soil Plants hit a brick wall..possibly the soil??

[ferozaj]

Gday all,

As a follow up, in the downunder aussie thread we were discussing soils/potting mixes.

Basically the background is i feel like all my plants have hit a brick wall (those in pots)

Some i have had for 6 months and others i have had for 2 months yet they cannot break past their first set of leaves...


I thought it may be because i was overwatering and killing them myself but after chatting to some others im wondering if the cheap potting mix with fertiliser in it is killing them.


I used 100% potting mix didnt mix it with anything else.

Id very much appreciate input as im struggling to understand why these arent growing (i come from a different area of gardening, quite new to chillis). If people think this is the problem what can i do to help it?? mix in some mulch?? some blood and bone and sand? etc.. Something easy because im not that good and when people start talking of mixes made from many multiple mediums i start getting confused...

Heres the info

This was the bulgarian carrot that managed to overwinter, lost all its leaves but they are now sprouting back.

Thing is it also looks like it has hit a wall, same as my smaller jalapenos that germinated.

What i did was tip it out to take a look.

Below you can see the nice potting mix...maybe perfect for something other than chillis...

The thing that shocked me was the lack of roots..this plant has been alive for say 6 months or so and thats all the roots it has...It did produce a few pods this year...


Do you think this has anything to do with the potting mix?? ive likely used this same one in all my potted plants maybe thats why they are all stunted and going no where...


Ive planted it in the ground in a mix of sand - small amount of potting mix and some mulch...hopefully that helps it..will be a good experiment.

Barely any roots for a plant that is 6 months old

His new home, in a mix of mulch/sand/potting mix

 

[geeme]

I only use straight-up potting mix, so as long as you have a good one, that shouldn't be an issue. Looks like your plant was getting too big for the pot. I've found that root size varies by variety, so that in and of itself doesn't tell me anything. Seeing that your root ball is about the same size as the stem and branches, I'd say it's doing ok.

When I overwinter mine, I first pull them out of their pots and give them an intense pruning, both branches and roots, ensuring the top and bottom are about the same size. Then I put them into fresh potting soil. I've found some plants with fairly large tops have surprisingly small root systems.

 

[ferozaj]

yeah true, i think the perspective is distorted in my photos thought, the roots were much smaller than the top...

Im just thinking i guess its the cheap potting mix i bought...seems to hold water a lot, maybe i just need to mix in some mulch from under the top layer of my garden...


I guess i bigger pot wouldnt hurt, not that it matters now because its in the ground

 

[JDFan]

Is the potting mix as you say is holding too much water or are you watering too often so it doesn't have the time to dry out properly between waterings ? Figure if the roots are sitting in soil that never dries out it doesn't need to send roots out looking for water and nutrients so will grow fewer roots.

 

[ferozaj]

hmmm that is a very interesting take...makes perfect sense too..

THe roots are there to pick up nutrients and water right, if it can get everything it needs it wont look further??

Does this mean it still flowers even though its small because to repoduce it doesnt have to work that hard or be large, only needs a few pods etc.

Kinda like a bonzai chilli

Hopefully in its new home it will flourish, ill definitely post pics of it takes off to round out the thread

I think i need to fix all my pots then...add some more air space via some more coarse mulch etc

 

[Dave2000]

The roots will keep growing either way unless they are rotting which is probably what is happening due to poor soil drainage because it has compacted too much. Yes some mulchy dirt, and moss would help. It need not be very coarse mulch.

When using cheap potting mix it is more important than ever to not water as much when the plants are young so the roots get a chance to grow a lattice that suspends the soil before application after application of water compacts it.

 

[thegreenman]

Something light like vermiculite or perlite will help create porespace and let the plants breathe.

 

[ferozaj]

thanks for the info, ill take a look this afternoon..

Need to sort this out because all my potted plants are in the same situation.


I assume this is similar for flowers etc? always good to mix the potting mix with something more 'airy'

 

[Kerosene]

What potting mix are you using? I tried some of the cheap stuff ($5ish a bag) from Bunnings, and it's incredibly crap.
I pulled out a few of my 4-6 month old "cheap'n'nasty potting mix" plants, rinsed them off, and put them into a DWC hydro system, and they immediately took off like crazy.

 

[ferozaj]

Thats great to know!!

Hey mate just some 5 dollars hortico cheap potting mix from bunnings

I just made up my own potting mix then made up for organic compost, blood and bone, vermiculite and some cutting sand and soil. I shook off most of the potting mix which was compacted and moist..no air flow etc..then potted them in this mixture. i hope ill see changes in a few days. I gave them a squirt of miracle grow after being repotted

Hopefully they take off, there is a full write up in the oz thread.