Over watering your plants?

I bought started growing gardenia as a houseplant 3 months ago and while two of the shrubs have done well, one of the shrubs is not showing any new growth and its bottom leaves are turning yellow. The same with my rosemary where my tiny green leaves are wilting away. And I realized that the issue was that of overwatering. Everytime I left for a trip I overwatered my plants, I water them every other day even though the soil is moist at the top.

In terms of providing an example, you can see how my plant has lost leaves at the lower level of its stem, the second pictures shows you another leaf that has turned yellow and the third picture shows you the leaves that have turned yellow and fallen. I am hoping that I will be able to turn this plant around.

To address the issue, I read up on it and found a great article on signs of plants affected by too much watering. The link for the article is as follows:
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/problems/signs-of-plants-affected-by-too-much-water.htm

Another article around watering indoor plants, quiet helpful published by Clemson Extension school: http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1459.htm

Also as per my prior blog use a soil moisture meter to check the moisture level and water accordingly.

Happy Planting, stop over watering.

Urban Garden

For all who live in compact apartments know that growing plants takes up too much space in terms of where do you put the 2 quarts of soil, fertilizers, pots etc. I found some great ways to get started in a compact way.

Compact Greenhouse:

Jiffy International a Norwegian company makes a great product to start your compact greenhouse. I used the little Jiffy pellets to start my seeds. Get the Jiffy-7 5710 Mini Greenhouse 12 Peat Pellet for a mere $3.08. Just add water to the pellets that expand, dig a tiny hole and add one to three seeds, cover them back up with some peat. Set these in the greenhouse and store it in a dark warm place. I put the greenhouse in the oven and it worked great. Once the "true leaves" appear transplant the whole pellet into a pot. Its that easy!

Wonder Soil:

For soil I got the Wonder Soil. Wonder soil is an expanding potting mix that comes in 1/2 inch wafers. Just a cup of hot water, and one soil wafer expands to 14 times its original volume. Great for transplanting your jiffy pellets, one wafer fills a 4-inch pot. Or add water to all 18 in the 1-pound tube and you'll have the equivalent of a 10-pound bag of regular potting soil. This lightweight, soil-less medium is made of coconut coir, peat moss and water-absorbing polymers.

Whats more, this is a true international product, it is distributed from Mexico and actually made in Sri Lanka.

Watch the video on how it grows, its a true wonder:


My first leaves of Basil after two weeks of starting my seeds in the pellets:

The first leaves on all plants look the same. Little eyes looking out at you from the soil. I have already transplanted the pellet into the pot using the wondersoil potting mix. The "true leaves" are the little leaves you see in the midst of the first set of leaves. The true leaves look like basil leaves vs. the first leaves.


After one more week, this is how my basil looks:

So all I have to say is that my experiment has worked. I have a healthy basil plant in the midst of November and I am hoping that this plant continues to grow for the rest of the year. Will keep you updated on the progress.

Good Night and Good Luck!