Hi, Pam. Maybe I can explain things a little better if I use an example. Obviously, I think the grower's soil choice when establishing a planting for the long term is the most important decision he/she will make. There is no question that the roots are the heart of the plant, and plant vitality is inextricably linked in a hard lock-up with root vitality. In order to get the best from your plants, you absolutely must have happy roots. If you start with a water-retentive medium, like a bagged soil, you cannot improve it's aeration or drainage characteristics by adding less than very significant fractions of larger particulates. Sand, perlite, Turface, calcined DE ...... none of them will work. To visualize why sand and perlite can't change drainage/aeration, think of how well a pot full of BBs would drain (perlite), then think of how poorly a pot full of pudding would drain (bagged soil). Even mixing the pudding and perlite/BBs together 1:1 in a third pot yields a mix that retains the drainage characteristics and PWT height of the pudding. It's only after the perlite become the largest fraction of the mix (60-75%) that drainage & PWT height begins to improve. At that point, you're growing in perlite amended with a little potting soil. You cannot add coarse material to fine material and improve drainage or reduce the ht of the PWT. Use the same example as above & replace the pudding with play sand or peat moss - same results. The benefit in adding perlite to heavy soils doesn't come from the fact that they drain better. The fine peat or pudding particles simply 'fill in' around the perlite, so drainage & the ht of the PWT remains the same. All perlite does in heavy soils is occupy space that would otherwise be full of water. Perlite simply reduces the amount of water a soil is capable of holding because it is not internally porous. IOW - all it does is take up space. If you want to profit from a soil that offers superior drainage and aeration, you need to build it into the soil from the start, by ensuring that the soil is primarily comprised of particles much larger than those in peat/compost/coir, which is why the recipes I suggest as starting points all direct readers to START with the most significant fraction of the soil being large particles, to ensure excellent aeration. From there, if you choose, you can add an appropriate volume of finer particles to increase water retention. You do not have that option with a soil that is already extremely water-retentive right out of the bag. I fully understand that many are happy with the results they get when using commercially prepared soils, and I'm not trying to get anyone to change anything. My intent is to make sure that those who are having trouble with issues related to their soil(s), understand why the issues occur, that there are options, and what they are. Learning Some people are perfectly content, growing in/with whatever is easiest, and can't understand all the fuss when what they do 'works for them'. I look at growing in containers like a journey up a mountain, with millions of people on the path. The way-points represent our abilities, knowledge, and our level of understanding. We all travel at different speeds, but some, in their hurry to get to the crest, pass way-point after way-point, leaving behind those content to check in for an extended stay in the foothills. Some people have scoffed and asked what good all your reading and studying will do. They think experience is the most important, but I can tell you it isn't. You're on the right path. What good is 20 years of experience if you do the same thing over and over? What if you're doing something wrong - or there is a better way? Isn't that 20 years of experience wasted? More times than I can possibly count, I have seen advice to do this or that, that makes no sense from the scientific perspective. In the same vein, observations made that attribute an affect to an impossible cause are extremely common. The more pieces of the puzzle we have to work with, the easier it is to see the big picture clearly, which is why learning is so beneficial to increasing our effort:reward quotient. I think though, that the most important aspect of accumulating knowledge lies in our ability accurately validate our observations. Growers who have taken the time to understand the science behind what makes plants grow well, can make observations within the limits of what science allows, instead of making up science to fit their observations. This gives folks like you, who really want to learn and understand, a great advantage over those taking a more laissez faire (literally: leave things alone) approach. You'll be able to resolve issues by accurate assessment, instead of guesswork; and you'll be able to eliminate most of the trial and error associated with those that rely on experience only. Your experience(s) will be validation of your storehouse of knowledge, instead of your source of knowledge. Why is this a better arrangement? Because the more you know, the more difficult it is to assume in error, and the easier it is to winnow the possibilities to get to the probabilities. I applaud you and everyone else making an individual effort to learn about growing in containers and to expand their understanding. Al

I need help with woodwardia orientalis. I have this rescued fern and it's dying. It has like one frond coming up and nothing else. I moved it from the shade into the sun location, but my sun is very mild in San Francisco. It needs more light to make another frond. The planter has peat moss, homemade compost, bagged soil woody type stuff, horticultural sand, and clay from pure clay cat litter, plus the mix that I got to start out with from somewhere, but I don't know what is in that. If it dies I can not buy another anywhere at all. In the ground, in the shade, it would not make frond, half the root died and was being eating by earth worms.

It's an "Asparagus Fern", not a fern at all but related to asparagus. In a lot of places they're considered a weed, broken off bits of root/tuber will produce new plants. There's a number of varieties, some grow taller, some not so much.Next season don't be surprised to see a whole lot of small plants coming up where you dug that one out.

Thankyou but: One of the places on my property where that type of fern did very well was in a giant pile of pine needles that had been added to and decomposed in place for several years. Then spring 2015 the ferns popped up through the 2014 pine needles rooted only in the mound of decomposed pine needles from previous years. Since it grows well in pure decomposed pine needles, I doubt the much smaller amount that stuck to that slope would bother it. I haven't tested in years, but most of my property is too acidic for grass (acid loving mosses grow well) and these ferns grow well in other spots that are at least too acidic for grass. Is the picture good enough for someone to say which type of fern it is? Maybe that would lead me to online info. Also, any experience on what thickness of last years wet leaves ferns can sprout through? I don't understand how other ferns sprouted thought thicker leaf mats last spring, but I wasn't watching closely. I'm sure the heavy leaf cover I put on this bed after the ferns turned brown last fall hasn't hurt yet. But is leaving all that there now helping or hurting?