"Frogleg" wrote in message
...

Probably not styrofoam but perlite. It's a volcanic mineral that
performs some of the functions of humus/compost in lightening heavy
soil and evening out moisture absorption/retention. It's used in many
potting soils. Don't worry about it.


Isn't perlite a bit shiny and angular in shape? Not necessarily square, but
definitely not round? This stuff is white and spherical. Perfect spheres,
actually. When I first opened the bag I picked one up and felt it. It
didn't squish in my fingers and was very, very hard. My first thought was
that it was styrofoam, since it's very much like the pellets my dad used to
fill bean bag chairs. But I'll check again.

Sometimes you can harm young plants by over-fertilizing them. Read the
Directions! This is not a case where if a little is good, more is
better. The only thing I can consistently remember about fertilizer is
that the nitrogen component (the first number in the N-P-K labels) is
for leaf growth. Others can be more specific in their recommendations.
Young, non-fruiting plants shouldn't need a lot of fertilizer to start
out with.

The most likely killer was the Roundup sprayed nearby.


My weapon of choice!

As for leaving plants in little pots longer, mentioned in another
post, that's kind of an experience/judgment call. I know what *I'd*
call a basil plant ready to go into the ground, but would be hard put
to describe it. About this high, with healthy leaves about that big.
:-) Leaving some plants (tomatoes spring to mind) in too-small
starter homes makes them root-bound and unhappy. You can pretty well
figure a veg is ready to go into the ground or a big pot when roots
emerge from drainage holes. Or if you can lift it out of the pot and
see roots circling around the surface. Not that you have to wait that
long to transplant.


All of the plants had roots around the surface. But I'm wondering, I
"massaged" the root area a bit to spread the soil and roots out, before
putting them in their new pots. Was this a bad thing to do? I thought if
Martha Stewart did it, then I could do it too!

rona