HTA-0637: Henry's Garden — Container Watering Secrets

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Summary

Henry reveals the deep dark secret to successful container watering.

Full Transcript

Speaker 1
00:00
What is the secret of a beautiful container garden?

Speaker 1
00:03
I put it to you, Buzz Bertolero.

Speaker 1
00:05
Henry, there's no secret.

Speaker 1
00:06
No secret.

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00:07
Water and nutrients, very basic, very basic.

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00:09
Today, we're going to deal with the water issue,

Speaker 1
00:12
because I like to be efficient in my watering.

Speaker 1
00:14
I don't think you need to be this detailed,

Speaker 1
00:16
but let's just kind of humor.

Speaker 1
00:18
Okay, I don't want to waste a lot of time watering my pots,

Speaker 1
00:21
so I want to know how long do I need to water,

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00:23
how much do I need to water.

Speaker 1
00:25
Wait, wait, wait, no, humor me, and I'll tell you why.

Speaker 1
00:27
I'll humor you.

Speaker 1
00:28
We got this nifty gizmo they sent.

Speaker 1
00:29
Go ahead.

Speaker 1
00:30
It's called the water saver, and I don't know if it's practical or not.

Speaker 1
00:35
I don't think so.

Speaker 1
00:36
Look at how cool this is, okay?

Speaker 1
00:37
Yeah, it's very cool.

Speaker 1
00:38
It actually measures the amount of water that you are putting through here.

Speaker 1
00:42
But it's not necessary.

Speaker 1
00:43
No, okay.

Speaker 1
00:43
No, no, for purposes of television now, okay?

Speaker 1
00:46
Here is a beautiful clivia.

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00:49
Yellow clivia, very different.

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00:51
In what they call a five-gallon pot.

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00:53
It's a number five container.

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00:54
It's also the same.

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00:55
They call it a five-gallon pot.

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00:57
So we have put it in this same thing with the plastic here.

Speaker 1
01:00
And we're going to measure how much water actually is required.

Speaker 1
01:04
How do I know when I put enough water in it?

Speaker 2
01:06
Well, normally the rule of thumb is to fill it up to the rim.

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01:10
However, this plant has sunken down.

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01:13
And so it's a lot shallower in the container than normally.

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01:16
Usually we're putting way too much in here.

Speaker 2
01:18
An inch and a half to three inches depending on the container.

Speaker 1
01:20
So look at this.

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01:20
To fill it up to the very ridge, it took 1.7 gallons.

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01:26
And that took bubbling.

Speaker 1
01:28
Yeah.

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01:28
Look at the bubbles come up.

Speaker 1
01:31
It's a little dry.

Speaker 1
01:32
Yeah.

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01:33
The point is that this was too deep.

Speaker 1
01:36
Most people's pots are too deep, right?

Speaker 2
01:39
There's a certain amount of shrinkage that goes on

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01:41
where the soil kind of filters out the bottom of the container.

Speaker 1
01:43
Could you move my clivia, please?

Speaker 1
01:46
If that's legal on the air.

Speaker 1
01:47
I don't know.

Speaker 1
01:48
This is the way most people's pots look.

Speaker 2
01:50
But this is another segment to fix this problem.

Speaker 2
01:52
The whole idea with watering is you only

Speaker 2
01:54
You're gonna put up about two inches of water

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01:56
inside the container and you're done with it.

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01:58
The whole idea of watering is to make sure

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02:00
that the root system gets thoroughly wet.

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02:02
That's what you wanna do, that's what you wanna accomplish.

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02:04
And that's the first task as far as putting the volume

Speaker 2
02:07
of water, the next part of the--

Speaker 2
02:09
- So is this enough?

Speaker 2
02:10
Just tell me, is this enough?

Speaker 2
02:11
- No, no, no, fill it up.

Speaker 1
02:13
- Well it's never gonna fill up.

Speaker 1
02:14
- No, you wanna put two inches of water in there.

Speaker 1
02:16
- Okay, you know how long it's gonna take?

Speaker 1
02:18
It's because this is nice loose soil,

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02:20
it's raining right through the bottom.

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02:21
I have now put two gallons of water in

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02:24
It hasn't even started to fill up.

Speaker 1
02:25
Yeah, but--

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02:26
This is the problem.

Speaker 1
02:28
Now, I don't think VAR can see on the other side that we--

Speaker 1
02:30
but we have bubbles--

Speaker 3
02:31
Yes, there's water bubbling out.

Speaker 1
02:32
--air bubbles coming through here, which says--

Speaker 3
02:33
But I still haven't--

Speaker 1
02:34
Look at the top.

Speaker 1
02:35
I don't know when to stop.

Speaker 1
02:38
That's the story of my life, actually.

Speaker 1
02:39
How do I know when to stop?

Speaker 1
02:40
I have now put four gallons in here.

Speaker 1
02:43
Look at that.

Speaker 1
02:45
4.2 gallons.

Speaker 1
02:46
That's too much.

Speaker 1
02:46
The whole idea is, is the plant wet?

Speaker 1
02:48
Well, I can't find that out until it all sinks through.

Speaker 1
02:51
OK.

Speaker 1
02:51
Then we'll take it out.

Speaker 1
02:53
Once the water's all perfect--

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02:54
- Go ahead, find out.

Speaker 1
02:55
How are you gonna find out?

Speaker 1
02:57
No, don't pull the plant.

Speaker 1
02:58
Oh, Buzz.

Speaker 2
02:59
- Well, you asked me how to figure it out.

Speaker 1
03:01
- Okay, so now what have we done?

Speaker 1
03:02
We've pulled the plant out.

Speaker 1
03:03
- Yeah.

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03:03
- And what have we figured out?

Speaker 1
03:04
- It's wet.

Speaker 1
03:07
- Yeah, we've got water, folks.

Speaker 1
03:08
- So folks, here's the secret to good watering.

Speaker 1
03:12
Pull your plant out.

Speaker 2
03:13
- No, no, the secret is just a basic instinct.

Speaker 2
03:17
Put a snuff volume of water in there

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03:19
to get the root system wet.

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03:20
The other part of the equation is the frequency.

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03:23
Here.

Speaker 1
03:24
Oh, that's heavy.

Speaker 1
03:26
Here's another problem, folks.

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03:28
Many of you have soil that's been in way too long,

Speaker 1
03:30
and we have sacrificed this plant to show you what happens

Speaker 1
03:33
when soil compounds.

Speaker 1
03:34
There was no sacrifice, it was just a mistake.

Speaker 1
03:35
I goofed, I goofed.

Speaker 1
03:37
Okay, so this is what happens.

Speaker 1
03:38
Watch what happens when I water this.

Speaker 1
03:40
The water isn't going to go into the soil.

Speaker 1
03:42
It's going to actually go--

Speaker 2
03:43
Well, there's a big void where it sort of rolls.

Speaker 2
03:45
Can you see it pouring out?

Speaker 2
03:46
That's enough, Henry.

Speaker 2
03:46
That's enough, that's enough.

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03:47
That's enough.

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03:49
The point--

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03:49
So the water just kind of rolls--

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03:51
Around the side.

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03:52
the container so how we're gonna sit there and solve that problem? If for

Speaker 1
03:56
example we wanted to try to save this it's too late for this one one thing you

Speaker 1
04:01
can do is use a screwdriver or a bamboo stake and punch some holes

Speaker 1
04:06
this is really typical with azaleas to be really very tightly wound with a

Speaker 2
04:11
solid root ball. And then what you can do is take something called soil moist.

Speaker 2
04:15
This is an acrylic granule that holds water it expands you take a little bit

Speaker 2
04:20
of it a little bit of it and put it into the into the holes punch and eventually

Speaker 1
04:27
it'll mix in now truth to be told the best thing you could do pull it out and

Speaker 1
04:32
mix soil moist into a new mixture Henry I have over I have put too much soil

Speaker 1
04:36
moist in but look at what here's what it looks like originally okay and this is

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04:41
what it looks like it's going to get three times bigger than that see these big jello

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04:45
mold in there okay so this is called soil moist when you plant initially this is a

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04:49
a great way to keep your pots nice and moist.

Speaker 2
04:53
It's a backup reservoir where the roots kind of wrap

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04:55
around this crystal that is expanded or hydrated,

Speaker 3
04:58
and then in between waterings it uses that

Speaker 3
05:00
for a source of moisture.

Speaker 3
05:02
Okay.

Speaker 3
05:03
You know what, Buzz?

Speaker 3
05:04
Yeah?

Speaker 3
05:04
We're all wet.

Speaker 3
05:06
Absolutely.

Speaker 3
05:06
Well, this was a watering segment.