Beginner Gardening: Let's get the dirt on soil.... What do you prefer?, 0 by tapla

tapla wrote:
Sounds like you're right on track, Tracy. ;o)

Something good to remember is that 'rich and black' in container culture most often does not equate to the same thing it does in the garden as it applies to soils. Well-composted, rich, black soil materials are often comprised of very small particles and by default are then very water-retentive. This is not usually a good thing in container growing. The ideal state of water retention in most cases finds your soil at about the same water retention as a wrung out sponge. In this state, aeration is maximized and the plant still has plenty of water.

Most out of the bag soils are very water retentive, which means they don't hold enough air in the soil, even when new, to give your plants the opportunity to realize their genetic potential. Soils that support a soggy layer of water at the bottom of the container are a problem. If you water properly so that you flush the soil each time you water, you have to deal with that saturated layer of soil at the bottom of the container. Roots, when deprived of 02, begin to die within hours. This means that even if your plant exhibits no visible signs of of trouble, roots are still going through a cyclic death and regeneration (hopefully - when enough air returns to the soil to allow normal growth), which is a drain on energy. The energy the plant uses to grow the new roots killed by a soggy soil would have gone into creating more mass; that is to say more foliage or blooms.

Soils are the very foundation of every planting. If makes little sense to but a $10 plant in a 25 cent soil. ;o) If you start with a poor soil, it's not going to get better. As soils collapse structurally (as particles break down) they hold less & less air. When using these water retentive soils, you need to make a decision every time you water. "Do I water properly, so I'm flushing the accumulating salts from the soil and risk root rot, or do I water by giving the plant just a little sip, so there is no worry about root rot, and ignore the accumulating salts in the soil that, uncorrected, will surely kill the plant eventually (or at least severely restrict it's potential to grow well)."

If growers ask themselves one simple question before they pot a plant, they can make their husbandry duties a whole lot easier. "Will this soil provide the structural stability to guarantee ample aeration until the next repot?" Every other cultural condition can be changed after you establish the planting - light levels, temperature ....... The soil is more difficult,m and specifically how well aerated the soil is, is much more difficult to change.

I have none of the troubles with diseases, insects, burned leaf tips/margins ..... that these forum pages are filled with, and I attribute that to my choice of soils. Plants growing with high vitality are producing the bio-compounds (that are a product of metabolism) that increase the plant's resistance to these problems. Well-aerated soils also practically eliminate the problems of over-watering and salt accumulation.

Al

A little feller in 100% Turface fines: