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Posted on 6:50 PM by Wanto and filed under
By Damien Mountains

Water is essential to all forms of life. No life can exist without moisture. Food, warmth and light are all less important than water, and just as humans can live longer without food than they can without water, so can plants.

But the basic difference between plants and all forms of animal life, including humans, is that plants cannot reject the water they are given. If a pet dog or cat is given water then it will drink as much as it requires and leave the remainder, possibly to be consumed at a later time. But if a plant is given water it can only accept it. This, coupled with the fact that we all tend to be overgenerous and over-solicitous of our plants, is the reason why more plants die from overwatering than from any other cause.

Even better results are obtained by soaking the pot thoroughly by submersion. In this case the pot is taken to a bucket or sink of water and submerged entirely, even the plant itself going under water in certain circumstances. If the plant is left there until air bubbles cease to rise from the soil surface this will mean that every air space will be filled with water.

Watering can be a successful cure of this trouble not so much because of the additional moisture that is received by the roots of the plant as because by watering the pore spaces are opened up and the excess carbon dioxide is either pushed out or allowed to escape into the air, being replaced by healthy oxygen.

It is helpful to know the two functions of the process of watering to understand why the application of water to a house plant is a vital matter. When you pour water on the soil at the base of a plant this water quickly disappears downwards through the soil and if sufficient has been applied it trickles out through the hole or holes at the base of the pot.

Now when this water courses through the soil it drags clown after it by suction a certain amount of air. Both water and air are essential to the life of the plant roots.

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