Anyone any good at physics?

zygurat789

I grow tomatoes in large bucket sized pots against a south facing wall. They are very thirsty and need to be kept very moist. So when I come to feed them liquid seeps out of the pot; now is this the new liquid feed I have just poured in at the top or is it just the plain water that was near the bottom of the compost?

PasturesNew

I'm not good at physics, but I bet most of it's the new stuff as the existing stuff will be 'water logged' so the new stuff will run off that sodden earth rather than sinking in and pushing the old liquid out.

You could test this now in your bathroom - go and get a sponge and soak it. Lay that down in the bath and get some coloured liquid (drink, squash, watered down ketchup) and pour that onto the sponge from about 2' above it ... see what happens.

SailorSam

zygurat789 wrote: »

now is this the new liquid feed I have just poured in at the top or is it just the plain water that was near the bottom of the compost?

Could you just taste it and see ?

zygurat789

SailorSam wrote: »

Could you just taste it and see ?

Your idea, you try, if you don't report back we'll know it was the feed coming through.

Scottish_Mike

Why not try bottom feeding the plants - pouring the water and feed into the tray and letting the roots at the bottom absorb them up? Are you just pouring undiluted feed straight in at the top?

Having top-watered all my spuds in pots, when it came to harvest time I was surprised when I pulled everything out just how dry the bottom few inches of compost were. Bone dry, despite me believing I'd been watering too much. But I've been watering all my toms from the bottom and they seem happy.

I_have_spoken

is this the new liquid feed I have just poured in at the top

Yes .

londonTiger

nobody knows, you shoul;d put a saucer at the bottom to save the water and in future consider some basket gel with your small plant pots so they can retain water.

peter_the_piper

I've noticed that if a pot is kept well watered that most of added water soaks in and old comes out at the bottom. however if the compost has been allowed to dry at all and has shrunk from the pot sides then the water will bypass the compost and come straight out.

zygurat789

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm not good at physics, but I bet most of it's the new stuff as the existing stuff will be 'water logged' so the new stuff will run off that sodden earth rather than sinking in and pushing the old liquid out.

You could test this now in your bathroom - go and get a sponge and soak it. Lay that down in the bath and get some coloured liquid (drink, squash, watered down ketchup) and pour that onto the sponge from about 2' above it ... see what happens.

How can you say you are no good at physics when you devise a pythagorian experiment like that. Unfortunately I don't have a sponge, not ev en an artificial one. Your description was so good that you obviously tried this, what was your result?

My results, 1 yes 1 no and a couple of helpful suggestions and a bit of the usual nonesence.

DaftyDuck

Pythagoras never believed in the experimental process, so he'd not have got his toes wet doing that. Archimedes is more your bathwater type, if you believe the tales of "εὕρηκα" moments.

But, as a keen gardener who once studied physics, fluid dynamics, and ion uptake systems, I might be able to shed some light on the matter. Actually, s0d and stuff the theory, being a gardener better helps answer that! Much more fun too.

Pour fertilised water at "normal" concentration on top of a soil pot until it runs through... in all likelihood, the water coming out will contain more nutrient than it did when you poured it in. Just, some of the liquid will have been absorbed by the soil, and those nutrients dissolved within will be available to the plant.

Stick a saucer under said plant, let it stand for ten minutes or so, tip the saucer onto another deserving plant (unless you suspect you have any plant diseases to spread).

zygurat789

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Pythagoras never believed in the experimental process, so he'd not have got his toes wet doing that. Archimedes is more your bathwater type, if you believe the tales of "εὕρηκα" moments.

But, as a keen gardener who once studied physics, fluid dynamics, and ion uptake systems, I might be able to shed some light on the matter. Actually, s0d and stuff the theory, being a gardener better helps answer that! Much more fun too.

Pour fertilised water at "normal" concentration on top of a soil pot until it runs through... in all likelihood, the water coming out will contain more nutrient than it did when you poured it in. Just, some of the liquid will have been absorbed by the soil, and those nutrients dissolved within will be available to the plant.

Stick a saucer under said plant, let it stand for ten minutes or so, tip the saucer onto another deserving plant (unless you suspect you have any plant diseases to spread).

I drink gallons of tea from the biggest mugs I can find but even they do not have saucers 2ft in diameter.

In all likelyhood this is also inconclusive. Has no gardening book ever touched on this?