Skinny, if
I'm up to 50% yet my soil will not drain nor dry since first wetting in March. Please see my notes about thatching. See gage in the pic, well it has not had any watering since planting. Soil, due to the thatching of leftover hyphae from mycorrhizae supplementation the last two seasons, is my theory. I'm experienced so please consider your answers. I've already been thru 56 successfully germinated seeds this season that all failed or stunted once in the pot (I only transplant once for photo's) 5 starts have all failed the same way as I franticly tried to figure out why the same soil re-charging I've done for several years has suddenly destroyed all my soil. ANSWER (at least my best estimation after hundreds of hours of research including with a Professor of Soil Science) Assuming a soil born disease after the 1st failures, I tossed all runted plants, I soaked the soil in an H2O2 wash, then dumped out all the soil, and raked it in the sun over and over for a week to ensure sterilization. Then the problem got worse and the next 4 rounds of new seedlings also all failed the same way as I could not get my soil to drain. This pic shows a healthy-looking plant, however, it's months old! Now, after a March start, the plant is about a foot tall and now 8/7 shows no sign of flower yet. (3818) You can see all the perlite in the pic, but so what if there is so much "hyphae dust" in the mix it will "glue" together everything below the surface, pushing the perlite, etc up the water column. I've kept the runts alive by mostly just spraying them and adding water by the milliliter only since the gauge NEVER CHANGES (I bought a second to check and also use the finger method, all show soaked, choking soil just a few inches down from the top. Under the microscope one can see all this "hyphae powder" and it has destroyed all my soil. Stay tuned because ALL THE MAKERS OF MYCORRHIZAE SUPPLEMENTS WILL NOT WANT THIS GETTING OUT. I've been told about a liquid that will dissolve all this unwanted matter, but how much and how long??? I've proven my point by starting over with all new soil and some auto's now that it's too late for photo's here. Fresh soil without any leftover ground-up hyphae with the usual draining agents I use, (perlite, pumice, sand and cactus/succulent soil) is working like I'm used to, and hope these Bruce Banner Fast seeds from WeedSeedExpress will save my season and prove my point. However, this bodes very badly for mycorrhizae supplementation if it wrecks the soil after only a few grows or one has to buy some other chemical now to disolve all this unwanted matter. How much will that cost, and how effective will it be. Where can I even PUT all my soil if I have to toss it all?? It's looking that way for next season. And what a terrible waste.