest of plants, but besides the dead leaves, its not to hard to keep it alive. As a general rule plants with very thin leaves like the boston fern have this tendency of drying out.

Here a two easy ferns: Platycerium and Asplenium nidus

Thank you so much Qwebec, I'll try your watering method and pencil in some more haircuts for it.