Quote:
Originally posted by Ron Martin
So does this mean the you are amoung the masses that has a bit of trouble with watering or do you just not understand the conversation ;o)
Hope you know that I am kidding.
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Of course, Ron. No worries!
Actually, I am among the masses that has trouble with watering. I think I'm learning, and getting a lot better, but I wouldn't venture to say that I've got it down to optimal just yet. I've only been using my current soil mix for about 8 months, most of that dormant season. Maybe I'm a slow learner, but it takes me a long time to learn to just intuit when one needs to water each tree, as a function of soil and pot and growth rate and temperature pattern that day and relative humidity and so forth.
My comment about hyrdogen and oxygen meant this: I see soil composition and watering as absolutely interrelated. A well-draining soil gives a bigger margin of error against overwatering; a poorly draining potting mix gives a bigger margin against underwatering. What am I looking for? I want to find a soil mix that optimizes the tree's health and strength while giving me enough latitude not to kill it with the sorts of mistakes that I am still making at this point in the game. The main thing is that my watering advice is next-to-worthless if you use a different soil than I do, and my soil advice is next to worthless if you water differently than I do.
Charles and Ron - So many enthusiasts have an automatic system set up for the same reason that so many enthusiasts don't bother to detail-wire their trees: because their target is "good enough", not "the best possible and then some." This is not to say that automatic watering isn't a good approach for large-scale commercial production, for a backup system, etc., etc. It's only to say that this same logic would lead you to believe that detail wiring is unnecessary, because after all so many enthusiasts don't bother.
With my best regards,
Carl