Beginner Gardening: Good Growing Practices - an Overview for Beginners, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
Thanks, guys. You can do things like that with many other plants, too. I often grow Coleus, many herbs, Impatiens, ..... into bonsai shapes in 1-2 growing seasons. It's fun. Which leads me to say that there really is no reason you have to accept the way your plants grow. Often we buy a plant with the goal in mind we want it to "grow big", but then what? In my travels, I'm in peoples homes every day doing estimates (I own a glass company). I get to see their plants. Very rarely do I see a plant that has been pruned or pinched properly. I think our focus would be better if it was centered on keeping the plant healthy and appealing to the eye, with a heavy emphasis on healthy. In order to do that, as in any undertaking we wish to do well, we might need to make an extra effort. I very often note that what's best for the plant and grower convenience are often mutually exclusive. You can take the approach that 'I'm going to plant this plant in something I can buy inexpensively' or you can make the effort to find the ingredients and make a soil that really will make a very big difference in your abilities to keep plants happy.

I grow under lights in the winter, with most of my plants being in much smaller volumes of soil than what most of you are used to, and I water most plants every 3 days. Because the gritty mix holds very little water BETWEEN the particles (almost all of it's water retention comes from the water held in internal particle pores) you need to water more often. THAT, is a good thing. When you water, it forces unhealthy gases from the soil and pulls fresh air in. The gritty mix already has excellent gas exchange (probably a new term for most) because of its high porosity, but the extra waterings regularly flushes CO2, methane, and sulfurous gasses that tend to accumulate in heavier soils that hold perched water. These heavier soils produce a considerably larger volume of these gasses than soils with greater air porosity, too.

Al