WAS Anderson deep propagation flats; Now lowering the water table in pots

Lesley Richardson lesleykayrichardson@gmail.com
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 12:43:16 PDT
Good afternoon all:

I just want to thank all who are sending out these emails. I'm learning so
much that I need to learn I cannot tell you! What a resource! Mostly what
I'm learning is that I'm truly ignorant about the unbelievable variety of
bulbs. I'd never heard of the irises just mentioned and have now seen how
surpassing beautiful they are...add to the list to grow.

I'm familiar with a lot of South African varieties and we have the good
fortune to have a large area on the Roggeveld where many of the plants
mentioned here already grow. No sheep have been allowed on the property
since the eighties, so more plants are returning. But I'm currently living
near PNW coast where we have bits of land spread across four climate zones
and I cannot wait to start propagating the different bulb varieties in the
different zones.

The rub here is that all four properties have rodents, wild turkeys, deer,
elk, raccoons, slugs, mice, and rats in some measure, usually passing by
daily. The wild turkeys have been beating up on my poor penstemons on a
daily basis, and they did in two very expensive, consecutive wild
flower/grass seedings because we had much less snow than usual. So
inexpensive but non-destructive ways of avoiding rodent and animal damage
would be most welcome. The new trees all have large wire enclosures around
them, and I've started putting those on some plants, but it's not really
practical on acreage where I have plants spread out. In Africa, we have to
literally build baboon proof cages. Too much work! So how do I deal with
these critters in a way that is constructive?

Lesley

On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:21 PM, Rimmer deVries <rdevries@comcast.net>
wrote:

> Bob
>
> i heard at a bonsai show lecture, (method also used by Streptocarpus
> growers )
>
> that if you put a piece of yarn in the pot extending down you not only
> keep the pot media moist by adding a wick to soak up water from below,  but
> it also lowers the water table in the pot.
>
> think- hydro communication with the media below.
>
> they recommend a yarn that does not rot, so not cotton but Orlon or some
> other synthetic yard.
>
> Rimmer
> SE Mich
> USA Zone 4-5-6 depending on the winter.
>
>
> > On Oct 20, 2015, at 3:10 PM, penstemon <penstemon@Q.com> wrote:
> >
> > Putting screen in the bottom, which is, of course, the only way to
> prevent the growing medium (in my case, perlite) from falling out, will
> still create a perched water table, but hopefully far enough down in the
> deep pots to prevent root rot.
> > Bob Nold
> > Denver, Colorado, USA
> > _______________________________________________
> > pbs mailing list
> > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/
>
> _______________________________________________
> pbs mailing list
> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/
>



More information about the pbs mailing list