Thank you Joe, that's helpful. So when I DO water, 1 gallon is roughly the same as 3 gallons, etc as long as it's draining out of the bottom of the pot?

If you have the choice between three gallons and one gallon always go three. I soak all of my plants for several hours before draining with no ill effects. Jack

Good questions, Jef. I always suggest that in order for a soil to meet the minimum standard of "good", you should be able to have the plant in a pot large enough to provide room for roots to run, and not have to worry whether or not you've "over-watered" when you've watered to beyond saturation. Very few commercially prepared soils meet that standard because they are almost all based on huge fractions of fine ingredients.

This link will explain how/why water behaves as it does in container media, and address the impact that water:air relationships in container media have on plant health, appearance, growth rate, productivity ..........

Al

Overwatering is not about frequency or amount, but about lack of oxygen in soil when it is moist, type/texture of soil. Roots need oxygen + moisture at the same time to function.

I've told people before that overwatering is a bit of a misnomer. I see all the time where people are too afraid to water their plants and end up only giving it little "sips." Which can be even worse for their plants in the long run. In nature when it rains, aside from arid desert regions, it doesn't rain in sips. In the rainforests, it can rain almost every day out of the year.

Orchids are excellent examples of this. They predominately grow in the rainforests and get rained on all the time. Yet I'm always reading about where people "over-watered" their orchid and the roots have all rotted away. The problem wasn't the amount of water they used, but rather the conditions of the potting mix they were using which caused the problem. Most orchids grow up in the canopies, clinging to the sides of trees and don't grow in ordinary soil. People use a mix of bark, perlite, charcoal, and sphagnum moss to grow them in, which allows their roots access to plenty of fresh air. So when they're planted incorrectly in a mix that holds on to too much water and doesn't properly drain away, the supply of fresh air is cut off and the roots quickly rot away.

The same can be said for the vast majority of all common houseplants that people grow. When their plants are potted up in a soggy soil that doesn't drain water away efficiently, the supply of fresh air is cut off and their roots end up rotting away. When you stop to think about it, all living organisms need water to live. But more importantly, all living organisms need air. Both are vital for life to flourish, but go without water and go without air and see which one you die from first. The same goes for plants. Almost everybody knows that a plant's leaves breathe in carbon dioxide. But they also breathe in oxygen thru their roots, too. And when they can no longer do this, their roots end up suffocating from being "over-watered."

Very informative, thank you. So now my question is... is the soil that my plant came with suitable for my plant? I bought my aralia from a seller in the Flower District here in NYC, so I like to think they know what they're doing. I've yet to water it (I got it 6 days ago), but it's yellowing and losing leaves very fast and it looked 10x more attractive last week.

Here's a photo of the soil mix.. what do you guys think:

In order for a soil to be rated as appropriate for a plant, and especially for plants like Aralia that demand sharp drainage, you should be able to water to beyond saturation at will w/o concern about impaired root health/function. In looking at your soil, I'm thinking it's not going to meet that standard, and simply trying to mix in a large fraction of perlite is only going to marginally improve your plant's chances to grow well.

This is what I would use for aralia and 90% + of all houseplants:

and this would be my second choice:

These soils ensure excellent drainage because they are all coarse particles (in the case of the top picture) or are a very high % of coarse particles. There is some fine material in the lower soil, but not nearly enough to fill the air spaces between the larger particles. Therein lies the key. If you have a medium with enough fine material to fill in all the large air spaces, you might as well grow in nothing but the fine material, because there will be very little difference. I believe the soil you picture is probably covered under the later mantel.

Al

Thanks. So what do you suggest I do here? As I said, I've yet to water the Aralia yet, but it's losing leaves like crazy since its left the plant shop. Should I repot it with proper soil at this stage, or wait till it's healthier again, assuming it gets healthier at all? It's looking in a sad state and it's only been in my house for 6 days.

If you've had it for 7 days and the leaves are yellowing and falling off I would water the poor thing asap and worry about the details later.

Many cultural issues cause leaf loss. Over or under-watering, a high level of salts in the soil, soil compaction, a change in light - especially from high light to lower light, congested roots, insects, diseases, ...... If the soil has not dried out completely, and you haven't fertilize, the odds favor over-watering (before you acquired it) or the change in light. You can't do much about the leaf loss if it's a light issue - other than wait, and keep the soil on the dry side but not completely dry. If it's an over-watering/poor soil issue, you need to make sure YOU don't over-water and hope irreversible damage hasn't been done to the roots.

If you click this link, it will take you to a thread that offers many tips on how to mitigate the limiting effects of a soil that's too water retentive. If your soil is still moist after a week with no water, you can be certain it's inappropriate for your plant.

If you had an appropriate soil, you might consider an emergency repot and pruning the roots back to sound tissue (if root rot is discovered). Otherwise, put the plant in good light and a warm spot, wait, water sparingly and repot at an appropriate time. Your user info doesn't tell us where you are, geographically, but around Father's Day is always a safe bet for repotting Aralia.

Al

Thanks. I'm in NYC, in an apartment with southern facing exposure. It was in a decently sunlit spot but I just now moved it to basically right in front of a window.

It's hard to tell if the soil is still moist beyond the length of my finger. I bought a hydrometer on Amazon (but I know they're often inaccurate) and that's telling me that there is still moisture closer to the bottom. When I stick my finger in, it gets sort of moistish/cold when I stick my finger all the way in. Nothing at the top-most inch and a half. Hard to gauge accurately because I've never done this before.

Can I buy above posted soil somewhere, or do I have to make it myself? Thanks for your help and patience.

Living in NY is often a problem when you want to make a soil. If you can find a bag of pine bark in an appropriate size, you could buy a little perlite and use a small amount of your existing soil mixed with pine bark, perlite, and some lime to make a good soil.

Al

So if I don't plan on repotting with my own soil, what's my next best option? Can I insert a wick a few inches into the drainage hole/current soil and assume that will help things along?

Yes, use a wick.

You should be able to find perlite in any big box store. The coarser the better. Ideally, the particles would be larger than 1/8" and smaller than 1/4. You can also screen what you find through a kitchen strainer with mesh about the size of insect screening. Use the coarse fraction and mix it 50/50 with your current soil. If you employ a wick, a hole through the bottom of the pot at the edge is best. After watering, tilt the pot at a 45* angle with the wick/drain hole down. That will help you drain a LOT of excess water. If your planting is small enough, you could employ the strategy of moving the pot downward, then sharply upward to drain even more excess water from the soil - another tip touched on in the link I provided above. See B and E below.

Al

Ah excellent, I read your description about the funnel and such but haven't seen this photo before. I ordered this from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003QX693A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 so hopefully that will be adequate.

I can just stick the end of the week to a pencil or a kebab skewing and stick it into the drainage hole... what, 6 inches?

And now importantly... how will this wick affect my frequency of watering? (talking about Ming Aralia, and eventually my tall fiddleleaf fig)

That'll work (mop head). I often fold the wick over a straight slot screwdriver and use the driver to push it up into the pot - works like a charm. You only need to push it in far enough to make sure it's secure.

The wick will require you to water more frequently (as opposed to w/o the wick), but you're STILL going to be dealing with less aeration than what would be ideal, Tricking the water into leaving the pot leaves more room for air, but it's not the same as growing in a soil that does the work (of ridding itself of excess water) for you.

Al

Great, thank you for the excellent information Al. So I guess I'm going to get this plant healthy again (though I imagine it's suffering from the shock of moving from the nursery to my living room, since I haven't even watered it yet), and then repot it sometime down the line.

So I just inserted two wicks into the two drainage holes, hopefully I did it right. I just gave it a lot of water, so I guess we'll see what happens? Really not that much water came out. Far less than the amount that went in, obviously.

Here's what it looks like from below.

The wick shouldn't be in contact with the effluent in the collection saucer because of something called isotonicity - which is a fancy word that means the EC/TDS (salt level) in the effluent will equalize with the salt level in the soil solution, which negates any efforts you made at flushing accumulating salts from the soil.

Al

So how do I know if this wick is working? I replaced the smaller strings with the actual mop head like you recommend. The wicks are in, but I don't want to just suddenly increase the frequency of watering if I screwed something up and the wicks aren't working properly.

Put some faith in the science or start pulling the wicks out while they are draining PW, then put them back. If you have a pot w/o a wick, water it to beyond complete saturation & wait for the pot to stop draining, then stick a toothpick straight up into the drain hole - you'll be able to see it work. You could also review the thread at the link I left upthread - the one with all the tips about how to deal with water-retentive media.

Al