Can I stress the importance of drainage holes in your containers AGAIN??
This is one lesson I've learned in a very painful way, as I bet you can imagine looking at the sorry state of my raspberry bush these days. Just to remind you - THIS is how it used to look like:
The saddest bit is the fact, that it had already formed clusters of buds before it died. I had already imagined my plentiful harvest, and then - boom. The plant is gone.
It may not be so deadly in smaller containers, I'm not sure, but lack of drainage holes in a bucket proved to be deadly. After a few big rains, I had a tiny lake under the bush:
And this is AFTER the excess water has been poured out.
At the beginning, the plant seemed to survive it fine. I hoped the moisture would simply evaporate and no harm done. I even brought it indoors to make sure she doesn't get any more wet stuff.
But for some reason the soil didn't want to dry up. It stayed moist for weeks, becoming sticky and sort of compacted as well. I guess the roots must have rotten slowly in this period and eventually the bush died.
I still have a tiny sparkle of hope that it will grow back, but if I'm to be realistic... Well. No home grown raspberries for me.
So do make sure your containers have drainage holes, OK? Promise?
No comments:
Post a Comment