"DLee" wrote in message
...
Hi All

We have a couple of pots in our study, and in there we have young Japanese
maple planted this spring. They seem to be doing ok with new leaves coming
out..etc, but what we noticed is that compost soil in the pots are covered
with these green moldy stuff that you see on sea side rocks, and whenever
I
come into study I can smell rotten staleness from these pots. Is this
normal
or healthy, or should we do somthing about it? Could someone explain what
is
happening here?

Thanks

Newbie gardener - Dan




The 'green stuff' sounds like liverwort or something similar so you may be
overwatering a bit but the easiest way to prevent it is to put a layer of
decorative stone as a mulch. It will keep the light out. Also, your trees
would probably benefit from spending the summer outside.

As for the smell - are your pots in trays to catch excess water, or are they
watertight themselves? If the latter, the water can stagnate at the bottom
of the pot and really stink. You would do better to drill some drainage
holes and sit them on trays so that the water won't sit around and go
stagnant and you can tell when the're waterlogged.

--
Martin & Anna Sykes
( Newsgroups - remove x from address when replying )
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sykesm