Archive for January, 2009
Top watering or bottom watering?
I received an interesting question by email this week, someone wrote to ask if there was a list of plants preferring to be bottom watered as opposed to top watered.
Most people know that African Violets prefer bottom watering and that’s about it. While I don’t know of a list of plants preferring bottom to top watering I can give you some rules of thumb:
Bottom water preferring plants:
- Plants that are tropical and prefer moist soil, including African voilets but any plant that prefers moist soil and warm temperatures.
- Plants that don’t like wet leaves, this is usually your warm weather tropicals and plants with fuzzy leaves, like Purple Passion/Purple Velvet plant.
- Bog plants including Venus flytraps, pitcher plants and other bog plants grown inside.
Top water preferring plants:
- Any plant planted in sand like cactus, the sand doesn’t wick up enough water from the bottom to water the plant.
- Any plant in bark, same as above, to bottom water a plant you need a soil that will wick the water up. So orchids in bark need water from the top.
Rising fertilizer prices and spiked organic fertilizer
Rising fertilizer prices have been effecting farmers and home gardeners all year. Prices doubled then tripled in 2008. Most of the rise in prices is due to the idiotic ethanol fiasco. Another reason is that natural gas prices have been rising which is the main source of nitrogen in many fertilizers. So you would think a company that makes organic fertilizers, would benefit from the rising market. Instead one company California Liquid Fertilizer spiked its organic fertilizers with ammonium sulfate.
California Liquid Fertilizer claims to make organic fertilizer from fish and chicken waste and by products. The rising price of gas would not have effected their costs, yet make it able for them to charge more keeping with current prices. So it is difficult to understand why they would do such a stupid thing.
Many organic farms are now at risk of losing their organic status.
The California regulatory agency was informed of the problem by a whistleblower in 2004.
More information:
Organic Farms unknowingly used a synthetic fertilizer
Rising fertilizer prices causing quite a stink
Another, yet unamed organic fertilizer company is also under investigation.
