root rots are due to either the MEDIA in your pots.. or your watering.. and the two are inter-twined ...

so.. first.. what soil are you using ... note i said media ... you said soil ... so i hope you are not using mother earth in pots ...

presuming you arent ... then the next issue is how the media you use drains .... perhaps the peat based media is holding too much water [in a certain pot] .... and you just keep watering the things ...

one check for that.. is to insert your finger.. IN EVERY POT ... and ONLY water when each pot needs water ...

next ... you can take a peat based media.. and add some porosity ... something with big chunks ... to add air.. and increase drainage ... so that the media holds enough water.. but sheds the extra water .... either a perlite [those little white volcanic rocky thingees or wood mini chunks] ... (or even a cactus type media if the pot is a problem)

one would think that impatiens [SP] ... like a lot of water.. but NEVER forget.. roots need air.. as much as they need water ... and when they dont get the air.. they rot ..

all that said .... if you plant 50 individual plants... and you lose 5 .... you are actually doing a pretty good job.. not every plant will grow ... the only problem.. it ruins the pot.. eh.. lol ...

so... think about the pots.. their drainage.. the media .... watering protocol .. and finally simply the plants destined to fail.. no matter what you do ...

so what media are you using???
how often do you water ....????
and any particular pot a repeated problem ...???

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Diatomaceous earth Is soil--good soil but soil mind you but soil. The trouble with using pure soil in pots is that it retains too much water.

Your Impatiens get waterlogged and damp off or get root rot. They simply collapse and die.( close together works best because there are more roots to take up the water)

A soiless mix like promix BX is formulated for pots. It contains no soil and is made with coconut fiber, finely ground peat and other components like Vermiculite. It Drains well and holds only what moisture the plant needs and the rest drains slowly away.

Choose the right planting medium and that should solve your problem

I wrote the above in a hurry. Here is a better explaination. Diatomaceous earth is not meant for pots it is meant for enriching soil.

There is air trapped between the granuals of soil and plant roots need that air to be healthy. When you water pure soil the air is replaced by water. The soil compacts and the water remains there until the soil drys. You need something to keep those granuals from compacting. That is why many mediums for pots have vermiculite.

A 2.8 cubic foot bale of compacted Promix BX runs from $25 to $30. You would probably have enough to do all your pots and some left over with 1 bale. Probably less than you paid for your soil. Store the remaining Promix in an container with a lid so it stays dry--I use a garbage can I bought for this purpose. I buy mine at my local greenhouse, but some home improvement stores carry it.

I do a lot of pots every year--around 14 or 15. I don't change all my medium every year. I store my pots in my shed and in the spring, I mix it half and half with new medium.

I never use clay pots. While they look good they are porous and leach moisture out of the soil. I'll bet they were the ones who didn't die. If you like the look of them, plant in a plastic pot and set it inside the clay one.

I hope this helps and you have beautiful flowers next year

Well, you'll find lots of differing opinions on how to do things, and that's okay. For example, many people prefer clay pots BECAUSE they are porous. It allows for moisture evaporation from the container surfaces, which is not a bad thing at all.

I'm curious about the kind of diatomaceous earth that you use as a potting medium. Can you tell me more about it? There are many different grades out there. Are you adding the DE to a soil? I'm not clear on this.

You can very easily make a pretty good temporary container mix by adding large volumes of perlite (not vermiculite, which collapses very quickly) to any decent commercial bagged mix. If you have discovered the right kind of DE, that can be a good thing to add as an amendment, too. Promix is far better than some of your options on the market, but you'll need to add a lot of the perlite to make it as porous and fast draining as possible.

Peat based mixes such as Promix (and all of the others) break down pretty quickly, becoming more fine textured as the weeks go by. This is why it's not a good idea to re-use it, though it can have a great second life in the outside gardens.

Your goal in a potting medium is to provide something that will hold the roots in place, provide ample pore spaces for oxygen and gas exchange, and for water percolation...that's about it. Those 'big chunks' that ken was referring to are essential for strong and healthy roots. Few container mediums, as least those found on the retail market, provide this desired consistency and it's up to us to find ingredients to improve them.

I use a peat based medium (or just plain peat moss) for about 20 percent of the volume of the mix I use for annuals. For more permanent planting, I may not use any peat at all. My primary ingredient is conifer bark fines, which are even smaller than mini-pine bark nuggets. Perlite, Turface MVP, peat moss, granite grit, and other similar 'chunks' contribute to a fast draining, porous mixture that plant roots are extremely happy with.

So, let me know more about this DE that you use, and how you use it. Let's see if we can't get to the bottom of your problem with the Impatiens.

You are right Rhizo--I meant to say perlite not vermiculite.
Promix HP is a faster draining mix with lots of perlite. Promix BX is formulated for pots and hanging baskets and does hold more moisture than the HP. Not enough to damage plants, just enough to cut down on water. I use it in the greenhouse and pots. It's the same mix my favorite greenhouse uses. That's how I discovered it.

great posts peeps ....

but none of you ... re-enforced that she needs to 'learn' when to water ... [or my brain is caffeine addled right now.. lol .. so forgive me if i missed it ]

'knowing' when to water.. can get you past some of the media issues ... [but if you have pots of differing size.. they dry at differing rates... and then you have big problems ... and that is one reason a producer has all the same pots.. for predictability .. and why i asked if you noticed any pattern to which of your pots are problems]

some producer who has been doing this in a greenhouse for decades ... knows from experience... that he can water .. say.. once a day .... because he knows all the variables ...

we have fingers... and hands... water when a pot needs water.. and that means your finger thinks the media is drying.. or by hefting the pot ... and realizing there is no water weight in the pot ...

i fooled with clay pots long ago ... and gave up real fast.. because they are nearly impossible to use.. except in perfect circumstances ... they tend to wick available water thru the sides of the pot ... and the pot is sodden one day.. and a desert the next.. just not forgiving at all ... especially for something as touchy as an impatien that is 99.99% water]

i buy a giant bale of promix once every few years.. i insure its a dry bale [i know because you need a crane to lift the weight of a wet bale] ... and i dump it in a plastic garbage can with a lid .... when dry.. it has a shelf life of a few centuries.. and is always available.. when i come up with some bright idea to pot things ...

good luck

ken

ps: if you insist on clay EXTERIOR POTS... use plastic pots inside.. to make your job easier

Ken the issue of wet bales being heavy is not the only issue. You know this (that's why you keep yours dry) but didn't mention it, so I'm going to mention it for others.

Moisture can cause mold to grow in your medium rendering it useless

What is promix? Never heard of it before down my way. Clay pots are essential for me when growing desert type succulents such as Sedums, Echeverias etc. I grow alot of different plants in pots and I don't have the time or the inclination to check each pot every time I water (in the summer that can be as many as 3 times a day)to see how much water it needs or doesn't need. So knowing my habits I try and match the pot and the plant to my watering habits. I think the problem with Sugar Maple may be that she uses garden soil instead of a potting media. Even many of the commercially available potting mixes are not friable enough and I add perilite to increase drainage for certain plants. If Sugar Maple ever comes back and answers the question of what she uses it will tell us more.

maryl:

Promix is simply the best ready mixed planting medium you can buy. There are several variations depending on what you are planting. The 2 that are most used is PromixBX and Promix HP. Hp has more perilite for faster draining. The one I like the best for planting is BX. It does not dry out as fast, but I've never had a problem with damp off since I started using it many years ago. Below is the blurb from their website

PRO-MIX 'BX' is a "general purpose" peat-based growing medium with vermiculite and perlite, used for the cultivation of a wide variety of plant species. This complete mix is lightweight, uniform and blended to the highest degree of consistency to ensure maximum plant performance. You can choose between the different formulations below and find the product that best suits your needs.

I need to interject that the quality of Promix is oilpainter's opinion, and not everyone's. I've experimented with it and found it to be too fine textured to suit me. It IS better, for sure, than most other bagged mixes found on the retail market. Yikes, there are some terrible potting soils out there.

I discovered Fafard over 25 years ago and switched over all of my professional and personal container medium needs to their professional line of mixes. Unfortunately, their commercial products cannot be found on the shelves of retail garden centers. That's where you'll find their products for the retail market, which are comparable to Promix, or similar potting soil brands. I don't use them and don't recommend them.

Now that I'm out of that kind of biz, I have the Professional Fafard products I need special ordered for me by a local (privately owned) garden center.

Attached is a link to their commercial products, in case you're interested in seeing what's in them. The 'light weight' mixes are very much like Promix, though I remember liking them better. I use 'heavy weight' formula #3 for all of my annuals. Note that the first ingredient listed is bark. I'll often add such amendments as extra perlite, or Turface, or granite grit for even better porosity.

The whole idea of using such coarse textured potting mixes and unglazed clay containers is to support the oxygen needs of the root system. Having to water MORE is a good thing, in terms of plant health. Think of all of that oxygenated water percolating throughout the soil/root system! The plus side of cultivating container plants this way is that it is almost impossible to over water, because the drainage is so excellent and the evaporation is consistent. We forget, or never understood, that oxygen is just as important as water in terms of plant development.

Having enjoyed bonsai culture as a hobby for many years, I've learned the importance of a very porous medium. The need to water more frequently is not an imposition to me. If it were, I'd have gotten out of growing bonsai years ago!

Here is a link that might be useful: Click here for information