How can ‘over-potting’ be a thing when plants grow straight from the Earth’s surface with infinite amounts of soil available?
In: 1858
‘Over-potting’ isn’t about ‘too much soil’. It specifically refers to the relationship between a plants ability to uptake water, and the soil it’s planting in, ability to dry out.
Most plants require a wet/dry cycle to properly grow. If you put a teeny-tiny plant in a big giant pot and water the pot until it’s entirely saturated, the amount of soil in the pot will take longer to dry out than the plant’s ability to uptake the water. Thus, the plant can literally ‘drown’ because in addition to water, their roots require oxygen, and they die.
Plants in the ground have this problem also….it’s just that there’s usually plenty of other plants competing for that water and they deal with it.
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