Re: Companion Plants for Roses

There is one thing you probably did not do when planting nursery-grown plants in adobe soil, which is really necessary if planting without amending the soil: wash off a lot of the potting mix before planting, and make sure that some roots get into the native soil at the planting time.

I have had good luck with this method:

- with a posthole digger (in winter) or 60lb Makita jackhammer (in summer) dig a hole barely larger than the pot.

- if planting done in dry season, fill the hole with water, wait until it soaks in, usually this means the next day.

- dump the dug-up soil into an old litterbox

- un-pot the plant, put it on top of that soil

- wash off at least an inch of the sides, he bottom and two inches from the top, set plant aside

- mix the washed off potting soil with the original clay into mud. Heavy duty rubber gloves are a must

- if the mud is runny, pour it into the hole and push in the plant, then with a soil knife chop at the sides of the hole to get the mud thicker

- if the mud is thick, put the plant into the hole, stuff the mud arount the rootball, water a bit to thin it

- pour the rest of the mud around the plant, smooth it out, cover with mulch.

A good consistency for the mud to work it is similar to that of a freshly mixed concrete. Other than the concrete staying hard in rain, there is not that there is much difference between it and the soil around my house :-)

The whole process is shown here: http://kozminski.com/Plants/PlantingInMud/ - the plants shown there are Salvia spathacea and Ribes aureum (the latter got effectively barerooted). The photos were taken in Nov 2003. Both plants are doing fine. The process is much faster than trying to dig large holes and tinker with amendments.

I seem to have about 90% survival rate with this method. If something croaks - tough. I replant with something known to survive this treatment.

It is important that the potting soil is buried under the clay - otherwise it acts as a wick and kills the plant in summer (and, as you noticed, permits the hole to fill with water in winter.

KK

On Jan 15, 2005, at 9:04 AM, Catherine Ratner wrote:

I know that the latest theory does not favor amending soil in the planting
holes, but this theory does not accord with my experience. I have tried
many native plants on my north-facing slope which is in full sun at high
summer, full sodden shade in winter. If I try to plop a gallon plant, which
has been grown in a mix of sand and shavings, into a hole in my exceedingly
tight black adobe, the hole tends to fill with water and the discouraged,
pampered roots are not able to make their way into the soil. If I dig a
wide hole, amend the soil with gypsum and the light mix I shake off the
roots of the plants, they can often make it. This is the only way I have
been able to establish Salvia 'Winifred Gilman', for example. The plants
are not totally inappropriate for the site; they just need a little help at
first. If they become chlorotic as adults, I jerk them out.












Other Mailing lists |
Author Index |
Date Index |
Subject Index |
Thread Index