-=> Quoting Rob Pringle to Marilyn Boissoneault <=-
Hi, finally got a chance to get to my replies. Hope you remember
what we were talking about!  
RP> You can also try leeching out the accumulated "salts" by simply
RP> running water through the pots for a few hours.  In the compost
RP> any nitrates will eventually be converted to nitrates - very good
RP> for most growing things that need it.
Well I replaced all the potting soil with fresh. I have the old
soil sitting on plastic in a big pile while I decide what to do
with it.  I had added some dolomite to it, but not sure if I
added enough. Maybe I should just till some in to each row that's
vacant. I won't be planting for a month and a half probably. That
would give it some time to work or whatever.  I guess having self
watering pots does make it hard for those "salts" to do anything
but build up over the years. I hadn't thought of that till things
quit growing and I started looking for the reasons. I guess ph
and salts probably.  The pots have wicks but guess I could every
now and then just run some water through them without the
saucers.
RP> Sounds good.  I expect you can count on perhaps a ten percent
RP> failure rate - but that can vary a lot.  Doggoned if I know why -
RP> sometimes there are no losses at all - and sometimes it seems
RP> everything will die.
The impatien cutting we were talking about before is now growing!
So I felt encouraged and started several others.  I stripped most
off the leaves from them and put in soil like the first one.
RP> gave up on that a couple of years ago when someone showed how easy
RP> and better it was using a rooting medium.  (No soil, basically -
RP> just vermiculite, perlite, and peat moss).  I have done perhaps
RP> forty or fifty (perhaps more) with african violet leaves since last
RP> May - and the losses have been far less than ten percent. (And many
RP> of those were because a certain ancient dog wanted to make a bed in
RP> a nice warm rooting flat)  Grin.
Oh, when I say soil I'm not talking about garden soil but a mix
like that with vermiculite etc.  I don't think I'm ready for
African Violets yet. I better stick to the easy stuff! 
MB>I suppose I could experiment, put a few in soil in pots,
MB>and a few in water and see what happens.
I haven't had much time so haven't gotten into experimenting. I
guess the water part will have to wait.  But I'll try to keep you
posted on the ones I just planted in soil mix.
Marilyn
... I can say anything I want because nobody reads taglines.
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