reprinted from October 2025; from the Archives
My Magic Water-Wand...
If you consult almost any authority on the basics of growing plants, almost the first thing they will tell you is that "over-watering/under-watering is the No. 1 cause of failure" Most plants, I find are remarkably resilient & can tolerate poor soil, poor water, too much/little shade/sun, but unless they are plants that evolved in the desert, they need water to survive.
I tend to overwater..so when I discovered that cheap, accurate hygrometers are available on Amazon, I didn't hesitate..now that I've used a hygrometer, I wouldn't be without it. Much as a meat thermometer is to a gourmet cook, the hygrometer is to a container gardener. I call it my Magic Water Wand, the wand reaching down nearly 7"; that means that instead of measuring the water content of the first inch or so, my magic wand reaches down into the root ball to tell me whether it's wet or dry.
Why is this important? Recently, I acquired a new plant from one of the major Home & Garden Supply co.'s, & as is my routine, gave him a good drink of water as soon as we got home. But the water seemed to run right through the plant & a while later, when I was watering my other trees, I checked the new plant & got a DRY reading?? I took multiple readings at various depths & discovered that while the very top & the very bottom of the plant were moist, the middle 3-4 inches were bone-dry.
The middle is where the rootball lives..and the rootball IS the plant..so this led to the whole ordeal (for the plant, not me) of de-potting, root-comb-out & prune & re-potting, as documented in the Blue Point Juniper Photo Album
Since I started using the hygrometer, I have not lost a plant to overwatering..because my plants are being properly watered, skipping a day does no harm & because my plants are properly hydrated, they are happy & that makes me happy.
