I’m fairly certain that Tracy and Jason, who grow all of our lovely plants here at the nursery, sometimes/often/always roll their eyes at me when I come to talk about watering.
Watering correctly is without doubt, the one single factor that is responsible for creating strong healthy plants (with strong healthy roots), or poorly grown, weak plants with a small root system but a big susceptibility to pests and diseases.
I could bore you to death with all I’ve learned about watering over the last 30 years. I’ve seen it done well in nurseries. I’ve seen it done terribly. And the results are always identical. Water well and you get a good plant. Every time.
Killed with kindness
A dead, deceased Peace Lily. Overwatered!
Not too late…
Underwatered, but still able to recover.
There are subtle differences to tell you if it’s overwatered or underwatered, but the easiest one is common sense….feel the soil, or pick the pot up. It should tell you all you need!
The subject of watering is vast. I’m very passionate about it, because done properly, your plants will thrive. Done badly, they won’t. Mother Nature is amazing and teaches us all we need to know, if we’re prepared to listen to her.
Over the last 30 years, I’ve learned loads. I still do, every day. And I’ve learned that if you get everything else right, watering is still the bit that lots of people get wrong. It’s enough for a new gardener to be put off such a wonderful, healthy hobby, and that would be a great shame.
So, at The Plant Man we’ve come up with a fairly constant rule, and we try to stick with it whenever we can….
If it’s still wet, don’t water it!
It’s our mantra….
I’ve seen commercial nurseries with plants grown well all over the UK. I’ve seen them grown badly. And I reckon the one factor above all others, is how the nurseries choose to water their plants.
It’s scary how lots of Garden Centres will entrust the most important of all duties, to the poor weekend boys and girls who can only do their best. And if they aren’t told how to do it, it’s no wonder Garden Centres can get a bad name for not knowing how to look after their plants.
So we do use this mantra above all else. And there’s one overriding reason…..we don’t want to overwater our plants.
An overwatered plant is almost certainly going to die if it isn’t allowed to dry out. The water takes all the air out of the soil, and it’s that air which is essential for good root growth. No air = dead plant, and, to steal a famous phrase, ‘not a lot of people know that’…
Soil and compost is full of airspaces. Sandy soil has big ones….so it dries out quickly. Clay soil has little ones, so it holds onto water better.
But all soil types have airspaces, and almost every plant will do better if there is plenty of air available at all times.
Let me explain….
Fancy a swim?
If you’ve ever been brave enough to take a swim off sunny Scarborough, you’ll know how it takes your breath away. Cold, right?
Water stays colder than air, and takes much longer to warm up. The more water you give a plant (particularly in the colder months), the colder it’ll stay…the more it’ll sulk…..and then it just won’t grow as well.
A plant grown in a well drained soil (one where excess water drains easily, allowing for moisture AND big air spaces for the roots to breathe) will always outperform a plant which is growing in a cold, wet soil.
Makes sense? So how about this….
Do you crave water when you’re not thirsty? I know I don’t. So do you think plants are any different?
They really aren’t. If a plant has adequate water, I promise you it won’t appreciate being bombarded with water every time you get the hosepipe out. It’ll feel just as cold as the brave lady swimming in the serpentine above!
Overwatering causes roots to rot. Too much water in the soil pushes all the air out, and the roots end up swimming in water and unable to breathe. We’d perish in minutes if we had to hold our breath, the poor old roots won’t last more than a few days before they start to die. And once a root rots, it simply stops working. Ironically, a wet boggy soil stops the plant being able to use water if that makes sense. This is why overwatering, unless caught quickly, normally commits your pride and joy to an early grave.
It’s also why an overwatered plant and an underwatered plant can often show similar symptoms.
Underwatering, by comparison, rarely leads to the plant dying. If a plant gets dry, it uses millions of years of evolution to save itself, and the main way of doing this is to wilt. It’s trying to save itself. The roots are still perfectly happy but it’s telling you it needs water! You’ll be amazed how quickly they’ll recover….as long as you catch them in time.
Our magic houses
We’d be lost without them
You’d be forgiven if you thought we grew all of our plants in heat, to grow them quickly.
But you’d be wrong.
In a world where seasonality is disappearing and you can now buy summer bedding plants in January, we are very old school and we use no heat. Not in any of our growing tunnels.
Our lovely Rachel on the tills does seem to perform better at 30 degrees, but that’s another story….
Our polytunnels are used to keep plants healthy, by keeping them dry. It’s as simple as that.
Without wanting to sound like a bore, a dry plant has more air available a the root. If it’s drier, it’s warmer. If it’s warmer, it grows better for us. We grow over 100,000 bedding plants here at The Plant Man, looked after religiously by Tracy and Jason. We start them in March and April, when frost is still a huge problem. But they stay dry in the tunnels, and the guys water them only when they need it. Then they leave them alone.
And guess what? We are able to grow stronger, healthier, more resilient plants than anyone else I can think of. All because they are watered with care, attention, and very keen eyes.
So, that’s about it! It’s a huge subject I could bore you for days on, but I won’t. I think it’s perhaps the most important aspect of keeping your plants happy, and at the same time, it’s actually one of the easiest to remember…..
If it’s already wet, don’t water it!
Easy, right?
So, next time you visit us, and you pick up a plant which might feel a bit light, I hope we might have explained why. If it’s wilting, tell us for sure and we’ll get straight on it. But if it looks happy and vibrant, guess what…..it is!