Some slow release fertilizer contain actual liquid inside the balls. You can literally “pop them” and liquid fertilizer will come out. They aren’t eggs, and i’ve seen some come in gray and yellow colours but i‘m sure the whole rainbow exists. Someone mentioned root nodules, which would only be the case if they were directly connected to the root and looked like a hard, solid tuber inside (these are common but not limited to alocasias and calatheas for example). Fungus gnat eggs are practically microscopic, and unless your plants have direct access to the outdoors it is unlikely (but still possible) for it to be snail or slug eggs. What most of you are seeing are simply slow release fertilizer, if it’s truly bothersome you can buy organic potting mix that doesn’t contain any. Any generic potting mix from your nursery or garden centre, such as promix and miracle grow will contain these fertilizer balls and likely already in the soil your plant comes in from the nursery or store. You can literally sift through your new bag of potting mix and find them. If you truly believe them to be eggs, again unlikely, scoop them out and wait for them to hatch lol. You probably will not have bug babies but maybe you can gain some peace of mind.

Exactly, the paper i pasted from describes the same phenom you have been describing for over 10 years. I have always raged that the big greenhouse media suppliers claim that 30% perlite into a peat is a high porosity mix. And so many growers prefer short squatty containers [helpful for blow over prevention but nothing else] Container Geometry is almost as important as the mix. i remember in 1984 I took a 400 level greenhouse management course at University of Delaware. The prof soaked a rectangular sponge and held it by the edges parrallel to the sink flatwise and let water drain, then he rotated the sponge on the shorter vertical axis and more water drained, when that free drainage ended he then rotated the sponge vertically in it tallest plane and more water drained. When I read your suggestion about using a draping shoelace as draining wick to lower the PWT the distance of the wick, I shouted YES at the elegant simple brilliance. In 1977 I grew a marijuana plant in a milk crate full of gravel, the stalk was over 2 inches in diameter [no different than growing in glass.] BTW, in your gritty mix what are the ratios and actual particle size for each component? I would think to use slightly larger particle sizes than i think you were using and i would probably consider using zeolite or a calcined DE or calcined clay. BTW, Ep minerals makes several absorbents both DE and Clay, Calcined or regular as various spill absorbers available in any auto parts store. 5o pounds for about 10 dollars. Don''t know the particle sizes but likely need to be screened to eliminate the fines. The clays are generally calcium bentonite and not sodium bentonite so less sodium and less swelling. I beileve Arcillite and Tuface are calcium bentonites. I was just thinking that decomoposed granite and even bark add no water holding capacity but with DE and Proper sized ceramics you could add more waterholding capacity but still maintain the airspace. The airspace in the ep mineral clay was pretty low when I measured it last, but I did not screen it. Somewhere I have a spreadsheet with AFP, WHC, TP, TPv, etc for over a dozen components and mixes. I have run quite a few in both 16 oz and taller 32 oz cups, [1 liter exactly when filled to rim overflow which makes that size intuitively easy for all the math. I think i found your posts about 3 years ago and then lost them. Am I correct in thinking you have some water release curve data around somewhere. Someone posted some WRC showing that Axis DE or perhaps the Axis clay media held huge amounts of water but easily released over 75% to the plant. TI can not find that post. I was actually searching for Vertical hydraulic conductivity, Capillary Rise and Capillary rate and wicking when your links showed up. The axis DE is like $90 a bag for 50 pounds so i think I could more cheaply reproduce from other products but have to screen. where I live in idaho, there is a Celatom DE plant less than 60 miles away, 2 zeolite mines, a sodium bentonite mine, WHC and Airspace mid 20s in the 2 larger particle sizess. Also the best white pumice [Hess] source mine a few hours away. I had hoped better water holding capacity. I plan on rerunning all the mixes again in a few months now that i have more standardized my process using multiple cup sizes, some of them tamped or shaken to settle, some top watered, some bottom water, measure distance of subsidence if any. I also have a vegetronix tensionometer now and will take additional measures at various depths to measure the exact tension and also verify depth of pWT which i can usually see through the transparent cups if I use a marking dye and saturate from below. Anyway I will share those spreadsheets in the near future If i were to guess, you have some sort of plant and soil science background or some civil engineering background and a love for plants. At any rate, your explanations and examples are some of the best I have ever come across, and your shoelace suggestion is brilliant, truly. i read so much WRONG advice or the wrong analysis for reason why something works or does not work. it is refreshing to come across accurate information Garret Goyette

R - Thank you very much for the kind words. There are sooo many gimmicky products out there, some of which don't work at all the way they're advertised. There is just no substitute for getting the basics under control and working in your favor, and I'm always glad to see growers who are able to quickly understand how important that is. Over and over I've watched them catapult themselves forward & ahead of those w/o a sense of direction. I've been meaning to draft and scan some line drawings to my photos so I can post a visual reference that will help clarify some of the things I've said about perched water tables and how to do some simple things that will offer a LOT of relief, so I'll make sure to get after that next week. Let me try this: If you have a soil that supports 4" of perched water when saturated, it will support 4" of perched water in a 55 gallon drum or in a drinking straw. If you had a container with 4" of perched water at the bottom and could cast a little pixi dust that suddenly made the container a foot deeper, the water would simply move down into the bottom 4" of soil. Here's the important part >>>>> IF you attached a drinking straw at least 4" long to the bottom of the 55 gallon drum, ALL the water in the PWT would start moving into the straw. The gravitational flow potential of the water in the drum will continue to force water to flow out of the drinking straw until ALL the PW in the drum has dripped off the end. When the set-up stops draining, there will still be 4" of perched water, but it will ALL be in the straw ...... so how much perched water is that? Almost none!! A wick does the same thing. It 'fools' the PW into 'thinking' the container is actually deeper than it is, so the PW moves down the wick where it will be pushed off the bottom of the wick by the rest of the water in the PWT, until the gravitational flow potential is in a state of equilibrium with the capillary attraction of the wick/soil. Science is a beautiful thing when you understand how to put it to work for you. ;-) You do understand what needs to be done to make the wick work effectively for you. In order to work, the wick needs to either dangle below the bottom of the pot or rest on something absorbent - like the soil in your yard/garden/bed or newspaper, or it could dangle over the edge of a sink or a stand you set up in a shower or over a tub. I wouldn't be too quick to burden yourself with the 'poor judgment' verdict for using vermiculite. I have a bag that was about 5 gallons when I bought it 10 years ago, and it still has about 9 gallons + in it, which shows how often I use it. Usually, we should be doing things to try to REDUCE water retention in our container media, so it's probably hard to make a convincing case for using it in our media. I would reserve the impeachment of 'poor judgment' for use on someone who, understanding the importance of the physical properties of container media as well as the physical properties of vermiculite and it's deleterious effect on water retention, went ahead and used it anyway. So, I think you stand unjustly self-accused. ;-) There are two threads I commonly link new growers to. The first is an overview I wrote to help growers avoid the common pitfalls that become the reasons most of the growers looking for remedial help are here. If they find it helpful and exhibit any sort of enthusiasm about their new found information, I usually offer a link to this thread about container soils. I'm not at all bashful about sharing the opinion that the information in the thread about soils probably represents the largest step forward a container gardener can make at any one time. I know with certainty the information has transformed the growing experience of a LOT of people, I among them, but you can judge that by the response of others. I really do hope you find in it things that will enhance what you're able to take from your growing experience. Take care. Al

Tip, I was posting in another forum. The person told me about their friend in Taiwan. After their monsoon where their planting beds were flooded for over a month, Their Sans picked right back up and continued growing. And they had many different varieties. So warmth is very important here. They use moisture retentive soils and have no problems. So heat is the key here. Norma, You stated you lost 250 San. 'Forscate' because some one left them unprotected one night and had to start over again. Most any other sans could have taken some abuse. I bought one Sansevieria Trifasciata Futura type on clearance in winter. It was next to an open tarp. It had been exposed to 28 degree F. weather. No harm. I felt sorry for it and thought it would rot after I took it home and warmed up. For only 50 cents. Stush PS my first day I started to feel better. I been suffering with flu and pneumonia.