Если почва слишком сухая, орхидея начинает вянуть.

In Russian, a clause introduced by если (if) is normally separated by a comma from the main clause.

So:

Если почва слишком сухая, орхидея начинает вянуть.

literally has the structure:

If the soil is too dry, the orchid begins to wilt.

The comma is required here, even though in English punctuation may feel less strict to learners.

Because сухая is an adjective agreeing with почва.

• почва = soil
• сухая = dry

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, почва is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective also has to be feminine singular nominative:

• masculine: сухой
• feminine: сухая
• neuter: сухое
• plural: сухие

That is why you get сухая почва.

Почва is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the first clause.

In Если почва слишком сухая, the basic idea is the soil is too dry.

Here:

• почва = the subject
• сухая = the predicate adjective describing it

So nominative is the normal form.

Слишком means too, overly, or excessively.

So:

• слишком сухая = too dry
• очень сухая = very dry

This is an important difference:

• очень just intensifies
• слишком implies more than is good or acceptable

In this sentence, слишком is used because the dryness causes a problem.

Because орхидея is the subject of the main clause:

орхидея начинает вянуть

= the orchid begins to wilt

Here:

• орхидея = subject
• начинает = verb
• вянуть = infinitive

So орхидея stays in the nominative case.

Russian has no articles, so there is no direct equivalent of a / an / the.

That means:

• почва can mean soil, the soil, or sometimes a soil depending on context
• орхидея can mean an orchid or the orchid

The exact meaning is understood from context, not from an article.

So Russian says:

Если почва слишком сухая, орхидея начинает вянуть.

without needing separate words for the soil or the orchid.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

начинать / начать + infinitive

It means to begin/start doing something.

So:

• начинает = begins
• вянуть = to wilt

Together:

начинает вянуть = begins to wilt

Russian often expresses this idea with a finite verb plus an infinitive, just like English.

Вянуть is imperfective because it describes a process rather than a completed result.

Here the sentence is about the orchid starting to go into a state of wilting, not about becoming fully wilted.

That makes imperfective natural after начинает:

• начинает вянуть = begins to wilt

A perfective verb would usually point to a completed change, which does not fit as well with begins.

Usually, вянуть is better here.

The difference is roughly:

• вянуть = to wilt, to be wilting; process
• завянуть = to wilt completely, to wither; result/completion

Because the sentence says the orchid begins to wilt, Russian normally prefers the process verb:

• орхидея начинает вянуть

Using начинает завядать could also work in some contexts, because завядать is the imperfective partner connected with завянуть, but вянуть is simple and natural here.

Russian often uses the present tense for general truths, repeated situations, and real conditional statements.

So this sentence means something like:

Whenever / if the soil is too dry, the orchid starts to wilt.

This is not about one specific past or future event. It is a general fact about what happens under that condition.

That is why Russian uses:

• если ... сухая
• орхидея начинает вянуть

both in the present.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English, though not completely free.

You can also say:

Орхидея начинает вянуть, если почва слишком сухая.

This means the same thing: The orchid begins to wilt if the soil is too dry.

The difference is mostly in focus:

• Если почва слишком сухая, ... puts the condition first
• Орхидея начинает вянуть, если ... starts with the main idea

Both are natural.

Yes, если usually means if.

It introduces a condition:

• Если почва слишком сухая...
• If the soil is too dry...

It can also appear in more abstract conditional sentences, but in a basic sentence like this it is the standard word for if.

Sometimes learners confuse it with когда (when). In this sentence, если is better because the sentence expresses a condition rather than simply a time.

Почва is a good choice because it specifically means soil in a more plant/gardening sense.

Compare:

• почва = soil, especially as a growing medium or in a scientific/gardening sense
• земля = earth, ground, land, soil

In everyday speech, people do sometimes use земля when talking about plants in pots, but почва sounds more precise in a sentence like this.

So the sentence is natural as written.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

Yésli póchva slíshkam sookháya, orkhidéya nachináyet vyanutʹ.

A few helpful notes:

• если sounds roughly like YES-lee
• почва = POCH-va
• слишком = SLEESH-kam
• сухая = soo-KHA-ya
• орхидея = or-khi-DYE-ya
• начинает = na-chi-NA-yet
• вянуть is harder, roughly VYA-nootʹ, but with a softer vya

The stress matters a lot in Russian, especially in words like:

• слишком
• сухая
• орхидея
• начинает

Yes, in practice it can be understood that way in many contexts.

Although если most directly means if, English sometimes uses when for repeated or predictable situations. Since this sentence describes a typical result, the sense can overlap:

• If the soil is too dry, the orchid begins to wilt
• When the soil is too dry, the orchid begins to wilt

However, the Russian word used here is still если, so the core grammatical meaning is if. If you wanted a clearer when, Russian would more naturally use когда.