Plant Language 101 Lesson One

Practice makes perfect. Here are the practice sessions to go with each lesson in Plant Language 101.

I've tried to distill into these practice sessions the knowledge of years and years of listening to plants. We will never totally understand everything the plant is saying but with practice gardening can be easier and more pleasurable.

I'm thirsty, give me a drink.
Leaves and stems are wilting and drooping down. Your plant is calling out to you to give it some water. Please, please notice me...can't you see that I'm thirsty? don't walk on by me...NO No...stop...water, water... water! Can you imagine how that plant feels when you ignoe what it is saying.
When a plant is wilting it is already in stress and some damage will soon be done.
Here are the different practice lessons to help you understand what the plant is saying before the stress level reaches dangeros levels. You'd be surprised at how many people don't know how to tell if a plant is dry before it reaches that panic state.

Feeling the weight of the pot to know if it is ready to be watered. A good gardener can lift a pot and tell you if it needs to be watered. A good gardener can see a plant all the way across the garden and know that that plant is beginning to dry out.

Feel the weight practice.
Choose a potted plant... Anyone will do. A poinsettia, an impatiens, a house plant. Fill a gallon jug or other container with water...so you can measure how much water you use. Water your plant slowly and well. Mark your calendar so that you remember when you watered and how much water you put on your plant. Lift the plant up and feel how much it weighs. You can actually put it on the scale and weigh it if you like. Your pot plant should feel heavy. Thump your fist against the side of the pot. Like you thump a wtermellon. It should have a solid thump. Next let your plant dry out. This can take one day or a week. I'll explain that in a later exercise.
Lift the pot up again and feel the weight. It should feel lighter because the plant has used up some of the water that you put in the soil. Some of it has also evaporated into the air.

General rule for how quickly a plant will dry out. The larger the plant compared to the volume of soil available in the pot equals how soon that plant will need more water. Throw in the variable of weather, light and amount of soil already being used by the roots and you've got the formula for how long it will take to use up the water.

Let me give you some examples. If I take a nice big impatiens from Weidners home with me and hang it up in the shade or set it in my patio it will use up most of the available water within a day or at the most two days. Outside air evaporates water more quickly and the higher light levels make the plant transpire water more quickly. You have a large plant in a relatively small amount of soil space.
If I take that same Impatiens and put it in the ground and let the roots grow out for a week or so then it is no longer dependant on the quart or so of water that it got in the pot. Your are still giving it water but the roots can now get moisture from a larger area of soil [assuming your soil is not like cement] The roots are cooler also because they are being shaded by soil. We'll talk about training your plant to be more independant in another lesson.

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