Thank you, emgardener, for those great pictures. They are so healthy with many blooms. I read your link of how you did that, very clever. Good drainage at the bottom of the pot helps the surface to be dry, thus less fungal germination.

I experimented with chemicals vs. organic fertilizer, and organics are healthier in the long run. See link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: Experiment with different types of fertilizer

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sun, Oct 13, 13 at 9:55

Hi emgardener: I look over your link again today, I'm very impressed at how healthy your roses are in pots (with many buds!). I reposted what you wrote:

"Since I made a lot of changes, can't identify what was most beneficial, but I believe the most significant changes were putting wood chip mulch on top, with kitty-urine soaked cornmeal, and automatic daily morning watering with a micro-sprayer, not a dripper. "

Emgardener, thanks for the above info. Recycled wood chip has mold-retardant (anti-fungal), plus corn meal (alkaline at pH 7.5) is also anti-fungal. I tested corn meal on Evelyn before a rain. Tons of red growth and buds within a few days! None of my other 55+ roses broke out in buds like Evelyn.

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 9:44

Here's Bolero floribunda, had mildew last month since it's next to 2 large trees. I mixed whole grain corn meal with coarse sand, to prevent gunking of corn-meal. Then I spread it around Bolero.

Bolero went from mildewed to having shiny, glossy leaves, thanks to the fatty acids in the germ layer of whole-grain corn meal. Picture taken today, Sept. 17. Another person in HMF reported corn meal was effective against mildew.

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sun, Oct 13, 13 at 10:00

Found the below post in Garden Experiment Forum

â¢Posted by Dchall_San_Antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Tue, Apr 22, 03 at 13:40

"I had to run out and look at my neighbor's roses just now. She throws corn meal at everything from a distance of about 10 feet. So her rose leaves are covered with corn meal. Last summer she bought 20 roses for $20 thinking she couldn't go wrong. 19 of them survived and many are blooming right now.

I did not see any PM on any of the leaves with corn meal on them, but from there up, every leaf had it on one plant. I did not see any black spot on any of the plants.

So I came back to look at my roses. One (of 5) has PM on about 6 leaves. I don't see any black spot ... I've been scattering corn meal under the roses monthly since mid Feb.

I'd also like to update my aphid/cornmeal report. Ever since I started with corn meal (Feb, 2001) I have not had any aphids on my roses. In the 8 years prior, my roses were blanketed with aphids like everyone elses. Now I've been claiming zero aphids for 2 years. In the two previous years, I applied corn meal in Feb. This year I'm doing it monthly." Dchall_San_Antonio 8

Last week I dug up 2 roses that glued tight in sticky clay, and fixed the soil with coarse sand, gypsum, and cracked corn. Will report their progress in the spring.

Corn meal NPK is 1.65 / 0.65 / 0.4 versus alfalfa meal NPK of 2-1-2. Corn meal is still higher in nutrients than horse manure with bedding (has salt).

I buy cracked corn cheap from the feed store ($2.69 for 10 lbs), and coarsely grind with my Nutri-Mill grain-grinder. Whole-grain corn meal with the fatty germ layer is best. I tested refined corn meal bought from Walmart and it didn't work.

Corn is a balanced ZERO salt fertilizer, much better than salt in high-nitrogen chemical: Urea at 74.4% salt index, ammonium sulfate at 88.3 % salt index, and Ammonium nitrate at 104 salt index. Muriate of potash (potassium chloride) has a salt index of 116.2, it's like dumping salt on your rose-bush.

I watched the 2 videos of the roots of peppers and eggplants grown in different medium .. great info. posted by emgardener in his blog. Here's an excerpt on how he prepared a "Hugel hole" in clay soil in the Bay Area, CA:

"In clay soil, I bury the stumps about 1' under the soil surface. The stumps wick away excess moisture without drying out the soil. Underneath stumps in clay soil, it gets very wet. In the 1-2 inches right underneath a stump in clay soil, I found, that roots will not grow, because it is so wet & mucky. " Emgardener (Gardenseek)

*** From Straw: if you scroll way-down to the bottom of this link, you'll see how Emgardner prepared his "Hugel hole" with vertical logs, to wick moisture from below, plus giving oxygen to roots. It's a great way to solve poor-drainage clay problem. The link has priceless info., just need to scroll ALL THE WAY down to see the pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to prepare

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 14:47

I cannot wait to try this--it sounds fantastic for my desert situation. In my older, wetter, climate I stashed tree trimmings--even logs--underneath leaves in the backs of flowerbeds. They would rot down to that soft spongy texture & I'd harvest some of that stuff for the bottom couple of inches in my 5-10 gallon potted roses.

I'm going to start with oak logs in 50 gallon tree pots so I don't have to deal with trenching caliche (I will start some on top of the caliche, too, though). think I'll experiment with a few rolled newspapers in between.

If this works as a big spongy wick to reduce watering that will be wonderful. Container gardening in my area is appealing because of the hard caliche but keeping containers evenly moist is a challenge.

Will report back--thanks for the information!

I bring back this thread since our temp. reached 93 degree yesterday, June 10. I can't use horse manure (has salt), and alfalfa pellets is expensive (standlee brand without salt nor sugar). So I will test cracked corn beneath red lava. Cracked corn is acidic at pH 4, and red-lava-rock is alkaline at pH above 8. Those two will balance each other.