What About This…? 6.28.2018
What is the deal with these plants?
You buy your seeds: florals, vegetables, whatever, from a reputable source since no bargain-brand seeds are really cost effective when you consider the time and energy you put into the plants before you find how well they are going to perform.
You use the best soil. Yes, you buy it in bags weighing enough to put you on the disabled list if you try to lift them incorrectly. You even pay the extra it takes to get some sort of secret growth-stimulating component mixed in at the “factory.” After all, it’s not that much more and you are going for a worthwhile return on all your labor, because labor you will be spending.
You might even select the best seeds in your packet, and you might even put them in a medium –– water, “accelerant,” etc. –– to hasten sprouting. And while you are waiting for that explosion of seed, you’ve super-cleaned, some even sterilize your pots.
Carefully the newly-sprouted seeds are placed at just the correct depth in just the perfect growth medium in the best pots you can offer the plants. And you water so painstakingly – not too much, not too little, perhaps employing one of those developments that warn of moisture problems: wicking up or releasing water, sticks turning colors of warning, buzzers drawing your attention to a problematic condition….
And just when you see some signs that all is going well in those perfect pots, the specter of transplantation arises. When to do it? Is it necessary? What’s all this stuff about “transplantational shock?” You dither around for sometime and then, actually holding your breath, you go for it and find that your cowardice resulted in the deplorable situation where the roots have grown such that those perfect pots restricted them and your transplantation may be too late. Yes, Bunky, your roots were Pot Bound!
So, with a secret relaxation since you are no longer responsible for the decision to transplant (“Hey, the roots were Pot Bound, weren’t they?”), you do so. But only after you have carefully prepared the garden. The soil is dug up just so, not too friable but certainly not too solid. Water is added with bated breath since over watering as a failure still haunts you even though over watering is, you know in your rational brain, almost impossible outside.
Do you add any chemicals, any humus, any compost to your soil? And which is best? And how much? And when? All these decisions and each, coming further down the growth trail, being that much more important as the growing season is going by and chances for “do-overs” are rapidly receding – mistakes now will be more and more difficult to overcome.
Finally, after all that work, SUCCESS! Yes, the flowers are beautiful, gracing you garden and then cut and adorning your home. The veggies are of fairly good size and as you harvest them, never
