Idea to easily check soil goodnees
Fabio D'Alessi (cars@civ.bio.unipd.it)
Mon, 26 Aug 96 5:05:25 GMT-3982:36
This is just a stupid idea I had a couple of months ago,
but I would like to spread it with the group since it has
been quite useful for me...
As well known, the carnivorous plants kept in pure peat (or
in soils with a major part of peat) suffer a lot when the peat
starts to rot (often because of clogging or because of the
use of continuous use of alkaline water in the tray system).
Now, to see if the peat soil is rotting, some growers
check the consistency or color of the soil, while others "smell"
the bottom of the pots and so on.
The quick and reliable way I use to test the "goodness" of a peat
soil is to put a wooden toothpick into every new pot. Just drive it
vertically into the soil by the 90% of its length. Leave it there
and forget about it.
When you want to know about the soil, take the toothpick out the
soil, clean it with a piece of paper of a cloth, and check its color.
If it's uniformely light brown, the soil is not rotting at all, and
you can put the toothpick back into the soil. If the buried edge is
dark brown, the soil is "aged" but still ok.
If the buried edge turns black and the major part of the toothpick
is dark, the soil is starting to rot, time to change it. The worst
condition is when the buried edge is bluish-blue-whitish. The soil
is in advanced rot conditions and MUST be changed.
By the way, now I use these toothpicks also as "plantname flags",
putting a small water resistant writeable label around the not buried
edge, so I have a small double-use tool.
Hope someone finds this useful,
Fabio
--
fabio d'alessi Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, Italy.