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Main topics in this issue:
Newsletter resolutions stem from our wishes and yours
Feathered friends rely on us: Let them down slowly. Pp. 4-5
Watering pots: Better none than too much (Excerpt below)
Toast the compost... quietly
Holiday branch is lifted in a how-to: Watch an oak recreate
ancient Yule tradition, pp. 9-12 (Quick-look
below)
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Allen Lacy
Amaryllis
Arthur Cleveland Case
Ben Franklin
birds in winter
Christmas branch replaces tree
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fungus gnats
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lost newsletter issues
Louis Beebe Wilder
newsletter index
oak branch ancient Yule tradition
Oliver Herford
overwatering
photosynthesis
Poor Richard's Almanack
potbound
root rot in potted plants
Scarlet tanager
Sedum "Angelina"
vacation watering
watering potted plants
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Keys to watering indoor
plants
Going away for a while?
Time to teach plant watering 101 to your
stand-in.
Start by impressing its importance: Watering is the most
important task in gardening. Often in commercial operations, it's
trusted only to the most experienced staff.*
*This is news to most people. We've often hear people say, "She
wants a job and might like plants so we told her to go apply at
that greenhouse. They probably need entry level people to do things
like water."
Five watering notes
We're going away, and will teach a young friend 5 things:
- When a potted plant needs water, aim to moisten its
entire root zone and quickly remove any excess.
- Test the pot for water need. Heft the
pot regularly. Water when it becomes a lightweight. Or stick a
finger an inch down into the potting soil. Soil feels cool if it's
moist, warm if it's dry. Water only when the plant has used all the
water it was last given.*
*There are exceptions. Some plants like to be constantly
moist, others prefer to dry all the way down between waterings.
However, for a few weeks or a month they can all get by with this
average treatment.
- Then, add water until it begins to run out the drain
holes. Wait 15 to 20 minutes for that excess to be
reabsorbed. Pour off any that remains or if it was all reabsorbed,
add a bit more to see if it runs out. (Sometimes the first of the
water slips through the gap between pot and soil in a very dry
plant. Once the soil is a bit moist it usually will absorb more.)
Keep track of how much water you used, and plan to add that much
water whenever that plant runs dry.
- Get used to the idea that some plants may go weeks
between watering in winter. Water use is directly related
to how many leaves there are to draw it up and how much light
reaches each of those leaves. More light means more photosynthesis,
more water taken up, and the reserves in the soil running dry more
quickly.
- Every time a plant needs water, it should need the same amount.
(Above, right: The jade's pot uses a half pitcher, the young
rosemary, a pop bottle's worth.) So we'll measure out
water for each pot "in case" but teach our young friend to
feel the soil. We'll say, "Don't be afraid of letting the plant go
without if the soil feels even a bit cool."
Too little? Too much?
Better not water at all...
To be tentative and water a potted plant only a little causes
problems. Almost all of the primary water-gathering root tips are
at the bottom of a pot. Wetting only the top means the important
roots get nothing while pests such as fungus gnats will thrive in
moisture at the surface.
To overwater is very common and probably worse. Water sits in
the catch pot making the lowest layer of root tips go without air.
(Pot sans drain holes? Even worse because you can't see and pour
off the excess.) Those root tips die and become susceptible to rot.
That rot often becomes chronic throughout the root system.
If you'll only be gone a week or two...
...it may be better to let plants go without watering. Gather
plants in one place, in bright light away from windows. A dry
bathtub with shower curtain pulled across the opening is often a
good spot. There, out of direct sun, the plants' water needs will
be lower and they will benefit from community humidity.
Amaryllis: Perhaps better if it's dry in a room out of
direct light for a couple of weeks rather than being overwatered by
an inexperienced helper.
Flowers are words which even a babe may understand.
- Arthur Cleveland Case -
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Reviving ancient
tradition: Oak branch resumes its place as the Yule log
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