All my plants die after they start growing and I don’t know why. I’ve tried controlling every factor that I can although without a thermometer, higrometer, pH measuring etc. I even have a shitty microscope that I try to analyse the sick parts, but I can’t find any reliable resources on how to actually interpret what I’m seeing. I want to know how to use this kind of data so that I can raise my plants right.
Where can I learn about this? I mean diagnosing problems, monitoring variables, finding solutions to each situation etc. google obviously sucks and gives nothing of substance
I will say that I recently got a new substrate, maybe the old one was the problem. But then there’s my mother-in-law, who raises beautiful lavenders and all that using the exact same soil I’m getting shitty results with. I’m literally not doing anything different to her, so maybe it’s the water? I really don’t know.
Edit: in fact, the lush lavender 🪻 she is currently flexing is a piece of the one my partner bought. Same plant, same soil.
Edit 2: also, the roots always look alright when I dig their cadavers to analyze. No parasites, insects, obvious fungi etc in any part of any plant so far.
its every plant you try to grow? since you said substrate, this means you’re growing in containers?
if both if those questions are yes, i am leaning towards an abiotic problem (not insects or diseases). usually/generally, over watering is the most common problem people new to plant production have. if you’re delivering water right to the roots, it really requires very little to grow a healthy plant. if theres not enough air in the substrate pore space (because its overwatered), the root tissue dies, the plant stops taking up water/nutrients efficiently, the dead tissue becomes a disease vector and then the show’s over and it looks wilted as fuck… which usually induces people to water more and exacerbate the problem.
container shape / poor drainage can cause these problems too. you really dont want there to be a water level in a container.
as far as references go, the ball seed grower guide is a good reference for container/indoor production for a lot of different plants, mostly ornamentals and flowers.
some of the really good references are crazy expensive though, like APS compedia for disease diagnostics.
for free references online you can trust to be research backed, i would add “cooperative extension” to your searches to look at land grant uni resources made for a public audience. theres one if every state, so even if you’re not in the US you can probably find resources (fact sheets, toolkits, reference materials) that are made for a similar climate and distance from the equator.
This could be it, thanks a lot!
After reading I just went to check, and the old soil is SO damn compact, just under the surface. It’s like crumbling a soft stone. The water pools a little bit before draining, too. Maybe it’s pooling for too long down there, at the root level in that compact soil?
The new substrate is absolutely much better at this regard. It’s a mix of some plant fiber, perlite and rice husks. Water drains much better on this one. It also absorbs a LOT, and I don’t know whether this is good or bad. I mean, a add a bunch of water to a little cup of the substrate, and 10s later it’s as if there’s barely any water at all, it just feels the same as dry. Should I keep adding water when this happens?
Thanks for the resources too. I’ll make an update a month or so from now.
i was out of commission yesterday, but to answer your question… like its possible for substrate to get so dry it wont allow water to infiltrate / becomes hydrophobic but i doubt thats the problem here with what you’ve described.
generally, irrigation schedules call for a single significant watering event–where the container is saturated–in the early morning. and thats it for the day.
a container can be recognized as saturated when the volume of water being added displaces the same amount of water already in the container, leading it it immediately draining out if the bottom.
the substrate itself should be pretty loose, not packed tight. like you iust dumped enough in to the line. you want lots of pores everywhere for holding water droplets and air. ideal pore space volume is 50%: 25% for air, 25% for water. so half of a substrate should be empty space. if its less than that, its compacted and going to cause problems for plant production.
when you water in the morning it’s saturated at 50% substrate, ~50% water. over the next hours more and more water is lost to evaporation, slow drainage from gravity, and some moving up through the plant’s water column, which allows that pore space to have air pockets, which gradually approaches that 50:50 ratio. thats when the plant is most efficiently photosynthesizing.
this is a simplified, idealized description of whats happening.
anyway, the quick rule people use when evaluating substrate for water content is they stick their finger in it the substrate and if it feels “cool” compared to the ambient air temp, its fine and doesn’t need watering. its definitely a vibe thing that comes with experience.
if theres a commercial greenhouse nearby, even retail (but not big box like home depot), you might consider popping in and seeing if you can ask a few home grower questions about watering. its a common issue and a lot of plant nerds are happy to demonstrate some basic concepts.