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Why do virtually all experts...

Why do virtually all experts water their CPs from the bottom up?

To me, this defies logic.  

Mother Nature doesn't routinely ooze and bubble up H2O from the bowels of the earth and furthermore; based on everything I have learned, CPs require good aeration.

Would not watering from above provide the requisite oxygenation these plants so desperately need to thrive?

Watering from below is nothing but wicking and I just don't think the capillary action would provide any added oxygen. Well, come to think of it watering from below would increase the relative humidity around the plant but a decent sized pea gravel tray filled with water does the same thing.

Which brings me to the next question. What does it matter what type of water goes into the pea gravel tray underneath the plants? We've all been using only distilled water to fill the trays but I question this practice when somebody has to lug all that bottled water up 3 flights of stairs into that classroom. So far the somebody lugging up all that water has been me.  

I do exclusively use either rain water or distilled water to water my plants and the school does too. This I understand and am not contesting.
 
Tamlin waters from the top.
 
The ground that most cp grows in are sandy. This ground acts as a sponge, holding a tremendous amout of rain. Almost all the cp's that don't grow in sandy soil, grows in bogs. On top of these bogs are layers of spagn. moss. The cp's grows in this moss. The moss and the sand pulls holds moitures so the roots are always wet. So the tray method is our best way to duplicate this. If you're like me and don't have alot of time to water plants everyday, this is a good way to manage your time so you can keep more plants. Also with some small species, like some sundews, it's hard to water from the top without damageing the plants.
 
EDIT- man do I type slow, Ozzy beat me to it with his more succinct post of nearly the same content.....
I kinda do both and it works okay.... not nearly an "expert" or anything.... the bottom watered "tray method" is likely so popular thanks to the fact that maintaining the wet-ness of the growing medium could be nearly impossible without constant supervision otherwise..... if you have your Drosera collection in a tray and something happens so's you can't water it one day, you don't have to worry so much, especially when the plabts are tiny... one really good dry-out would wipe out my whole collection (at the moment) so the bottom watered tray is a good insurance policy....
Also, top watering can make unwanted channels in the medium , can blast the dew off of 'dews and could even prove fatal to tiny seedlings... I washed a few out of existence once and have been much more careful since that sad day ....
 
I keep Sarrs in trays too, but fill the trays by watering the pots.
 
There are plenty of experts who water plants from top. It just depends on the species mostly. Like I water all my Dionaea's from the top as long with the Sarracenia's and some of the hardier types. Though, it is hard to water VFT's at times since their traps close sometimes (Especially my Regal Red, which ALL 12 traps closed at the same time while I watered overhead). To keep LFS growing good I water them overhead. Many people keep their Darlingtonia's cool to by watering overhead. It's just a matter of preference and specie type.
Hope this helps,
Peter
 
This makes sense to me, "top watering can make unwanted channels in the medium, can blast the dew off of 'dews and could even prove fatal to tiny seedlings... "  I did have to reposition the one little Drosera I have and did start watering it from below.  

But... my little plant is in a pot that rests in a drip tray which is placed on a pebble tray filled with water.  There is no risk of the water in the pebble tray getting into the drip tray and mixing where I have been watering the plant with rain water. Seems as if there is a consensus out there that the water in the pebble tray should be either the rain water or the distilled water also. Why?
 
As long as the waters don't mix there is no need to use r/o or distilled water.
 
I have always watered my plants from the top to keep the tanins and minerals flushed out of the soil. Seedling trays I water well and then plant the seeds. Afterwards I cover the container with a lid or saran wrap until the seeds sprout and have enough roots developed to hold them in place. By putting the spout of my watering container next to the soil and pouring carefully, I minimize splashing and the seeds are less likely to get washed away by the slow flow of water.

As peter says, as long as the tap water can't flow back up into the pot, you should be fine. The tray may have to be cleaned more frequently due to mineral build up. Also keep in mind that water may get into the pot by capillary action or wicking if the pot isn't far enough above the water level to prevent it.
 
  • #10
I do a mix of both methods myself. I have found that Sarracenia especially prefer to be top watered. I usually water all the pots from the top, till it just about overflows the pot, then fill the tray underneath. I use this method for pretty much all my plants, even the smaller dews. Most cp's come from areas with a fair ammount of natural rainfall (much more than we get here in San Jose) and dont seem to mind a brief submersion from top watering.

Steve

EDIT: I seem to remember a discussion a while back regarding the effectiveness of the "pebble tray" for providing humidity. If I remember correctly, the general consensus is that its not really all that effective. Personally I am not a huge believer that humidity is all that big of a deal for most species. I have found a few that really do like it, but for the majority of the common plants its not that important.
 
  • #11
Glad you brought this up Steve, "from the top to keep the tanins and minerals flushed out of the soil".  

I do have that little lingering issue of not having enough guts to do a fizz test on the sand I mixed in with the sphagnum.

I'm thinking the little ones that can get blown away in swirls of water and the VFTs need a combination and everything else gets watered from the top down.  

And, it's tap water for the pebble trays and cat litter boxes from here on out.  

Thanks to all!
 
  • #12
Before you go and put tap water in your most prized plants, try it on some of the least important plants that can be easily replaced. That way if it don't work, you don't kill your whole collection.
 
  • #13
I guess I wasn't all that clear... sorry about that.

I only water my one and only indoor CP with rain water.  Every plant at the school is being watered with either rain water or distilled water.

We had been filling all of the pebble trays that the plants were set in with distilled water.  Since the pots are in drip trays before they are set down into the cat litter boxes or into pebble trays, there is no chance of wicking so I've pretty much decided to fill all the trays with tap water.  It was so dry in the classroom that I was lugging up 3 gallons of distilled water on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  The plants were only requiring about a gallon for actual watering and all the rest was going into the pebble trays.  I would have been more than happy to continue walking up 3 stories of stairs with distilled water for the pebble trays if it was necessary but it doesn't seem to be and I am somewhat of a lazy person by nature if I can get away with being so.
 
  • #14
I guess it depends upon your plants that you grow. I only intentionally grow nepenthes (and orchids) in or on moss and bark.They are flood/flushed with water from the top down through slotted pots that don't retain a lot of excess moisture so the pots will be nearly dry and ready to water again in a few days to a week. This would probably kill those sundews and other things which I can't seem to grow (except for D. aedlae which has somehow infested my highland Nepenthes hamata pot and is growing and flowering out of every open space on the hamata pot...).
 
  • #15
As VFTguy in SJ (is that South Jersey or San Jose or San Juan?
smile_m_32.gif
Sorry, I wanted to work that in, somewhere.) suggests, different appraoches for different situations. Generally, I top water, but for newly germinated seedlings and pigmy dews during the summer, I will just add water to the "tray". The one thing NOT mentioned here about top watering is that supposedly, over time, the media becomes matted down.
 
  • #16
Jimscott, it's San Jose.
 
  • #17
Hehehe thanks Ozzy... Yup San Jose, California
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  • #18
A certain Californian buddy already apprised me of the geographical location. I just wanted to work in a bad joke in there. Here's another one: "Do you know the way to San Jose? I've been away so long, I might get lost and lose my way...."

Um, what was the original topic again?
biggrin.gif
 
  • #19
`ah

um we were discussing cultivation methods of the Feltleaf Ceanothus, a native closely related to the Blueblossom tree, but with beter flower display...?
 
  • #20
I thought it was leafy spurge.
confused.gif
 
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