This is a really good place to ask a question, which I'll eventually get to, and I pray the OP will forgive my straying from the intended topic. If I offend, I'll clear my post. I always like to let people judge whether or not I know what I'm talking about by what I say, but when you try to help people, all you have to sell is your credibility. I started to talk about container gardening, substrates/media in particular, about 2000. People involved in these discussions named the substrates the 5-1-1 mix
https://www.google.com/search?... and the gritty mix. If you click the link, you'll see google, today, offers about 95 million hits for
5-1-1 mix, and if you add my name (al 5-1-1 mix) it drops down to about 64.5 million hits. I don't care at all about notoriety, but I do care about credibility; so, please believe that what could be looked at as a boast, is me asking you to consider giving what I say some credibility, if only because of the number of people I've helped.
I've made some interesting observations along the way about container gardening.
* The most important one is, almost all off-the-shelf potting substrates are water-retentive to the degree more often than not they inhibit plants grown in them from realizing more than half of their potential; this due to suppression of root function. Even diseases and insect herbivory can be traced back to a struggling root system. We simply cannot grow healthy plants until we learn to keep their root systems healthy. As go the roots, so goes the rest of the plant.
* Gaining an understanding of the concept that drives water retention in container substrates is the largest step forward a container gardener can take along the path to a green thumb. I've received, quite literally, thousands of testimonies from people whose growing experience was redefined by that concept. Briefly, it goes: Water sticks to itself (cohesion) and it sticks to pot walls and soil particles (adhesion). If the particles are small enough (a given volume of small particles has more combined surface area than the same volume of coarser particles) the sum of the forces of adhesion + cohesion can be stronger than the force of gravity. When this occurs, water 'perches' (think bird perched on a wire) in the soil at the pot's bottom to form a 100% saturated layer that usually ranges from 3-6" deep in substrates based on large fractions of fine textured material (peat, compost, coir, sand, topsoil, composted forest products, ......).
*The next most important thing I've learned is - perennial plantings (which includes houseplants and trees) need attention beyond water/fertilizer and the occasional up-potting most container gardeners include in their care regimen. Root congestion starts sapping a planting's potential at approximately the time the root/soil mass can be lifted from the plant intact, and it continues to take a toll until someone actually gets their hands into the middle of the root mass to correct congestion and other root issues. I've seen many claims about grandma's Ficus that's 30 years old, never been repotted, and is perfectly healthy, but I've never seen the trees. Potting up ensures the limitations of root congestion remain; where repotting, which includes bare-rooting (or nearly so), root pruning, and a change of soil ensure they are relieved entirely until the point in time where the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact again. Perennials with nonfibrous roots or roots that aren't prone to branching are usually divided regularly.
* Roots are not fragile and sensitive about being disturbed. Plants age ontogenetically instead of chronologically, like animals age. This means a plant's most vigorous tissues are located in the root to shoot transition zone. Think about that tree you remove suckers from (around the base) 3-4 times every summer and still can't keep up.
* If you're using a substrate that holds little to no excess/perched water, it's nearly impossible to over-water, and fertilizing becomes monkey-easy. Not having to fight the substrate for control of your plant's vitality is a conspicuous game changer.
There's much, much more, but I'd better get to the question. Do you think this site and this forum in particular would be open to a tutorial thread about substrates and water retention?
I also have tutorials which can be posted as a thread on many other topics, all of which have been popular and active on other forum sites.
Again - my sincere apology for waylaying the thread.
Al
