SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
kodiakaz

Question for Al: watering/fertilizing 5-1-1 mix with a twist...

Robert
8 years ago

Hoping Al can chime in on this but any thoughts are appreciated!

My question is in regards to watering with the 5-1-1 mix and say your typical houseplants (Indoor and out) . I was re-reading several posts just to refresh everything in my head and was wondering If all things were followed just as is mentioned here in the 5-1-1 mix posts, 5 parts of pine bark fines of the right size, 1 part peat moss, 1 part perlite, lime and a CRF, (or not using CRF, guess it might be a two part question then) the amount of water retention is just right having tested the retention as outlined in another post, Is it even possible to over water a plant with this setup? To clarify, if you were normally watering and fertilizing weakly weekly (using dynagro FP), could you water daily? or every other day? every third and so on? IF so, what would you recommend for fertilizing? Would you fertilize once a week still but plain water the other 3 or 4 times a week? Would that over flush the nutrients? Or would you want to bump up the fertilization to say, every other day? (This of course could vary if you used a CRF or not) I ask this as with living in Az, the air here is REALLY dry outside as well as inside due to A/C so it does tend to dry out the containers rather quickly and can sometimes make the soil somewhat hydrophobic by the end of the week (mostly with newer 5-1-1 mix and the smaller pots until they get fully established.) In all the re-reading I have been doing I have come across points that made me think about this. One being that you said container gardening like this is closer to hydroponics and on a scale of 1-10 would be a 7 or 8. Not an exact quote and sorry if I read or quoted it totally wrong, but, would that give you the opportunity to almost treat it more like a hydro system and water more frequently to avoid a dry situation, but still not over water?

So I guess to narrow down my ramblings:

1) Is it possible to over water with 5-1-1? (obviously within reason)

2) If not, what would you recommend for a fertilization program? (Dynagro FP) Every other "watering" or stick to weekly? Or?

3) If watering this way would not cause any serious negative issues, would it be best to use a CRF in the 5-1-1 mix and then stick with the weekly Dynagro FP? Or?

4) If you did adopt this way of watering, Would you recommend a wick on the bottom of the pot to further reduce the PWT of the pot (pots do not sit in water after they are watered)

I was originally going to email you this question but thought it might be useful to someone else, or am I the only weird one out there...he he!

Any other tips on this odd line of thinking are greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance!

Robert

Comments (2)

Sponsored
NME Builders LLC
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars2 Reviews
Industry Leading Kitchen & Bath Remodelers in Franklin County, OH