Horticultural Myths
jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
14 years ago
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agosergeantcuff
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
All Natural vs Synthetic Comparison: Update Jun 8 2011
Comments (1)I love to see work like this. ---DC in L.A....See MoreGrow Medium
Comments (26)Let's ask ourselves... what purposes does a medium serve? Well... it serves as anchorage and support for the plant, a catalyst for moisture and nutrition to the plant, and it has to allow for a decent exchange of fresh oxygen to the roots and gasses taken away from the root zone for healthy root function/metabolism/growth. So, those are the basic functions of a medium, or soil. When the particles that make up a soil are too fine and condensed, they certainly aren't providing for everything that keeps a root system happy and healthy. Because the medium is the foundation of a container planting, it works better if it can maintain its structure and aeration, and its ability to drain well without compacting. The larger the majority of particles, and the more inorganic, the better this all can happen. I've borrowed from what Al wrote on the subject... link to the original article below... and everything he conveys through his writing is logical, and makes perfect sense from a scientific standpoint. It all stand up to the test of science and physics. Unfortunately, these aren't the normal things we learn from commonly circulated gardening information. What we do seem to pick up as new gardeners are a mixed bag of opinions, myths, and ideas based on experiences that may or may not have been successful, or may be from a viewpoint that doesn't match up with our own growing climate and environment. And the industry, you may note, does nothing to dispel these myths and bits of misinformation. But why should they? They profit tidily from leaving everything as is. For those of you reading and looking for some factual information on container growing, written in layman's terms, I offer the original article that has gained Al such a mass following and the amount of respect he gets... And let's keep in mind... we're talking about growing plants within the confined space of pots, and not the garden... which is a whole different animal! Here is a link that might be useful: Container Soils - Water Movement & Retention XIV...See MoreFall Fertilization
Comments (21)Harvestman...the results of this study is pretty much exactly what I expected...it's the egg study all over again...this is just part #1. What IS absolutely astonishing is the EXTREMELY small sample sizes. 12 control shoots...12 w/urea foliar applications just 1 location. I'll get back to methods shortly. 1) In sweet cherry, the effect of fall foliar urea applications on plant susceptibility to freezing injury is unknown. 2) Little is know about the physiological relationship between nutrients and perennial plant cold tolerance mechanisms; practices that stimulate prolonged shoot growth in late summer such as soil-applied N can increase tissue susceptibility to damage by low temperatures in fall or winter. (wonder where the runoff from the foliar application goes ? root zone?..sprayed to runoff) Study conclusions: Well after a lot of chatter about N storage and how fruiting spur dry weight N content rose 150% (not due to the N application mind you...that was a 40% increase...just due to natural spring processes) they seem unsure of it's overall effect due to uncertainties of it's spring remobilization. Ok...fantastic...moving on. Experiment #4 was to determine urea foliar applications effect on winter hardiness...now things start getting a little dodgy at this point, and I think that's no accident. They would love some awesome numbers to post...right? Well, unless someone here can explicitly detail the LT50 Spearman-Karber formula I'll just have to take their word for it. So what is the word you ask?...well....uhhhmmm...I'm not sure. I know they claim a 4.25C increase in winter hardiness in their best test, but what does that mean? Well, again it's a number arrived at by the aforementioned formula. I think more important is the method by which this test is conducted. To make a long story short they take 12 shoots, slice them up with a razor blade, fix the slices to a piece of tape and pop them in the deep freeze at specific temperatures. When removed and thawed they guesstimate the amount of browning (indicating damaged tissue they say) and then insert that number into the formula. 12 shoots sprayed...12 shoots control. What that number means is anyone's guess, but it must not mean what I thought it did. I just wanted the laymans (rubber meets the road) version and what I took from it was this: Conclusions: 1) Further study of the physiology of N remobilization/metabolism and its potential relationship to cold acclimation in perennial fruit trees is warranted (this folks is the golden parachute "out plan" statement and can be viewed as nothing other than that) 2) This impact of N reserve levels on cold-hardiness of sweet cherries also should be examined during winter and spring to determine whether they might enhance resistance to incidents like extremely low temperatures during the midwinter and/or during early spring frosts (what?...wasn't that what this study PROVED?) Maybe I get what they're saying here, but it also sounds like more "iffy" speak 3). Whether our reported effects on shoot cold-hardiness also extend to flower buds remains to be determined 4) At this point of investigation, the potential mechanism for the effect of fall foliar N on cold-hardiness is not known; it may be speculated that this process involves a physiological interaction between suitable temperatures for induction of cold acclimation genes and specific amino forms of N synthesized in the leaves on uptake or as translocated to the localized sites of cold acclimation gene activity, but this or other appropriate hypotheses remain to be elucidated experimentally 5) What they really like to talk about is the increased nitrogen content. I don't doubt this a bit and is something they can confidently measure, but are far less confident in their assertions of increased winter hardiness and seem to be very mindful of potential for winter injury as a result. They did find more and larger leaves in the spring (probably true and I'm confident they can measure this accurately enough), as for everything else...it's sketchy at best. They also found that later applications resulted in a far lower LT50 number than those sprayed earlier. Precisely as I would have (and did) predict. I don't even have a Phd in Economics either...just kinda guessed based on observation...just like folks have for centuries. That would have been before sticky tape, freezers, Spearman and Karber and taxpayer money to conduct tests of little value....See MoreGardening myths I heard on t.v.
Comments (24)Here's something I'm learning about using coffee grounds -- a thin sprinkle disappears into the ground relatively quickly, an inch or two may form a crust at the surface when it's hot and dry, but more than two inches and the crust cracks and lets water and air through quickly. Have you ever seen the video of the new "water-absorbing" concrete pavement? That's what it looks like when I water with the hose over a thick layer of cracked-crust coffee grounds in Summer -- water goes straight down without even puddling. Whenever I read online articles or studies about using coffee grounds in the garden, they go as far as saying "apply thinly" because they must have observed the crust forming at the 1-2" mark. But I think it's odd that others didn't think to see what happens when they then add even more. Periodically, I dig back the layer of grounds I put down to see what's going on beneath the surface. It's teeming with life -- earthworms, especially, but also mycorrhizae. At this time of year, squirrels are also digging in it to bury their Winter caches. Of course, YMMV, but putting it down thickly is working for me here. :-) ~Christopher...See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agohenry_kuska
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoUser
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agosergeantcuff
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKimmsr
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLloyd
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agohenry_kuska
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agodchall_san_antonio
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agodicot
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agowesley_butterflies
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLloyd
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojustaguy2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLloyd
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agotsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agopnbrown
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMichael
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoserenasyh
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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