Tuesday, March 21, 2006
An Easy Way to Avoid Overwatering, and Keep Roots Healthy
By: Russell Johnston
-- exclusive – may not be reproduced --
Overwatering is the largest menace your houseplants face, but there's a simple way that you can help prevent damage to their roots from rootrot. A solution that can make it at least somewhat safer to water your plants frequently – so it can reduce the risk of damage from underwatering, as well.
When we water plants we naturally try to distribute the water around the pot, so that all its roots are fed at least some moisture, in imitation of nature, without thinking much about that habit. But largely by accident, I've found there's another way, and one that helps protect those precious roots.
If you water on one side of the pot only each time you water a plant, but alternate which side you soak this helps protect the roots. In other words, if you're watering once a week, then on even numbered weeks you could deliver the water to the right side, and on odd numbered weeks, to the right. Whichever side got the water last time, gets none this time.
How does this help the roots? Well, roots don't drown the way people drown. Roots are designed to stay under water for a while, without having to breathe in oxygen. But if they stay under too long, then that water is also very friendly to bacteria, mold, and all sorts of other organisms that are even better adapted to an aquatic environment, and the invaders will begin to attack and rot the roots. As long as they spend a fair bit of time with air around them, roots are quite safe from rot, since it cuts off the attacks. As for the plant itself, it wants water, but it doesn't much care which side of the pot that water comes from, as long as it gets enough. Likewise, the roots on the dryer side of the pot will benefit from whatever water the plant absorbs on the other side of the pot, even if they aren't absorbing any themselves.
Obviously, always watering only one side of the pot, the same side every time, is a bad idea. The roots on both sides may perish for different reasons. So you do want to keep alternating sides, very regularly.
It also goes without saying that if you're really enthusiastic about watering your plants, you can still put in so much water that below the surface, the roots on both sides are getting drowned, and die. By alternating the sides you water it's much more difficult to drown the roots, but it's not impossible.
Introducing a slightly random element by switching off which side the roots are being watered on, gives all the roots a chance to rest in partly dry soil quite regularly. That's really all they need to stay healthy, because dramatically changing moisture levels are very much a part of nature. What's not natural is for roots to remain in even a little too much water week after week. This bit of randomness greatly reduces the risk of overwatering because you are no longer trying to strike a very delicate balance within a relatively small amount of soil which simultaneously offers both air and water to all the roots, and to maintain that balance nearly all the time. Something that's very difficult to do. Instead, by switching which part of the soil is wet very regularly, all your plants' roots will get enough air and enough water to stay healthy over the long run; without your having to struggle to maintain such a precise balance. Your plant friends will thank you for it, and you'll be less anxious for their health.
-- exclusive – may not be reproduced --
About the author:
Russell Johnston writes for Handales.com, which offers a large variety of articles on gardening.
