large eggs in soil

[Jen]

Hello,

I have a gardenia plant indoors. It's about a year and a half old. It started to get yellow leaves so I repotted with fresh potting soil it into a larger terracotta pot.(I think my husband was overwatering it). Now the leaves are drooping but are green. i went to take a look today and noticed several very large round spherical eggs in the soil!!! I don't think they're soil gnats or anything because each egg is almost as big as a pencil eraser and whiteish yellow! My husband popped one with a pen and it was semi hard and filled with liquid. We don't know what to do and can't figure out what these things are! Thank you very very much for your help!

[V_coerulea]

Where do you live? Gardenias need an acid soil and acid fertilizer. Here in SC you throw them in the soil with a little acid fertilizer and you've got a bush. More than likely, the "eggs" are Osmocote or some other time-release fertilizer, that swells with water and releases ferilizer with each watering over a period of months depending on the manufacturer. These capsules will provide your plant with the fertilizer it needs to stay healthy and should be left in place. You might need to acidify the soil. A simple pH test would tell you. Gary

[Sed5555]

I doubt that they are "eggs", potting soil is usually sterile, but rather something added to the soil such as perlite, to help hold water for the plant. sed5555

[Pen]

Slow release fertilizer capsules? Any chance you can send a picture?

[escapee]

Those are fertilizer prills which slowly release nutrients into the otherwise bland potting mix.

[Gardñ]

escapee in news: [e-mail]:

almost size of eraser? do prills come that large?

[Andrew Ostrander]

I thought it was a typo for pill, but apparently not. I gather from the internet that a prill is a spherical pellet of fertilizer, sulfur, whatever. Original meaning, the button of metal from an assay.