Hippeastrum seeds

Hans-Werner Hammen haweha@hotmail.com
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:15:10 PDT
>By definition, clay balls do not improve drainage. As they create a 
>permanent water table at the >bottom of pots they are widely used in 
>balconies and places where frequent watering of potted plants is not 
>possible. GREAT when you go on vacations!

>From: "Alberto Castillo" <ezeizabotgard@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
>To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [pbs] Hippeastrum seeds
>Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:30:14 +0000

This definition is interesting and I can not verify the postulated 
consequences. My experiences with and without drainage layer consisting of 
clay balls revealed a significant difference in the necessary maximum time 
interval for water administering: 4 days WITH drainage and 6 days without 
using my 50 cm boxes demonstrated in my previous images. Thus I can not 
confirm the water table theory.

I did not talk about seramis, volume related water binding capacity = 25% 
here, but about porous balls with an outer skin similar to these 8 mm balls 
which are used for hydroculture. I roughly estimate their surfacial water 
"up"take to be only between 5 and 10 vol% - while the water binding capacity 
of coco peat substrate is 40% or better (I evaluated this myself) which 
makes my differential observations above (6 vs. 4 days) plausible.

The hippeastrum seedlings growing in coco peat "with" this drainage layer 
below simply grow much better (faster) which is plausible, too, because they 
get more air from below! My observations over the years indicate that 
Hippeastrum roots need a lot of oxygen!

And therefore I strongly recommend and continue to recommend a THICK 
drainage layer of these 2-4 mm balls!

Hans-Werner



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