>From: Osmani Baullosa <osmani_baullosa@yahoo.com>
"::::::those cases in which the water never runs out of the pot:
>
>If the soil mix turns dry in the upper layer, and the drainage is not good
>-so the water remains for a longer time down in the pot... Will the roots
>finnally absorbe this water if you stop watering the plant? Or they will
>rot? "
Hi Osmani:
How is the Chilean season going?
Succulents, bulbs and cacti are very sensitive to soil
or mix porosity. The existence of all important absorbing roots depends on
the availability of oxygen in the mix and perhaps more crucial, that
noxious gases (carbon dioxide, methane, sulphidric) leave the mix. A mix
that would perform wonders for many kinds of vegetables (for instance) will
kill most bulbs rapidly. So if water collects at the bottom of the pot it
must leave it soon as the plant will “drink” only what it needs for cooling
and for photosynthesis and has no way to get rid of the rest. It will just
remain there whence by capillarity will ascend into the remaining healthier
upper portion. Drainage must be fast and rapid TO LET gases come in and out
of the mix with ease. Bulbs can cope very well with thirst and seldom suffer
from it. More normally they die from suffocation. In dry climates dry air
would help take water from the wet mix but in humid climates the problem
will be a lot worse.
In case of normal plants like say indoors type, they
quickly give signals of being overwatered (random leaves yellowing) and have
ways of surviving the danger, like producing superficial roots in the upper
layers of the soil where the mix dries up more rapidly and there exists a
certain exchange of gases. Bulbs can not do this, they are normally low in
the container where water actually collects and have no mechanisms to send
roots up. Their normal response is stunted growth and death as roots become
asfixiated one after the other and and the rot crawls into the basal plate.
It is by now that first signs of trouble show up and by then the poor thing
is practically gone. So, do not take risks and make your side drainage
holes before ti is too late.
Regards
Alberto
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