Quote:
Originally Posted by AlittleSalt
Thank you for sharing that Carolyn. I will use the word Tolerance from now on.
Worth, when we moved here, my father bought 20 acres. Years later he sold the front 10 acres - it's a pecan orchard. The people who bought the land did not graft or take care of the trees in any way. Now half of them are dead. The 7 year drought got them.
Star, I dug down 8 inches and the soil looks great - not too wet or dry. I took a picture - sorry it's blurry - why so deep? Here transplanted tomato roots only grow down around 4 or 5 inches and spread out.
There's a thunderstorm building right over us.
...Of course it is...I just picked up the downed limbs from the last wind storm.
Good thing I didn't wash the car or it would flood  |
Sorry to have you do some extra work digging. Reason I asked is first I wanted to make sure that your soil was not too dry or too wet. You need three things in your soil. Your grains of soil and air pockets. The air pockets for not only air for the plant but hold water. Too little and the plants wilt and burn. Too much and the roots rot. Took me many years of checking soil after rains and watering to see how much actually stayed in the ground and how deep and what watering count I needed. Of course that all goes out the window with too many rainstorms.
For going down that deep, another reason is because even though your plants are transplanted, you still have a main taproot. Depending on how deep you bury your plants, that tap root can actually be planted alot deeper than what you had it growing in your container. If your taproot gets too much water it will rot and also will not produce the feeder roots which are the ones growing sideways. I could be wrong, but actually you should have some of the feeder roots growing down as deep as the tap root. If the feeder roots all staying near surface they may be getting too much water at top soil level and being lazy and not growing deeper and making stronger healthier roots.
Since your soil is moist and not too dry that deep, you might plant your seedlings that deep. That way you'll have some stronger roots and feeder roots hopefully, plus you won't have as many RNK moving along with the water in the top of the soil to affect your new growth of feeder roots and attaching to them.
Sometimes I only have one or two inches of top growth showing so I can plant deep. The saying is , "Take care of the roots and the tops will take care of themselves." This I have found to be true.
Like Carolyn says, there no plant that resistant, only some more tolerant of others. Give healthy bottoms and they more apt to be able to withstand some diseases and attacks from pests.