Moira wrote:
And in the "Indoor Plants" session of the Master Gardener class I took last
year the instructors, County Horticulturist and the owner of one of our
better nurseries, stated stomes or pot shards in the bottom for drainage was
a myth. They suggested , and I have used for years, newspaper or coffee
filters just for the initial period of time until the potting soil was moist
enough to hold its own, although if I get the soil moist enough that usually
isn't much of a problem unless the pot has such large drainage holes (some
do) that the soil would fall out anyway.
Kimm
Laurie Mandigo-Stoba wrote:
Laurie
Your "success" in killing such variety of plants leads me to question
the
potting medium you use. I suspect maybe it is a synthetic mix which is
without much intrinsic nourishment and that you then fail to give it the
regular feeding which would enable it to perform adequately. They are
mostly fussy things which to my mind take a boring amount of managing.
I long ago abandoned such mixes in favour of a strictly organic one I
make at home from a recipe I modified slightly from one quoted in
Organic Gardening several years ago, which was devised by an organic lab
in New York. In case you might like to try this I give the recipe below.
The essential basis is good finished compost. I use my home-made one
derived from a huge variety of plant materials plus small quantities of
fowl manure and some coffee residues to top up the nitrogen, but one
could also no doubt use a purchased one if one could get some assurance
that it was of good
quality. The texture should be just like a fine black earth, moist but
not wet, so that it easily crumbles in the hand. if you have the means
you can sift it to get odd bits of unrotted twig and bits of plastic and
other debris out, but since my big sieve broke some years ago I have not
myself bothered, simply picking out any bits I happen to see as I
prepare the mix. One advantage of this approach is that one is unlikely
to damage any worms that come along for the ride, but they can be picked
out
carefully, (in fact if making the mix for large containers I don't worry
if the odd one stays in.)
I do my mixing on a large strong sheet of plastic, piling all the
ingredients in the centre and doing most of the mixing by getting hold
of the edges of the plastic and rolling the pile around. When the
mixing is completed one has to rememeber it is a live material and must
be protected from drying out to retain its full biological activity, so
I store it in a plastic container with a lid. A garbage can would work
well for this.
I find about the largest amount I can conveniently mix at once with
this method is based on two 2 gallon buckets of compost, but of course
you could modify the amount to suit yourself, as long as you retain the
same proportions.
The formula is as follows:-
2 buckets of compost
1/2 bucket coarse sharp sand (I can purchase a grade called "propagating
sand"from my garden centre)
1/2 bucket coarse pumice. (I doubt this would be available to you, but
vermiculite (which is rare here)would I think make an
excellent substitute. The aim is to combine an "opening" effect on
the mix texture with a water-holding function)
1/2 cup of a mixture of ground minerals. The one I use provides
calcuium, phosporus and potassium in a sparingly soluble
slow-release form so the organisms will only draw on them if they
run short. The basic mix does not normally need any additional
nitrogen as there is plenty in thecompost.
1/4 cup of kelp meal. This ensures a good supply of the trace minerals.
When it comes to using this, I find it drains very well, but at the same
time retains plenty of moisture in the contained humus. The straight mix
does for most growing in large and small pots alike,but for some of the
largest containers I like to add about 1/3 teh volume of good garden
soil stolen from my veg patch, to give a bit more substance to hold
large roots. As to protecting the soil, for small indoor pots I rarely
bother, but large containers out of doors I do mulch with broken-down
peastraw, fine well-rotted ramiel wood, pine needles or anthing else
which comes to hand. At the moment I am experimenting with using coffee
grounds (which look all right so far).
As to crocking pots, I long ago abandoned this idea as being a waste of
volume which could be better used for good growing soil. The only place
I would put a few stones is in the largest 2 gall+ plastic pots which
are going to stand outside, as otherwise due to lightness they are too
likely to be tipped over by wind. In fact I no longer have many of
these, but have gone to pottery of varous sorts, which is valuable in my
circumstances for its extra weight (and I thnk usually better looks).
Folk are probably wondering how I keep the soil from trickling out the
holes, or bunging them up, in the larger containers and this was
indeeed a problem which took some solving, but I finally came up with
the idea of putting a screen over the holes for which I use a piece of
coarse weave plastic shade cloth. This lets the water out nicely and
keeps most of the soil in place very effectively.
For small pots less than a gallon in capacity which usually have quite
small holes anyway, I don't put anything in the bottom and I have never
had them fail to drain successfully.
And finally a word on after care. With the added minerals and trace
elements I don't normally expect to do any supplementary feeding. As to
repotting, I make a point of examing the roots of any plant which no
longer looks its best in case it is running out of space. For small
containers I find this is necessary about once a year, but large pots
may last a lot longer than this if one tops up yearly. This topup is
very similar to what I do in the open gzrden - after taking off the
mulch I put a layer of straight compost about an inch thick on top of
the pot soil and recover it.
I think i have coverd everything you migh need to know, but if you are
interested i will be happy to answer any questions which may occur to
you.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata - at the Southern tip of North Island, NZ,
Lat 41??15'S, Long 174??58'E (Antipodes of Spain/Southern France)
I agree with Moira that it may be the soil. I read in an old magazine about
people growing tomatoes in greenhouses in something called "grow bags", just
plastic bags of soil. You make slits in the bags and insert the tomatoes and
water. I asked about it at the greenhouse supply store and the clerk said he
grew tomatoes in his greenhouse in bags and sold me three of them. The
tomatoes and cucumber did terribly. When I looked at the ingredients in the
bag, there were no nutrients. It was the same mix Jiffy sells for seed
starting! I have increased the slits and pushed in some compost. The plants
don't look sickly and yellow anymore, but it's too late to move them to
other containers as they are too big so I guess I'll do a lot of fertilizing
this year. Anyway if I ever need seed starter, I know where to get it much
cheaper than buying it in those little bags.
Were these plants hardened off? We have very hot sun and extreme winds both
of which will kill plants if they are not used to it. I especially see it at
places like Walmart where the plants they are selling probably come directly
from inside a greenhouse and aren't used to the wind. Good luck!
Cate in mid-Missouri in the US
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