The Science and Art of Potting Up...

by Kev
(UK)

Hey Jason, Hope you're good, man ;-)

One of the 'lessons' I've taken to heart from your website is 'Discipline' - simply this one thing has improved my plants by a significant margin. Everything is on timers and now there's a proper routine my plants are lovin' it!

Now then; Now that everything is the same I noticed some plants are doing better than others are. Genetic? Maybe. But Maybe Not! I noticed the plants that are doing better have soils that drain super-fast - about 6 seconds for a 4 liter pot gets rid of 95%+ of the water.

But one-third of my pots drain fast - the others are slow. I thought I potted up the same, but maybe not. So now we know there's a science to gardening, but now there's an art to potting-up! The preamble above was important to my question: How Do you Pot-Up Properly? Cheers!

Answer: Kev- How to pot up your plants properly depends a lot on what kind of plants you are potting. Some prefer slow draining soil, but many garden variety plants prefer a fast draining soil (as you have discovered). If you are gardening organically in soil, you will be required to add a certain amount of "heavy" material to the mix (like compost).

The lighter you make the mix, the easier the roots push through the soil and spread out. The more the roots grow below, the more the plants grow above ground. At some point, however, you cannot make an organic pot any lighter because the plant relies on heavy material like compost for nutrition. This is where hydroponics gets the advantage when it comes to plant growth rates.

With hydroponics, extremely light soilless potting mixes can be used to physically support the plants while all of the nutrients are provided to the plants through watering. Plants that love a fast draining soil especially love this environment. So, how you pot up your plants will be different depending on what you are growing, but also depending on how you are growing them.

The most important thing is that you were able to discover what conditions your plants prefer, now you will always have a better idea of what they thrive in. Happy Growing!