Hi All,
I have two ground pots that either won't grow anything or what grows looks all stunted and diseased. Two years in a row. The worst one has not killed three hollyhock transplants and hollyhocks are the one thing I am good at.
What to do?
I was thinking of digging out the two pots, disposing of the contents, let the holes suffer the summer heat, then over winter them. Come spring, fill them with peat moss.
Your thoughts?
-T
T wrote: ...
i'd never throw away organic material if i can help it.
hollyhocks are usually not that great when transplanted. i suspect those pots aren't deep enough for them. try some elemental sulphur in them and then plant something else next season.
is there something else going on with those locations? like do they get flooded more often or not at all compared to the others? more light more heat, etc.?
i'd use worm castings instead of peat moss. there's just not much to peat moss and i don't think it works well for arid climates. around here i can create my own leaf mould or something that looks a lot like peat moss after it has been buried for a few years below a few feet of clay.
songbird
I was concerned that it had some disease in it
Indeed.
Here is the thing. I am very successful at hollyhock transplants. It is the one thing I am good it. Well, that and growing dandelions. That pot is the only pot I have lost transplants (3 of them) in over the last two years. I am SNEAKY!
That pot has also killed four clipping of choke berries and that is how choke berries are propagated.
It is just twp pots in a rows with multiple others. The pots on either side have no issues.
Over two years it have become obvious that there is something wrong with the pots and not the plants.
Sometimes, if I do not get enough rocks or dig deep enough (tied of the rocks), pots won't perform. But when that happens, leaves show signs of wilting, as it the were not watered enough. The leaves are not stunted and strivel.
I add chicken scat based fertilizer to the peat moss. The main reason for the peat is to control the high alkalinity of the soil.
Worm castings sound interesting too. Do you have a favorite brand? Any mixed with peat?
One of the local composters sells a quart of worm casing joy juice from 80 U$D. I will pass.
it may have, but maybe not all plants will be harmed by it.
transplanting into full sun can be more stress than they can tolerate.
if you're that worried about it then dig it all out and make the holes bigger and then throw it away or burn it or bury it deeply where it won't be disturbed.
i make my own via buckets of worms that i keep for digesting all the household food and paper scraps. it is my only fertilizer besides green manure crops and burying plant debris. i get between 160-200lbs a year that gets used in the gardens. i don't bother to separate the worms from the castings when i take them out to the gardens as i can keep enough worms back to restart the buckets for the coming year, by the time the next year comes around i have plenty of worms again.
yeah, i don't drain any liquids off the buckets as that is part of the fertilizer i want to capture. if you pay attention to how much wet stuff you add to a bucket you won't get too much liquid. worms are actually very tolerant of water and don't mind if the ground is near saturation. as long as they can get enough oxygen they can survive.
songbird
In the spring, when I was transplanting my plants from Walley World, I noticed that when I made the hole to put the transplant in, that each pot had a worm in it. Threw the worm back in the hole. Things are looking up!
Purslane does not seem to care.
haha! it is a plant that seems to do well here in about any garden.
songbird
It gets pissed at me if I don't water it enough.
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