Succulent plant water control - Garden friends have something to say
This article provides you with detailed information about succulent plants, water control of succulent plants - what garden friends have to say, which can certainly help you. Let's learn about it together!
Water control of succulent plants has always been a hot topic among meat friends in summer. Everyone has their own understanding of water control. This article is the views of garden friends on water control of succulent plants, which is very helpful for meat friends to understand water control. The original text has been slightly modified for easy reading.
Original title: A sentence "summer water control" killed many succulents...
First of all, about water - succulent plants are drought-resistant, not drought-loving. Sufficient water is the best condition for any living thing. Drought is just something that has to be faced and accustomed to.
Secondly, about temperature - both high temperature and low temperature can inhibit the biological activity of enzymes and various proteins, slowing down the growth rate, but only slowing down, not stopping. As long as any living thing doesn't die, it has metabolism, even seeds, they still have respiration.
Therefore, at any time, succulents need water, and once they are short of water for too long, the root hair will dry up and die. Therefore, we still need to water them in summer...
Why do we need to control water in summer?
Firstly, the biological activity of plants decreases and the water demand indeed decreases. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it is to prevent black rot.
High temperature can not only reduce the activity of plants but also provide the best breeding temperature for fungi. Especially when there is enough water, the soil in the pot is like a paradise for fungi. Therefore, plants are prone to black rot in summer. To prevent black rot, some people have come up with methods such as water control or even water cutoff. Because without water, any living thing cannot survive, and fungi are no exception. Without water, they cannot reproduce and will not rot.
However, this is a move that hurts the enemy and oneself - leading to leaf dehydration, shrinkage, and even falling off, as well as the death of root hair.
So the following situations occur:
1. Healthy root hair will not rot when it encounters fungi because the cell wall itself is a protective layer that can prevent fungal infection (this is also the reason why we need to dry the roots after pruning and let the wounds heal before putting them in the pot). However, when the root hair is damaged due to excessive drought, it is like our wounded skin exposed to water (with bacteria in it) and rots. Therefore, when you water next time, because the root hair is injured, fungi immediately take advantage of the opportunity and quickly cause black rot. This is why some people, despite controlling water, still rot after occasionally watering. Then they blame the heavens and curse themselves for not controlling the water well. In fact, it's not about not controlling it well, but it's not necessary. If you don't control it from the beginning and the root hair is not injured, subsequent watering will not cause black rot.
2. Regarding dormancy, I'm afraid most people think of dormancy as plants turning into dead things, completely falling into silence, as if it is a subjective behavior. However, in reality, so-called dormancy is the phenomenon that the activity of enzymes and proteins in organisms is reduced due to temperature. They don't recognize the seasons and won't decide to sleep when summer comes and wake up in autumn.
Dormancy is just because the external temperature is high, the activity of enzymes and proteins is affected, so the rate of metabolism decreases. When the temperature is appropriate, the activity of enzymes is released to the maximum, and they quickly become active. This is a real-time dynamic process, not a seasonal one (if the temperature is raised to 40 degrees Celsius in winter, the plant's metabolism rate decreases and it immediately enters the so-called dormant state). No living thing will fall into complete silence at any stage, which means there is no such thing as complete dormancy.
The above is the prerequisite. In the 24 hours of summer, 40 degrees Celsius may only be for a few hours. When the temperature in the early morning, evening, and late at night is below 35, or even 30 degrees Celsius, plants will still be active, still thinking about drinking water and growing. However, due to water control and no watering, they can't drink when they want to and can only sleep silently without growing. Moreover, at this time, the root hair is damaged, even if there is water, they can't absorb it and can only drink a large amount of fungi. Therefore, many people say, "I watered, but I didn't see the leaves become firm and full of vitality." They firmly say, "Succulents really go into complete dormancy in summer." In fact, this is all because you forced them. They want to grow, but you don't give them water. They are active, but you think they are completely silent.
3. After a summer, plants with healthy root hair grow a little every day, and even if it's slow, they still get bigger. But yours are still small. Once autumn comes and the temperature is appropriate, plants with healthy root hair quickly resume growth. After a ball day, they become large and beautiful (but actually, beauty is also an unhealthy state for plants, which needs another post to discuss). However, your plants first need to consume leaves to restore root growth, which is like repotting. After the root hair grows, they can then replenish the leaves and finally recover to the size before summer. Then winter comes. Even if you think autumn has come and you can water abundantly, due to the damaged root hair, they may rot again. Although the seeds were sown at the same time, after a year or two, when others post pictures, they are almost finished products, or even beautiful old trees, while you silently look at the grape-sized, wrinkled leaves and kick with a heavy step, muttering to yourself, "Damn, I've been cheated. The seeds (seedlings) must be wrong, otherwise, why are they different?"
So, how can we keep the plants moisturized, prevent the death of root hair, and prevent fungi from taking advantage of the opportunity?
Firstly, healthy root hair can resist the invasion of fungi to a certain extent, so we must ensure the health of root hair and not stop watering. After all, high temperature at this time reduces the biological activity of plants, so they don't need much water. Too much water can only make it easier for fungi to reproduce. Therefore, we need to control the amount of watering, not to pour the pot and let the roots soak in water, but to water around the pot wall. The surrounding soil becomes wet, and the water will seep into the center along the soil. This way, the water will not be too much, and fungi will not have a good breeding ground.
Secondly, the temperature is high in summer, and sometimes the wind is strong, so the evaporation of water is actually very fast. To keep the roots moisturized, we need to increase the frequency of watering. Yes, that's right! In spring and autumn, less water evaporates, and more water is absorbed by plants. The total amount of water absorbed is always the same, so the interval between watering is longer. In summer, most of the water evaporates, and less water is poured, so we need to increase the watering frequency. Compared with this, the total amount of water poured may still be more in summer than in spring and autumn, not less.
Finally, use hymexazol once every ten or fifteen days (hymexazol, not carbendazim. Hymexazol is better for soil disinfection and can also promote root growth. It's a good product. It will sooner or later replace carbendazim and become the mainstream fungicide). Fungi are all dead, so what's the point of rot? This is also very important.
Additionally, let me add a point about the timing of watering: in the evening. This way, after a night of evaporation, the water you poured has evaporated by several percentages, and it will not become a steamer under the midday sun.
As long as there is no waterlogging, the presence of water will only cool your potting soil because of evaporation. Of course, if there is waterlogging, it becomes a steamer, the roots are ripe, and fungi are ready to bite.
The principle is simple: water when the soil surface is dry, keeping the soil moist but not wet, and not waterlogged for too long. If there is a strong wind at night, you can try to water thoroughly. But please do it at night, not in the morning. Because what greets the morning is the scorching sun, and what greets the evening is the cool night.
以上, just said so much, but it's all theory, at most a "reason", what's the "evidence"?
Personally, I do it this way: when the surface soil is dry, I immediately water a circle. Since the amount of water is small and the evaporation is large, the same pot of plants almost needs to be watered every other day. If I encounter high temperatures and strong winds, I water every evening. At the same time, because the size of the pots is different, the rate of water evaporation is different, and the drying time is not the same, so I actually need to water different types of plants every day. And when watering, it's inevitable to get a little wet. When I see that the surface of the red jade soil is still quite dark, I will still water a little.
Even so, not a single one has died so far. Moreover, several of my plants that were not good at all, after I cut the heads in June (I think), have sprouted many new heads and become multi-heads. They have been growing healthily all summer (since they are new sprouts, it can be clearly judged that they are growing) - of course, relatively slowly, just waiting for autumn to come, grow rapidly, and then safely become pseudo-old stakes...
In conclusion, if you just want to keep it alive, then you might as well stop watering completely, not water control, but complete cutoff, because cutoff may be better, and please add a fungicide when you water for the first time in the future; If you have even a little bit of pursuit, and you want to keep your succulents healthy all year round, with the best growth and condition, then please water in summer, don't control water, and don't let the soil dry. The difference between summer and spring and autumn is only the amount and frequency of watering each time, not intentionally not watering, which is害了它的命.
In the end, although the above words seem reasonable and well-founded, they are still just one person's opinion. Welcome to criticism and correction.
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