Thank you for all your replies and advice. I will see if i can dump my soil mix near a school where i live, i think nature will sort it out and neutralize any ph balance and wash away any salt contents from the soil.
At my school, i have been chosen to be lead our landscaping group. I hope to take some pictures and post them in another post. I am really watching my water filling. My friend told me that when you see the leaves wilt a bit that's the time to water them. Not all plants are aquatic like water lily and need time to breath.
In my area, we cannot buy perlite or vermiculite in big bags like other countries. we are left to buy them in small bags around 500g. | growmate trio | I think i'm going to switch to perlite suggested my many of you. In the first potting mix i thought they put little pebbles in it, but after i noticed that it was perlite.
Actually, my friend told me that some gardeners burn the rice husk for amending their soil. I thought this might make the soil ph alkaline. The burnt wood looked like something you would get out of a fireplace. very brittle and dark. I don't think i'll be putting a mirror, i would be afraid of it dropping and causing harm. A very good suggestion though. Very Indiana Jones :)
I will try pay more attention to the type of plant and what it requires, as in light, water, nutrition.
So minerals and nutrients are the same thing? i was under the assumption that plants need rocks to get their minerals, that's why i put the red rocks in there. Since perlite is a rock, i think that will do.
We don't have tree bark here as most of the trees are palm trees
I think the problem is a combination of many things. My lack of understanding, poor drainage, poor aeration in the soil, over complicating the mix, over watering, transplant shock, looking at the roots and then putting it down and repeating, over doing the fertilizer, too much nitrogen, ph levels are not right, and lack of sunlight. We can't put it down to one thing but many things in combination to give us a fast dying plant. As many commented that 48 hours is too fast for any plant to die, but i believe that in combination of other problems it can happen.
Thank you everyone for making me understand gardening more. It's a fine balancing act. I can take my experience and teach it to my students so they can learn not to do what i did.
