Have to agree with that, absolutely stunning.
Darren a question I have and I hope it makes sense. You spray your plants a lot, I am not sure but maybe even daily, the question I have is do you put less water [as in the drench method] in the ground or in the pot as a result, is the run off from your spraying enough to feed and water the plants.
I have a good reason for asking, I have got myself in a bit of a pickle by overwatering some of my plants [I only use the drench method], in fact I have 2 or 3 that are actually drowning and will need to be re-potted.
Hi David:
Your question could not have come at a better time as I have learned so much more over the last couple of months regarding watering and spraying my plants.
I know this is a long answer but I hope putting all the info out there helps as many as possible...
Everything has changed for me after I replanted all of my 80+ hibiscus over the last two months. Aside from being the most exhausted I've ever been in my life this has been well worth it and totally fascinating for me.
I realized that back in 2010 when I originally got my first 13 plants which were mostly 4"ers the holes I dug were really just for that size. Basically way too small for when they got bigger (like now) and the heavy saturated clay soil surrounding them just created a clay prison for each plant's roots for future growth.
I noticed this spring that my plants just didn't seem as robust as expected and the leaves yellowed so easily with the slightest bit of watering and loss of leaves from trunk up to at least mid branch told me the roots were having issues supporting the plant size. In my head I see a proportion of root size to plant size and with my dinky holes and clay soil prisons my plants were out of balance where the roots just couldn't keep up with the growth my plants wanted.
Long story short I dug out a couple to see and sure enough for tall and mature plants some really pathetic rootballs or lack there of. Just 3 or 4 main roots trying to grow as far away from the plant as possible looking like they're trying to find better soil conditions elsewhere. No feeder roots or rootballs to the point where a couple of my hibs were actually falling over due to lack of roots to secure them in place.
After seeing this I dug out all planters 1 to 1.5 feet down and put in a bottom layer of cactus mix for drainage and then Ocean Forest soil for all planters and plants. That was an insane workload!
The replanting is a story in itself as I wouldn't remove the plants completely but very carefully dug around and under the roots best I could with a weeder leaving several main roots intact so the plant would not go into major shock. Worked out well as I only lost Electric Orange and that was a weird one as the roots were growing like crazy but the plant rotted from somewhere around the trunk above the ground.
After all this I wondered if and how the watering parameters of my plants would change with new soil, better drainage and warmer weather. Well the results for me is that I no longer have any yellow leaves or loss of leaves due to saturated soil only if I water very carefully. I can't just go crazy and drench the soil even with all the positive changes. Maybe that will be less of a factor as the root systems start to aggressively grow out in the next several months but yours are in pots so only so far those roots can go amplifying the water effect. Also the weather here has been very mild so far with just a handful of days in the 80s so water needs have been mild.
I'm at a point now where if I just spray my plants daily with Supernova (which is the plan) that should be enough to water them aside from a monthly feeding of special blend, supernova and quelant-k. Right now I have backed off the daily spraying until my soil dries out a little from the automatic watering for three weeks when I was on vacation early June. So my answer is yes, I can use just the run off from spraying and be fine going forward unless a heatwave hits.
If we ever get a heat wave this summer then I'll be watching very carefully to see how much I should increase the watering. Again some planters get full sun others don't so it is a case by case basis here. I have noticed that my porch pot's soil dries out more quickly but that top dry layer can be very deceiving so I use my water meter, temp gauge and a lot of careful observation. I even bought a roll down shade I can throw up in a hurry for really hot afternoons as my porch faces west.
If you decide to go to spraying daily or close to that the battery powered sprayer is a must. I went from 3+ hours a day spraying by hand to 30 minutes. I have a life again!
Farmer D
