Smile-breaks
To water or not to water
I love my potted plants, but sometimes love isn't enough. You have to take good care of them. Which means proper watering. At all times. Not too much, not too little. Thus, a moisture meter makes good sense, my brain tells me. I didn't listen. Well, I listened but I didn't obey. I did everything but buy a moisture meter.
Besides, the smart lady at the garden center told me the best solution was always to stick your finger two inches down into the soil. If it's dry: water; if it's wet: don't. No fancy gadgets, no high-tech solutions. Easy.
Every time I Googled to ask why the leaves on my plant were turning yellow? Or brown? Limp? Falling off? I got the same answer: IMPROPER WATERING.
Okay. What specifically does that mean for yellowing leaves? Well, it means they need water or they're too wet and they're rotting. If you're not sure which, stick your finger in the dirt: if it comes up dry, it needs water; if it comes up wet, don't water - and you might need to re-pot the plant, but let the roots dry out first.
How about if the leaves are falling off? Same answer. Too wet or too dry. Water or don't water. If you're not sure. . .
Finally I listened to that brain of mine and went straight to Amazon. I ordered a moisture meter. It came the next day, all in one piece! No assembly instructions. Yay! Simple gadget, no technicalities to screw things up. Just a long metal rod attached to a small green meter with a range of three colors and a needle. Poke the rod in the pot, down to the roots, check the meter: red is dry; green is moist, and blue is wet. I was set. If unsure of the reading, the package said, poke your finger in the soil and. . .you know the drill.
Out I went, moisture meter in hand. Stuck it in the fig tree pot. Red, needs water. Stuck it in the ornamental plum tree pot, barely on green, prob'ly needs more water, and on I went. Just to be sure, I stuck it in two places in the third pot.
Red and green! One place showed red; the other side showed green. Same pot, same moisture meter, same dirt. No technology involved so I couldn't blame that. The same thing happened on half of the pots I checked with the meter. What does that mean? Is the meter defective? Is the soil really dry on one side and wet on the other?
My non-technologically savvy brain spoke up: You might want to ask Google why the meter shows dry and moist in the same pot. So I did.
It seems that potting soil has its own idea of what's right for plants and includes chunks of bark or other stuff with the good, rich potting soil. If the metal tip at the end of the rod touches one of those, it measures dry. Something about the tip of the meter not catching the electrical current it's sending out. So if it measures moist in at least one place, that means I don't have to water?
This morning I had another thought: is the soil supposed to be "Moist" or "Wet?" Should I water if it registers moist? Does it have to be on the "Wet" scale before I stop watering?
Yes, brain. I will Google that right now.