Braided Money Plant Water Options?

Hi everyone,

I recently got a braided money plant, its about 35 inches tall, its nice and very healthy. My question is, are there any watering options i should consider? The lady who sold me the money tree told me to not pour the water on top of the soil but instead to immerse the plant in a bucket about 4-5inches deep. So if anyone can advice me it would help out a ton!

Thanks! :D

From the perspective of plant health, watering thoroughly from the top is best, because it flushes the soil of accumulating solubles (like salts and the dissolved solids in your tap water) most thoroughly. A few plants that are highly susceptible to crown rot need to be watered a little more carefully so you do not wet the crown or splash soil on the crown or lower foliage when you water.

From other things I've written:

In a workshop conducted by bonsai master Ben Oki, one of the other participants asked, "How often should I water this juniper, Mr. Oki"?
His reply, in broken English: "Wait until plant become completely dry - then water day before."

I never did figure out if he was serious or not, but the advice was sage. His eyes were twinkling, but he had a straight face, so go figure.

* Watering technique is very under-rated in container culture and can easily make the difference between success and failure. To illustrate: When an apprentice goes to Japan to study under a bonsai master, he will often spend 6 months or more doing nothing but learning how to water before he is entrusted with any work on the master's plants.

Ask a greenhouse plantsman what he feels is the most important job in the successful rearing of a crop, and his answer will be "proper watering".

* A generalization - the more often your planting needs water, the healthier the roots will be, as long as you don't forget to water. The need to irrigate frequently indicates good aeration and drainage, which insures that air is returning to the soil before anaerobic conditions cause the death of fine rootage. Watering also forces old, CO2-rich air from the soil and pulls O2 rich air in behind it.

* Don't water on a schedule. Water when the rootzone is first dry to the touch. This can mean watering new plantings (shallow roots) when the lower parts of the container are still wet, but for established plantings, water when the soil at the drain hole feels dry - or use the sharpened dowel trick. Your sense of touch registers 'dry soil' when soils are still about 40% saturated. Plants, however, can still extract water from conifer bark and peat down to about 30% saturation - after that, water is held too tightly for plants to access.

* Your soil should allow you to water at every watering so that water drains freely from the drain hole. The best way to water a container is: Wet the soil until you 'feel' the container is about to start draining from the bottom and stop. Wait 10 minutes and add additional water until about 10-15% of the total volume of water applied in both applications exits the drain hole. The first water allows dissolved solids to dissolve into solution, and the second watering flushes them from the soil.

* If you cannot water as described above w/o risking root rot, your soil is inappropriate. You may be able to correct by adding a wick through the drain hole of the container to remove excess water in the PWT until the planting is mature enough to do it on its own.

Al

Thank you for the information!