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In today’s article, we will quickly debunk 20 interesting and unbelievable gardening myths and reveal some extremely useful scientific facts and tips related to Gardening.
Well, This can be a very nice high school project for kids, to grow two similar plants, one in a transparent container and one in an opaque container and then compare these two. As you can see nothing happens to the plant grown in transparent containers. The actual concern is, root exposure to AIR and even the heat from sunlight that can cause drying and can damage your plant. But still you are advised to keep the roots in the dark. This is because of algae growth due to light and your roots are not getting enough oxygen because the algae is stealing the oxygen and nutrients for itself. So light as such does not hurt the roots, but air, heat and algae hurt the roots and kill the plant.
There are many studies and researches conducted on this topic. Basically, Plants lack a nervous system – that is a brain and other neurological structures like nerves and pain receptors, so they should not feel pain, unlike in humans and animals where we have specialised pain receptors.
But according to some researches, “Plant can know of themselves being eaten” because studies have shown that plants release defence chemicals in response to caterpillars munching on them.
Other points include: Plants fight for territory, seek out food, evade predators and interestingly trap prey like what your see in carnivorous plants like the venus fly trap. They are as alive like any animal, and – like animals – they exhibit behaviour.
This is False! Many people recommend you to provide support to these young slender plants due to the risk of wind blowing them and things like that. Unless it’s a strong wind, tying a sapling or young plant to a support stick or any kind of support will actually do more harm than good. Research has shown that trees without support, over a period of time will develop thicker trunks, more supportive roots and more resistance to breakages.
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There are many signs to know whether your plant can still survive. If your plant is looking dry and has shed its leaves, most of us think its dead. But actually, it may be alive or can be revived. Please watch my detailed episode on this topic demonstrating how to save a dying plant. I have linked that video in description below.
Yes! Some, but not all plants can be propagated from just a leaf or a section of a leaf. Leaf cuttings of most plants will not generate a new plant; they usually produce only a few roots or just decay. There are many ways you can grow leaves into a new plant, like 1. from a leaf petiole, 2. by dividing a leaf into multiple pieces for example fleshy succulent plants like sanseviera or the snake plant and other succulents. Other methods of propagation like cane or stub cuttings, root cuttings, leaf bud cuttings and so on.
Water proofing the terrace is not always necessarily, unless you plan to build raised bed terrace garden. If you grow in container, you only need to check whether the water draining out of the pots is easily flowing out of the terrace and not stagnant.
It might sound weird but, there are many incredible Uses of Charcoal in the Garden. If you want to develop a healthy garden, please watch this episode till the end.
There are many types of charcoal available to purchase. But the good news is charcoal is very inexpensive to buy, though online prices are a bit on higher side than offline purchase. You get Hardwood and Softwood charcoal. Hard wood charcoal is best for gardening. Will tell you why as we proceed further. You also get special charcoals like coconut shell charcoal, bamboo coal, horticultural charcoal, activated charcoal and so on. It doesn’t matter, you can just use hard wood charcoal for your garden.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Wood Charcoal https://amzn.to/3FsyoNh
Coconut Charcoal https://amzn.to/3KTRKw3
Let us discuss the benefits of charcoal in gardening.
10. FILLING YOUR POT BOTTOM: Charcoal is porous and light weight and filling your container with pieces of charcoal at the bottom of your container, instead of using heavy weight rocks and pebbles, reduces your pot weight and you can lift or move your pot easily. This is a great boon for terrace gardeners.
9. CHARCOAL MULCHING: You don’t always need straws and twigs for mulching your top soil. You can use spread small charcoal pieces and enjoy the benefits of mulching. Mulching creates a protective covering over the soil surface and prevents moisture evaporation from the soil. It also helps to prevent weed growth over the soil.
8. GARDEN DÉCOR: Using a layer of small pieces of charcoal as mulch, especially around light-colored plants is a nice and unique way to create a different look in your garden!
7. AS AN ANTI-FUNGAL: Mixing charcoal to soil is an effective strategy to treat or prevent fungal infections in plants, especially succulents and adeniums which are more prone to fungal rot. Just include 10% of small pieces of charcoal in your potting mix to keep harmful fungi at bay.
6. INSECT KILLER: Sprinkle powdered charcoal over your plants. This helps deter many insects like the voracious beetles which can create havoc in your garden or on your crops.
5. PESTICIDE RESIDUE REMOVAL: The absorption qualities of charcoal powder, especially activated charcoal, helps in neutralizing the harmful effect of pesticides. Mix 500 grams of charcoal powder to 1 gallon of water (1 gallon is 3.78 litres). Spray or sprinkle this over the pesticide treated plants. This is very useful in edible gardening.
4. REDUCE FERTILIZER FREQUENCY: Charcoal will also absorb any fertilizer you put into the garden and will hold it over a long period of time, providing the plants a slow, steady supply. Here, you need to know one thing – Hard wood holds more nutrients than soft wood.
3. INCREASE SOIL PH: If your soil is highly acidic like PH of 5 or below, you need to increase the soil ph to desired level. A soil ph of 6.0 +/-0.5 is considered ideal for most plants. The potassium content in charcoal and also wood ash raises the pH balance of the soil and neutralizes the acid. Just don’t add too much ash, because if you increase the soil ph too much – like over 7, the plants may not do well, because most of the nutrient absorption in soil happens at a PH of around 6.0. So, How much of charcoal to add per container or per plant? You can add 100 gms or max 200 gms of charcoal per standard container – like a 12-inch container. Of course depending upon your soil PH level. You can read a detailed post on soil ph and its importance in improving flowering HERE.
2. IN POTTING SOIL: Charcoal acts as an excellent soil conditioner, thanks to its low cost, and in fact it’s a suitable replacement of lime in soil additive mixes. It makes the soil a well-draining soil which is very important for plant growth. It is the high porosity of charcoal that benefits plant soils because it offers more of the oxygen that plant roots need to stay alive.
1. REMOVES BAD ODOURS IN SOIL AND COMPOST: You can sprinkle charcoal powder over your compost to reduce foul odors that may arise during composting. Also, when included in potting soil, charcoal soaks up the nauseating odors of compost and manure, while leaving the nutritional integrity of the mixture intact.
]]>Well the answer depends on two important factors. Firstly the weight of your Terrace garden, I mean total weight including containers, potting soil, plants and all the load. Secondly the Construction quality of your building whether its build very well including concrete columns, the thickness of walls and the thickness of the slab, the span of a room and so on. Generally you might have to be careful only if you building is too old or if you are just not confident on this aspect. Otherwise, if carefully planned there should not be any problem of loads arising due to terrace gardening, specially if you grow plants in containers and place them along the walls on the terrace, whatever the weight of the container might be.
This is infact a vast topic. We will discuss in detail in some other episode. Simplest way is to keep some water for birds or even bird feeders Or a bird house, keeping them some seeds and so on.